Waze has begun pushing the beta availability of the app to Android Auto owners to use in the vehicle. The company has started sending out emails to Waze users who are part of the beta program and have laid out the terms and details of the beta channel use for Android Auto. One of the first points highlighted is that Waze for Android Auto isn’t compatible with Mercedez-Benz or Audi vehicles at this time, so owners of those vehicles will want to make note of that. Waze does not mention when support for those vehicles will be added in either, but since this seems to be the start of the beta channel access for the app through Android Auto, chances are that support may show up later in the beta test.
Before any users who have received the beta access email can get started there are a few things which Waze points out must be taken into account, like verifying you have an Android Auto compatible vehicle and that you need to connect your phone to your vehicle with a USB cable, so those are just a couple of the requirements that have to be met before things can proceed.
In addition to these details Waze states that some features of the standard Waze app will not be included in the Android Auto version and this is by design, as they created this version of the app to work with the card dashboard. Users will also need to open Waze on the phone before connecting the device to their car and attempting to use it with Android Auto through the car dashboard as they need to be able to accept the terms and conditions. As to be expected there are a list of some known issues that users will want to pay attention to, like voice prompts coming through both the Waze app on the phone and though Android Auto. It’s also noted that high-res screens have problems with auto-zoom, and custom voice actions aren’t supported yet so users will need to stick to just the native Waze voice commands for now.