
Crankshaft – A GNU/Linux for the Raspberry Pi as an Android Auto headunit - jimmies
http://getcrankshaft.com/
======
yjftsjthsd-h
> Can I trust it to work? > It is alpha-level software, so of course not.

Humility is a beautiful virtue to see.

~~~
sammoorhouse
At work we once found ourselves in the happy position of having far, far too
many applicants for a position. We set a simple test as a high-pass filter.
One of the questions was about whether garbage collection removes the risk of
a memory leak.

One memorable answer was simply "Of course not." Maybe it's the same guy?

~~~
jimmies
>Maybe it's the same guy?

Of course not. ;-)

------
royjacobs
I'd pay good money* for a system that would package a PiZero, touchscreen,
suction cup etc. into a single convenient package that I could plug into the
12v charging point of my car. Especially if it runs Android Auto!

*A medium amount of money

~~~
ohazi
"Official" rpi Touchscreen:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0153R2A9I/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0153R2A9I/)

Case for pi and touchscreen:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HV97F64/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HV97F64/)

Suction cup:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B076XZ9JN7/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B076XZ9JN7/)

Car charger:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ISGCAJM/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ISGCAJM/)

Might require a little finagling...

~~~
lowtolerance
Most cars don’t supply 12v thorough the accessory outlet when the ignition is
off, so you’d need some of backup power source. Pis do not cope well with
having the power cut off abruptly, so unless you want to carry a spare microSD
card around at all times, you’d need some kind of solution for handling
shutdowns.

~~~
woolvalley
A battery and something that detects the power has been cut off and does a
shut down/standby.

Rpi startup takes a little while, so I don't know how nice it would be to wait
1 minute for your android auto system to startup.

~~~
thr0awaz
It's not a big job to wire the detector you're talking about in your first
sentence - it's more or less a relay and a capacitor (albeit a big capacitor,
or maybe a battery if you put some more wiring and a charger in the circuit)

For the second one... you'd need to maybe consider tapping into the CAN bus
and listening for a door unlock event, then powering up off that, and/or
stripping everything out of the kernel and services that isn't needed... you
could probably get that boot down to 10-15 seconds

~~~
bigiain
Pretty sure he's already done that second part.

The linked "features demo" video on youtube shows it booting into the
Crankshaft app from power on (through Rasbian Lite) in ~11 seconds.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFEpfuDBDjM&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFEpfuDBDjM&feature=youtu.be)

------
Z1515M8147
I was recently trying to find a solution like this after discovering that my
car cannot have an aftermarket radio or hud install without ensuing a whole
world of pain. The alternative I landed on though was this:

[https://www.autopi.io/hardware-dongle](https://www.autopi.io/hardware-dongle)

~~~
oldcynic
Well _something_ had to be done. People could buy _any head unit they liked._
There was even a DIN standard size and connector and they would talk to the
car's built in display. Aftermarket units were often far better. How is a
dealer meant to sell $MANUFACTURER units with a market like that? (/s,
clearly)

~~~
jacquesm
I've once left a car that I fully intended to buy because the dealer would not
deliver it with a DIN slot. I absolutely hate integrated
audio/media/navigation solutions, they always suck and a couple of years down
the line nothing will work with them.

~~~
brokenmachine
Do any cars come with DIN slots nowadays? Looks to me like they're all custom-
moulded into the dash. Very irritating.

------
rvolosatovs
Is a whole custom OS really necessary? Couldn't you just simply use
Mopidy([https://www.mopidy.com/](https://www.mopidy.com/))? Possibly with some
additional plugins required to make it work for cars.

It runs on RPi and implements mpd protocol, hence, is fully compatible with
mpd clients and has many more clients implemented targeting Mopidy itself.

Also, it plays music from Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud and whatnot.

~~~
lttlrck
Android auto is more than just music, there is navigation, video, and an
abundance of apps.

~~~
Klathmon
"abundance" is a strong word, there are a "handful" at best.

------
tmzt
Does anybody know of any software that implements Android Auto or Apple Car
protocols to display content on existing head unit? Maybe something that could
run on a Raspberry Pi.

~~~
sameyolo
You could try looking into some of the Android forums where they have unlocked
the head units and have demonstrated being able to flash custom roms, although
may be a bit different from what you're looking.

~~~
solarkraft
This is what I'm actually interested in.

~~~
drewmol
Here's a thread from XDA about the Honda pilot, may be a good place to start
perusing

[https://forum.xda-
developers.com/android/help/heard-2016-hon...](https://forum.xda-
developers.com/android/help/heard-2016-honda-pilot-android-based-t3141346)

------
tylerjwilk00
Perhaps this is obvious but a simpler solution is to just install [1] Android
Auto on your Android phone. Does this work on iOS? Of course not.

[1] [https://www.android.com/auto/](https://www.android.com/auto/)

~~~
cowmix
I do this now and it is not a useful as this project.

