[GTO]

I recently sat in an orange Harrier for the first time (earlier was white), and my phone immediately paired to the head-unit. With zero input from my end.

Then I remembered, the same thing had happened with the Ford Endeavour Facelift (I'd earlier paired my smartphone with the SYNC3 of the Aspire). I stepped into the Endeavour and there was my phone on the ICE, all ready to use.

I quite like the convenience of it, especially as a reviewer who is constantly juggling between new cars. What about you?

And no, there are no privacy issues of any kind. Even though the phone sync'ed, a prompt came up on my Android asking for permission to download contacts etc (I always hit deny on those).

[Abhinav_2502]

This feature is quite useful in my opinion, considering many customers tend to buy cars from the same company if they had a good experience the first time around.

Although I did not quite understand how it works as from what little I know these head units aren't connected to the internet right? It would be great if anyone can say how the whole system functions.

Regards,
Abhinav

[gupta_chd]

There can be two cases how this is being done

1. Either after initial pairing, user details are sent to respective brand's (E.g. Ford's) servers and those are stored there if car HU has some sort of connectivity. Otherwise it is unlikely.

2. Otherwise, there is some application inbuilt in phone/ android itself which is managing this. This is much more likely. There has to be some global standard for it to work which should be Anrdoid Auto / Apple Carplay.

[Durango Dude]

Very convenient, indeed. That said if someone else has paired their phone in my 2 year old Honda City, earlier, and then I use the car later then I have pullover then pair my phone and then get a move on

[Chetan_Rao]

I suspect it's Android Auto. I was recently TDing a SYNC3 enabled Ford, and the level of permissions the app demands just to do basic tasks is mind-boggling. IIRC, I had to turn on every tracking option in Google settings before the app would even start up.

[Asta_la_vista]

What if we happen to stop near a car from the same brand as ours and our phone automatically pairs with the HU from the other car?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Asta_la_vista

What if we happen to stop near a car from the same brand as ours and our phone automatically pairs with the HU from the other car?

While this is a minor annoyance, think of malicious intent. What kind of access is your car allowing to somebody else when they can just pair the smartphone.

Of course the entertainment system may be isolated, or in today's connected cars, they may even be connected to the can bus, allowing an attacker to run malicious control on your vehicle. A very bad idea.

Its like, cool feature in an electronic lock, works with all doors, ones which are not even yours

[bejoy]

It can be inconvenient as well as embarrassing at times. I left my car at car wash place and was on phone standing outside. I was talking on, only to realize after a while that I could not hear the other side. Then after looking at the phone screen realized that I was on Bluetooth for sometime as the car wash chap had started the car to drive out off the ramp.

IMO its not right to connect to other hosts that are not paired with the phone at least once. Is it a feature or a flaw?

Edit: I now disable Bluetooth, while at car wash

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by GTO

Then I remembered, the same thing had happened with the Ford Endeavour Facelift (I'd earlier paired my smartphone with the SYNC3 of the Aspire). I stepped into the Endeavour and there was my phone on the ICE, all ready to use.

Thanks for sharing. Are you referring to Android Auto?
I am using my phone on Andriod Auto paired with the Sync 3 on my Endeavour (2017 model). Is there any new update on the refreshed version of the 2019 Endeavour ?

[StarryFurry]

This is surely a very good feature for the customers as well as auto reviewers. Thanks for sharing, GTO.


Regarding the connectivity, I am not too sure but as far as I know, not all head units support Internet connectivity. Is it possible that when the car goes for service, the data from the HU is extracted and uploaded to the company's cloud server which generates some unique code about that particular phone and then that code is recognisable by all cars of the same brand?

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by gupta_chd

There can be two cases how this is being done

1. Either after initial pairing, user details are sent to respective brand's (E.g. Ford's) servers and those are stored there if car HU has some sort of connectivity. Otherwise it is unlikely.

2. Otherwise, there is some application inbuilt in phone/ android itself which is managing this. This is much more likely. There has to be some global standard for it to work which should be Anrdoid Auto / Apple Carplay.

It's actually much more simpler - it is by the Bluetooth name. And it's not new either that a Bluetooth device will connect to any Bluetooth device that has the same name and PIN - very similar to how WiFi works.

What is different is that most manufacturers now have their brand as the HU's Bluetooth name (Eg. MAHINDRA is the Bluetooth name of my XUV5OO) as against car's model name (VERNA was the Bluetooth name of my previous car - incidentally, my phone will connect with all Verna cars back then!).

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

It's actually much more simpler - it is by the Bluetooth name. And it's not new either that a Bluetooth device will connect to any Bluetooth device that has the same name and PIN - very similar to how WiFi works.

Yes you are right. This has been the case since the earlier days of bluetooth when we could connect to someone's phone with default credentials (eg. Motorola XT1234) and Pin = 1234 and use some kind of file manager app to pick up photos / files. Of course this was harmless as we had no malicious intent, just to spook our friends.

That said, in my Abarth, the pin changes every time you go into the pairing mode. So no chance of accidental pairing with another non authorised device.

Most Headunits today also allow you to change the Bluetooth name, which should be one of the first steps to do when you get your car.

Also, noticed this one difference in Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Whenever I connected my Android phone, it asks for million of permissions include Bluetooth. However, in CarPlay, it doesn't connect via bluetooth but only via the connected cable (I could be mistaken here as some models support wireless CarPlay).

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

I suspect it's Android Auto.

Good point! Both the cars and my phone have Android Auto. That said, do note that it paired with the head-unit even before I plugged in the Android Auto cable.

Originally Posted by Asta_la_vista

What if we happen to stop near a car from the same brand as ours and our phone automatically pairs with the HU from the other car?

Yikes!

Originally Posted by tsk1979

While this is a minor annoyance, think of malicious intent. What kind of access is your car allowing to somebody else when they can just pair the smartphone.

Agreed. Frankly, after reading some of the replies here, I no longer think that it is cool and would rather go through the process of manually pairing my phone for each car. Pairing is anyway such a simple process.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Are you referring to Android Auto?

No, am talking about Bluetooth pairing.

[Venkatesh.H]

Auto connection of mobile phones through blue tooth is a cool function indeed. However it should be limited to few functions only.

In recent advertisements we see MG HECTOR is being operated remotely by phone. If Auto connect function is active, then we may end up starting ACs of other vehicles which are in the vicinity of mobile signal zone


Venkatesh.H

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by GTO

...do note that it paired with the head-unit even before I plugged in the Android Auto cable.....

Cable connection needed for Android Auto-enabled apps to work/mirror on the SYNC3 HU, but Android Auto pretty much literally has carte blanche access to your phone once installed, and if I remember right, it wouldn't even let me connect to the HU until I enabled Web & App Activity tracking on my Google Account Settings page, among a host of other settings that I usually keep disabled. I'm not surprised the HU can recognize phones across cars.

It's convenient, sure, but very invasive. YMMV but I'm not very keen on letting an app track me to that extent in exchange for the convenience of using GMaps and Poweramp. But then, I even delete my device in BT settings from TD cars (friends' cars too if I'd paired my phone while traveling with them) before I get out.