Well, I just did a short 150 mile road trip. I was running waze on Android auto while my wife had her tablet connect to my Bolt EUV wifi, so I believe the answer above is incorrect. I can't tell you the settings or how it worked, but I know I was able to run Android auto AND have a tablet connected to vehicle wifi two days ago.i have had my 2023 Bolt for a month had issues with hotspot(unlimited data plan) turning off connection when starting android auto the whole time
this was tech supports answer.............
I'd like to apologize for the issues regarding your in vehicle Wi-Fi and your Android Auto functionality. I know how important it is to be able to use all of your vehicles features. Unfortunately, the two features are unable to run simultaneously. For further details regarding the functionality of the Android Auto, please contact your dealership or the Android Auto support team.
This would seem to imply that wireless Android Auto (AA) and CarPlay (CP) use the vehicle's WiFi connection.i have had my 2023 Bolt for a month had issues with hotspot(unlimited data plan) turning off connection when starting android auto the whole time
this was tech supports answer.............
I'd like to apologize for the issues regarding your in vehicle Wi-Fi and your Android Auto functionality. I know how important it is to be able to use all of your vehicles features. Unfortunately, the two features are unable to run simultaneously. For further details regarding the functionality of the Android Auto, please contact your dealership or the Android Auto support team.
The Bolt employs a dual band router - 1 internal band for CP/AA, and a second for the WiFi hotspot if you pay for that option.This would seem to imply that wireless Android Auto (AA) and CarPlay (CP) use the vehicle's WiFi connection.
Bluetooth, as commonly implemented, has been primarily for audio transmission. Audio transmission requires a relatively low bandwidth, which is easily carried by Bluetooth.
AA and CP are often transmitting video signals. Video requires far more bandwidth than audio, and all but the most recent implementations of high-speed Bluetooth are incapable of the necessary bandwidth.
Other vehicle manufacturers have implemented wireless AA and CP (BMW was among the first) by using the Bluetooth connection to perform handshaking duties to set up a WiFi connection between the vehicle and phone. WiFi is then used to do all of the heavy lifting of the higher speed data transmission.
If the vehicle only has the capability of maintaining a single WiFi connection (one radio), then using it for wireless AA or CP would seem to make it unavailable for another WiFi connection.
The above is my understanding of wireless AA and CP, as it's been implemented for several years. How it's specifically implemented in the Bolt is not factually known to me, but again, based on the response from GM, it seems like this is the case. Further comments from others would seem to question that assumption.
If the OP's vehicle is not the EUV, is it possible that lower trims only have a single WiFi radio, and higher trims have two?
That certainly makes sense.The Bolt employs a dual band router - 1 internal band for CP/AA, and a second for the WiFi hotspot if you pay for that option.
9to5google.com
It is likely using the phone's cell network data connection to the Internet, and WiFi to send it to the Bolt.I have been unable to run AA unless my phone's data connection is turned on. I don't think it's possible to run AA using only the car's WiFi.
Are you saying all models and trims and years have received the same radio and router hardware? That'd be nice.The Bolt employs a dual band router - 1 internal band for CP/AA, and a second for the WiFi hotspot if you pay for that option.
I don’t know. I would expect it is only those models that have wireless AA/CP.Are you saying all models and trims and years have received the same radio and router hardware? That'd be nice.
Update: Ok, I tried plugging in the USB cable again like someone posted earlier and got the wifi to stay on and android auto was actually working fully with internet access over just wifi. I thought I had tried that and couldn't get it to work, but as usual the sequence of steps I think matters, I will continue to experiment with this method, I don't mind plugging it in because I am just going to leave this dedicated phone in the car anyway. I happen to be using my home wifi sitting in the garage but it shouldn't matter what wifi you are using, you just have to have the USB plugged in too to keep it from disconnecting the wifi when android auto is running.I think the main point is that connecting to wifi doesn't work on the same phone running android auto, purposely I feel. Yes, you can connect another ipad not running android auto to the car hotspot and that works even while you are running android on another CELLULAR phone, but you cannot lets say run android auto and try to use the car hotspot for your android auto internet connection for some reason.
I was trying to put a dedicated phone in the car for android auto that didn't have a cellular connect, and let that be contaminated by all the android auto stuff, then I planned to use the hotspot on my personal cell phone to allow the android auto phone to connect to the internet. BUT, everytime android auto starts the wifi connection mysteriously gets disconnected on the dedicated AA non-cellular phone.
It seems that they have purposely made it so you have to use a cellular phone for the android auto even though a wifi connection to the internet should work fine. I thought they would at least make it so it would work with the car hotspot since you have to pay for that, but thats when you get the nice exclamation mark that the wifi won't connect to internet on the AA phone, even though you can grab an ipad and use the same wifi to connect to the internet just fine.
I think they want you to have to use your personal cellular phone so they can take it over and control what you are doing and how you are doing it. Not for me. I had to make an emergency level call the other day and I literally could not get android auto to let me have my phone back no matter what I did.
