Polestar 2 - Which Apps are available for Android Automotive in 2023?

[@kaustavbhattacharya3878]

Apps I use in my Polestar: - Tidal (for music and podcasts) - Google maps (if I had an iPhone I might be tempted to use Carplay as the maps now work in the driver's cluster display) - Recently started to use the KZbin app. It's just Vivaldi running as a PWA so it's pretty crappy, but it is a little faster than actually loading Vivaldi and tapping the KZbin bookmark.

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

How is Tidal compared to spotify? I'm gonna give carplay a go to test it out, but I suspect Google maps still will be a lot better since it is better integrated with the car.

[@gkool4529]

Do these apps work like iOS apps. Do you get offline download on your media apps like iOS etc?

[@Jsebas289]

Hey, do you know if the car has Android Auto? I know it has Apple CarPlay but i never hear anyone mention anything about Android Auto. Thanks in advance

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

There is no Android Auto. I know other cars with Android Automotive OS supports Android Auto, but I guess Polestar chose not to support it.

[@Jsebas289]

@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere Thank you. Its odd that they have an Android OS but wouldn't add Android Auto.

[@chrisfresh5442]

Nice video!

[@crazypict]

It Seems that Volvo/Polestar has chosen a quite bad HW so that a lot of apps are running slow. The highly optimized apps run ok. The major apps don't run smoothly. They have made a very common mistake. They had cut costs and chosen a too bad HW, not powerful enough CPU, probably too little memory. But Volvo is not the only car manufacturer that makes this kind of mistake. VW and other manufacturers have the exact same problem. It takes some time and then they upgrade to a better spec HW in the car. Volvo/Polestar is not an Infotainment company. They are used to build mechanics and safety stuff, not computers and infotainment stuff. What about the LTE/4G subscription? Is it some kind of subscription for the car or how does it work? What does it cost? In Tesla is standard connectivity free of charge. But you have to pay for premium connection. With Premium you can streem video and audio when driving (if you have the audio/video subsription, e.g. Netflix or Spotify). Nice video!

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

The infotainment itself and apps delivered by Google/Polestar runs pretty smooth, but 3rd party apps like ie. A better route planner was really sluggish before I gave up using it. I don`t know if it is due to dated hardware or poorly written code. For the future, I believe/hpåe that we will see a shift towards Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and use our phones as hardware. I would be surprised if Google doesn`t update Android Auto accordingly once the next gen Apple CarPlay is launched. Android Automotive would probably still live on as the car OS enabling efficient use of next gen Android Auto and CarPlay, but I think not so much as the UI. This would also solve the burden of car hw being outdated. The LTE/4G is still free of charge with no limitations, but I guess that will change for some premium subscription in the future. Sorry for the late replay btw.

[@ahmedbineshaq7957]

Thank you for your valuable informations, I washed your videos until I decided to purchase my polestar 2 in November 2021, btw how is your polestar2 doing ?

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

Thanks Ahmed! :) My car is still great and I still enjoy every drive. Are you happy with yours?

[@ahmedbineshaq7957]

I’m so happy with my polestar 2 70K miles and the car still working good, I had only one problem, and the warranty covered to fix.

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

Wow! You`ve really put down some miles on it ! Happy to hear all is good and warranty covered the issue. I too had an issue with the heat pump (making too much noise), but Polestar was very helpful fixing it on warranty.

[@leluyaa]

❤

[@tommivainio1945]

Great video

[@ziad.halabi9]

I'm an android engineer and interested to hear what kind of apps would you like to see in your car? Some more simpler apps perhaps?

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

Difficult question, but I think they should add value when driving. Most apps are a lot easier to use on the phone. I would love to have an app that comes up with suggestions of things to see along the route when you go on a road trip for example, that would add value when driving and maybe help me discover new things.

[@sgnfo]

An application for making better sound - some equalizer. I'm sure, that it will be very desirable!

[@Brendo95]

Apps for when parked! Entertainment apps for watching videos etc

[@MobilAvenue_]

Can you do a video on the new polestar software update just released

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

Yes, I will do that as soon as it arrives OTA to my car 👍🤞

[@tommivainio1945]

KZbin (video) app would be great. I mostly used Google maps and KZbin music on mine, and considered the rest of the apps pretty much rubbish. I know you can use youtube video through the browser, but it’s not very user friendly. Overall great user interface

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

I haven`t received 2.9 update yet, but it looks like it will bring youtube app (but I heard it is just a "shortcut" to the browser and not a proper native app). App developers still has a long way to go it seems.

[@farodopi5170]

@@Vegard-Driving-Somewherei can confirme it’s an app and not a shortcut. works like a charm.

[@alaverdyan]

I bought a ps2 from Dubai, apparently it was for the Chinese market, there's huawei store instead of google play store, not even google maps 😭

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

Oh bummer! Have you asked Polestar if it is possible to somehow reload the car with software for other markets that has google play store available or is it completely locked?

[@alaverdyan]

@@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere I thought volvo would service my car, but apparently they are not allowed to touch it. I don't have an official polestar representative in thousands of miles of radius 😭

[@PaceyPimp]

Still very bad is worst in the US and most apps are crap

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

I wonder if AAOS will be short lived in its current form, maybe the new improved carplay that will arrive later this year will be the way to go?

[@PaceyPimp]

@@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere honestly i like Android auto more but i hate tethering it to the car so why can't they just make it built-in

[@Vegard-Driving-Somewhere]

@PaceyPimp If they can make both carplay and android auto integrate 100% with the car specific features (SoC, range estimates, adjust ac, use both drivers display and center display and so on) and also make it wireless I think it would have been a lot better than current aaos. I would much prefer to keep the apps on my phone instead of running them in aaos. I think that's where we will be in a few years.