------
jagger27
I hope projects like this stick around long enough to provide some postmarket
support after the manufacturer gives up.

I've been waiting far too long for Mazda to ship their promised CarPlay update
and I'm wondering how I might take matters into my own hands.

~~~
zekesnider
Same here. Really disappointed in the lack of communication from Mazda. There
is some open source software for the Mazda head unit that runs Android Auto,
but nothing on the CarPlay front yet.

Most of the CarPlay specifications are locked behind the MFi program which
makes it difficult for an open source solution to exist for it.

------
azurelogic
I've been wishing for something like this or a standalone unit for CarPlay. It
would be amazing if I could just mount something in the CD slot in my car and
plug in to the aux jack. I'm sure Apple would have a cow at the idea though.

~~~
poloniculmov
There are aftermarket radios that support Android Auto/Car Play. Assuming you
don't have a weird in-dash radio, you should be able to fit something like
this[1].

[1] [http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/nav_mm/carplay-
mm/D...](http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/nav_mm/carplay-
mm/DMX7017DABS/)

------
kinos
So why would I want to use this instead of just turning Android Auto mode on
on my phone?

~~~
jimmies
If you have a small phone then you have a bigger screen. Plus no more having
to temporarily mount the phone if you can mount the head unit permanently. I
have used a couple of phone holders, they suck and broke after a while. So I
often just glance on the phone which sits in the cupholder when I want
directions.

------
andreiw
Cool.

I always wanted to go the other way - being able to cast video into my head
unit, like a phone. I read that MirrorLink is inherently VNC and USB
networking. Does anyone have a MirrorLink «server» stack that can run on a
board with OTG?

------
brokenmachine
Can this work somehow as a bluetooth handsfree for a phone?

I've thought about putting a rpi in my dash before, but it always comes down
to that single feature that I would miss from the headunit that I'm using now.

------
intrasight
Comment: I assume that my next car will have Alexa

Question: How is Amazon Auto different from just sticking your phone onto your
dash?

------
danellis
As an aside, it's always nice to see a clean, readable web site like this.

------
Promarged
I hope it's more full featured than regular Android Auto that is so basic
(compared to what is built-in in my Skoda) that enabling it just degrades my
"driving experience". The only added benefit is traffic info in Google Maps.

------
antirez
I wonder if this works with any PI display.

~~~
jimmies
It should. It's a MVP right now, so it doesn't need to achieve many things,
and I don't want to make a broad statement. I think having a controlled test
environment does help a lot. The official one is cheap and good too, so I
don't feel guilty about saying it supports only that.

~~~
antirez
Thanks for the reply, I'll get the official one then, I asked because the
official PI stuff are a bit harder to get via the channels I use, like Amazon,
where the price for other displays is also like 1/3 of the official one (maybe
they are garbage?). It makes sense to me to start something new with a narrow
setup and not many moving parts btw...

------
curun1r
This is one area where I kinda hope open source doesn't have much success. OSS
seems to struggle with UX and a poor UX in a car unit will get people killed.
Simply put, this kind of system needs to function almost entirely without the
driver looking at the screen. The demo in the video fails hard at this.
Android Auto and CarPlay are only non-nightmarish because the primary control
mechanism is voice and they're integrated with steering wheel controls. Even
then, they're likely to be too distracting for drivers to avoid accidents.

These kinds of systems need a lot of user testing with sophisticated eye
tracking setups before we can feel comfortable letting the masses use them
while driving. OSS developers just won't be able to afford that. Once cars are
driving themselves, then I can see OSS entertainment units providing value.
But as long as a human driver is responsible for not killing all the car's
occupants and anyone who might come in (violent) contact with the outside of
the car, there should be a high safety bar for these kinds systems and I'm not
sure OSS will ever be able to clear that.

~~~
toast0
Have you used a modern factory touchscreen head unit? They're pretty much
unusable without looking either.

~~~
aetherspawn
In fairness they have big touch buttons and stuff placed in corners so you can
quickly locate. The ones on this device are tiny and require visual
interpretation to find. And I can’t see this getting steering wheel
integration any time soon, so there’s more attention you have to pay it.

~~~
Slansitartop
Not always. About 50% of the time I need to mess with bluetooth settings on my
car because it paired to the wrong device. That involves navigating through at
least three menus and hitting small-size buttons on the far side of the screen
from the driver.

