🔥 EVPLAY : Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are Finally Here | EVPLAY Install, Setup, Initial Impressions ⚡

[Gurule92]

My EVPLAY (by @EV Play - Alex) got here a day early, so I had a chance to install it and play with it! My overall initial impressions are, Android auto leaves a little to be desired but the native Android OS is AMAZING! Having access to it on the Rivian screen is a game changer. It's literally an android tablet in my infotainment screen now.

The auto switching works well. (Gen 1) When you hit reverse it immediately switches back to Rivian display.

It appears to fail in favor of the Rivian screen. (had one issue where it wouldn't switch to evplay but an unplug got me back up and running)

The android auto reset function was needed a few times, so I'm glad that is there, but I probably wont be using android auto anymore.

DONT FORGET THE WIFI DONGLE! - When I first unboxed it, I didn't even see it, but I was able to go back and find it when I realized I had no wifi lol.

This thing is a dream so far. Can't wait to see what cool functionality can come to the EVPLAY app on it.

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[swhme]

This is pretty cool— just to confirm, GPS works in android? I’d like to get this to be able to run OnX and Waze natively

 

[Gurule92]

This is pretty cool— just to confirm, GPS works in android? I’d like to get this to be able to run OnX and Waze natively

You know what, that's a good question, I didn't try that. I'll test it out and let you know. Maybe you can add like a USB GPS ? Lol

 

[Gurule92]

This is pretty cool— just to confirm, GPS works in android? I’d like to get this to be able to run OnX and Waze natively

Looks like gen 2 evplay comes with the GPS

https://evplay.io/community/frequen...-between-rivian-gen-1-gen-2-features#post-119

@EV Play - Alex , can you link to a GPS puck gen 1 early adopters can order on Amazon or something?

 

[Gurule92]

I am curious if anyone has tried wired Carplay or android auto, maybe that's better?

 

[xinaes]

In the video, you show it being able to play video while the vehicle is in motion.

I thought at one point, @EV Play - Alex was adamant about not allowing video playback while the vehicle is in motion due to concerns of distraction and liability.

What is the official intended policy?

 

[mudito]

I think watching videos while driving might be my most desired feature Love this project!

While I was always an Android Auto person, I found myself very comfy with the current navigation scenario in the Rivian, but for those LONG road trips (I've donde more than 12k miles in roadtrip in 2025 already), having video it's a game changer.

Once my job situation settles, I'll definitely be purchasin this from Alex!

 

[EV Play - Alex]

@Gurule92 -- amazing video as always, thank you for that. Pretty spot-on assessment and glad you enjoy the native Android experience. That to me is the one of the best parts, albeit the most under-appreciated. I also like your custom background although wondering how many significant others are going to require family pics?!?

Regarding the GPS puck, I'm just going to send you one for free. I do have a few extra ones so I'll throw them up on the Website shortly in case anyone wants to buy one.

Your experience with Android Auto is fair - AA is good, but not great, especially in comparison to CarPlay which is quite responsive. The difficulty lies in the hundreds of different handsets and Android OS variants on the market. Contrast this to iOS which is much easier to test and develop for. Depending on your Android phone, I would play around with some of the resolution and frame rate settings in the AA/CP app. I'm also working on a different Android Auto path to see if I can get the experience to match CarPlay.

Just a few quick notes:

1) As you discovered, if you forget to plug in the WiFi dongle before powering the unit, you'll need to reboot it for it to work.

2) The wireless mic is for using Google voice assistant in Android Auto only. This is hopefully temporary while I figure out why voice assistant doesn't want to play nicely with Bluetooth.

3) VIdeo-in-motion is actually a bug, but hey, I suppose enjoy it until it gets fixed. Please don't watch videos while you drive! Or play Roblox (my kids bug me all the time).

4) Yes, we're a small team for now but have big things in store. Very excited about AI and all that can offer the driving experience.

Reach out with any suggestions or feature requests!

 

[EV Play - Alex]

In the video, you show it being able to play video while the vehicle is in motion.

I thought at one point, @EV Play - Alex was adamant about not allowing video playback while the vehicle is in motion due to concerns of distraction and liability.

What is the official intended policy?

Looks like a bug, definitely not intended. Oh well, enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[Gurule92]

In the video, you show it being able to play video while the vehicle is in motion.

