Most people don't think about their phone-to-car connection until it stops working in the middle of a trip. Suddenly, you're poking at a touchscreen, doing exactly what you were trying to avoid. Getting Android Auto to play your music the moment you start driving sounds simple, and parts of it are. However, it takes some deliberate setup and a few spots where things can quietly break.

Android Auto puts your phone under an incredibly heavy workload, and summer heat only makes things worse. After only a couple of hours on the road, you've probably picked up your phone and noticed that it isn't just warm—it gets almost too hot to hold.

Android Auto is supposed to make driving easier, but that quickly falls apart if it's more annoying to use than your phone. This is especially true if you find yourself dealing with sluggish animations, delayed inputs, and an interface that takes ages to open apps.

For better or worse, cars have gotten pretty smart. While many come with Android Auto alongside the manufacturer’s infotainment system, sometimes, that infotainment system itself is built on Android. This platform is called Android Automotive, and it has an interesting history.