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.
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.