I thought at one point, @EV Play - Alex was adamant about not allowing video playback while the vehicle is in motion due to concerns of distraction and liability.

What is the official intended policy?

He intended it to not do that, and I think Carplay and android auto probably won't. But it did work in my test.

The intention is to not though

 

[Gurule92]

@Gurule92 -- amazing video as always, thank you for that. Pretty spot-on assessment and glad you enjoy the native Android experience. That to me is the one of the best parts, albeit the most under-appreciated. I also like your custom background although wondering how many significant others are going to require family pics?!?

Regarding the GPS puck, I'm just going to send you one for free. I do have a few extra ones so I'll throw them up on the Website shortly in case anyone wants to buy one.

Your experience with Android Auto is fair - AA is good, but not great, especially in comparison to CarPlay which is quite responsive. The difficulty lies in the hundreds of different handsets and Android OS variants on the market. Contrast this to iOS which is much easier to test and develop for. Depending on your Android phone, I would play around with some of the resolution and frame rate settings in the AA/CP app. I'm also working on a different Android Auto path to see if I can get the experience to match CarPlay.

Just a few quick notes:

1) As you discovered, if you forget to plug in the WiFi dongle before powering the unit, you'll need to reboot it for it to work.

2) The wireless mic is for using Google voice assistant in Android Auto only. This is hopefully temporary while I figure out why voice assistant doesn't want to play nicely with Bluetooth.

3) VIdeo-in-motion is actually a bug, but hey, I suppose enjoy it until it gets fixed. Please don't watch videos while you drive! Or play Roblox (my kids bug me all the time).

4) Yes, we're a small team for now but have big things in store. Very excited about AI and all that can offer the driving experience.

Reach out with any suggestions or feature requests!

Awesome! Thanks for watching! Yea I downloaded chatgpt lol I'm excited to keep exploring. Let me know if you need any of my info

 

[SwampNut]

I would really love to do (and video) a comparison between this and my CarPodGo unit. Like in real use, back to back, on a drive. Anyone around the Phoenix area getting this and want to do it?

 

[mudito]

@Gurule92 -- amazing video as always, thank you for that. Pretty spot-on assessment and glad you enjoy the native Android experience. That to me is the one of the best parts, albeit the most under-appreciated. I also like your custom background although wondering how many significant others are going to require family pics?!?

Regarding the GPS puck, I'm just going to send you one for free. I do have a few extra ones so I'll throw them up on the Website shortly in case anyone wants to buy one.

Your experience with Android Auto is fair - AA is good, but not great, especially in comparison to CarPlay which is quite responsive. The difficulty lies in the hundreds of different handsets and Android OS variants on the market. Contrast this to iOS which is much easier to test and develop for. Depending on your Android phone, I would play around with some of the resolution and frame rate settings in the AA/CP app. I'm also working on a different Android Auto path to see if I can get the experience to match CarPlay.

Just a few quick notes:

1) As you discovered, if you forget to plug in the WiFi dongle before powering the unit, you'll need to reboot it for it to work.

2) The wireless mic is for using Google voice assistant in Android Auto only. This is hopefully temporary while I figure out why voice assistant doesn't want to play nicely with Bluetooth.

3) VIdeo-in-motion is actually a bug, but hey, I suppose enjoy it until it gets fixed. Please don't watch videos while you drive! Or play Roblox (my kids bug me all the time).

4) Yes, we're a small team for now but have big things in store. Very excited about AI and all that can offer the driving experience.

Reach out with any suggestions or feature requests!

3) Please make that an optional update

Regarding Android phones, I think running a quick poll here might help you wich phone to optimize for at first. I would assume between Samsung Galaxy S2x and Google Pixels, you should cover 90+% of us, Android Users

 

[EV Play - Alex]

Awesome! Thanks for watching! Yea I downloaded chatgpt lol I'm excited to keep exploring. Let me know if you need any of my info

Did ChatGPT work for you? I tried downloading it but it gave me some error. I installed Gemini AI and find it fun to talk to vs. listening to music sometimes. EV Play actually has its own 6 TOPS NPU, and so when the chaos dies down I want to develop and run a local LLM that's trained on all things RIvian.

 

[Gurule92]

I would really love to do (and video) a comparison between this and my CarPodGo unit. Like in real use, back to back, on a drive. Anyone around the Phoenix area getting this and want to do it?

Send it to me and I'll do it lol

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