You shouldn’t text and drive, but I keep noticing myself doing it anyway. As part of my efforts to return to the caveman days and spend at least some of my time disconnected from the internet, I want to stop this. However, I have terrible impulse control. So the only solution is to put my phone in the trunk before I start driving, and use something else for the tasks I would normally use my phone for. Here’s what I want:
- gps
- podcasts
- audiobooks
- music (Ideally, music would function as “radio with a skip button”. I want to choose a familiar channel that I know I will probably like, and occasionally hear something new - but my local radio stations won’t work because they don’t play the Tony Hawk video game soundtracks.)
- everything free forever
- no ads forever
- minimal configuration/setup (I don’t want to manually download music and create playlists)
- works offline
- lockout of everything except fast forward/rewind/pause/volume while car is in drive
- integration into my existing steering wheel controls (fast forward/rewind/volume)
- ability to run additional apps (like iOverlander) when not driving
- A pony
Things I don’t care about:
- Open source
- Not being tracked
- Voice controls
- Having all these features in a single device
- Sleek design (I will mount it using 2x4s and wood glue if needed)
My car is a 2013 Corolla with a broken stereo that I’ve been meaning to replace anyway. I know there are a number of products out there that more or less fit my needs and/or could be hacked together into something workable, but I’m asking the hivemind. Tell me what to do nerds! Tell me how to live my life!
Edit:
Probably I will end up with a head unit with android auto, but I’ve never used one of these before, and don’t know how well it will isolate me from my phone. Will I need to get a separate cheap-o phone to use it with to ensure distraction isolation?
If I do go this route, I am wondering about make/model recommendations so I don’t buy something that will break immediately.
Finally, is paying for spotify just the way to go these days? I’ve been avoiding it by using newpipe for years, but newpipe doesn’t have radio-like functionality to just pick a station and listen.
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I would recommend disabling functionality while driving rather than outright not having the phone available because if you need to call for help, you might have to do it quickly. There are apps like Dumb Phone for iPhone and devices like Brick that will do the work for you.
I set a focus mode on my iPhone to trigger when connected to my car’s Bluetooth (not the standard Driving focus mode) that switches the Home Screen to one with only the widgets I’d use for driving, such as Maps, Music, and various playlist shortcuts. Notifications are limited to VIPs. I also have an automation that locks the screen if sensitive apps, like Settings and Wallet, are opened when away from home (I have a shortcut to disable the automation when necessary).
In your situation, I’d expand that to lock out every app except Maps, parking apps, etc., when in driving focus. Audio apps would be locked so I’m not doomscrolling through choices, options would be limited to what’s shown in the widgets and accessible through Siri and/or a preset shortcut. Could add further measures to dissuade me from disabling the lock.
You want to still do so many things that it may be easier to replace your car with a bus pass
That would be nice, but not practical for me.
Tasker can still automate almost all of this for you.
I setup some tasker automations so that I can leave my phone entirely in my pocket. When my phone connects to my car Bluetooth it: turns up media volume, sets the phone to “do not disturb”, opens and starts playing the last music player I was using (podcast, Spotify, Plexamp, or your media player of choice. Notably mine never switches to things that play video by default), initiates lockdown on my phone in case of fascists, etc. If I want to navigate somewhere or choose something different to listen to, that is something I start before I start the car. I get all my navigation cues via voice guidance, but the quality of that guidance can suffer from vagueness in general and confusion specifically in the midst of construction. I used to have it automatically read text messages aloud, but between reaction emojis, photos, gifs, and links that became super annoying. You can also setup an auto-reply to incoming texts that just say, “I’m driving and I’ll get back to you later.” That turned out to be annoying to, so I just silence them all. When my phone disconnects from my car Bluetooth, tasker sets everything back to the way it was before with the exception of lockdown mode.
Using voice commands kind of requires relaxing your privacy requirements, so I left those options out of this discussion.
I love carplay, I now it’s bot the same thing as Android Auto, but I would be very surprised if Android can’t do what iOS does.
My phone automatically goes into driving mode as it connects to my carplay unit, this mutes messages and tells the sender that I am driving with focus, it does give them the option to reply “Urgent” to force the message to go through, but no one has ever needed that.
The result is that I am blocked off from notifications other than the phone or maps, leading to blissful distraction free driving
a Spotify car thing would have checked all these boxes except for free and a pony, but they murdered it in its crib.
Do they still make head units? I bet a radio/head unit running android auto would do all this.
something like this, with your phone connected over Bluetooth or USB and then locked in the glove box
Yeah, that was essentially what I was looking at. But I’ve never really used one, and don’t know how much access it would give me to the rest of my phone. Like, will it relay text messages and phone calls? Because I don’t want that.
And then I would wonder which make/model to buy. I’m a cheap bastard - but I still am willing to pay a bit more for something that is useable and durable, rather than something that will constantly piss me off. And we all know online reviews are full of lies.
Finally, is paying for spotify just the way to go these days? I’ve been avoiding it by using newpipe for years, but newpipe doesn’t have radio-like functionality to just pick a station and listen.
I hate a lot of things about Spotify, but for ~ $20 a month family plan six accounts can stream simultaneously, and all of them are in constant use on my end, so for me it’s worth it (I travel a LOT)
