Volkswagen Touareg 7P- Update on CarPlay / Android Auto
For the last 3 year We've been offering such upgrade, designed for either RNS850 or RCD550 headunit of VW Touareg, regardless of whether It has DynaAudio sound system or not.
As the entire 7P series were out of support from VW in terms of adding / activating Apple CarPlay or Android auto, lots of Touareg owners searched for alternative option in the aftermarket and with much appreciation to them -
We had chance to introduce our product and proud to say that there are quite a number of Touaregs driving on the street even now we writing this - with our product fitted and going strong.
This video below is our very first video of VW Touareg with such integration was done back in 2018, not the first Touareg we done at that time but indeed first video We've ever uploaded:
Back then the product was an Android OS system, with CarPlay and Android Auto license installed inside. Hence the user could actually access the Android system.
Whilst that sounds it could give more versatile usage with the Android system, in reality It wasn't.
As the Android version was quite low at that time (5.1) and the unit itself was purely designed for NAV purpose hence wasn't really recommended for other usage.
Over the time We changed and updated the unit as frequently as we could, to improve performance suit new iOS coming out every year.
And at the moment, we are sitting on somewhat 'finalized' version of CarPlay & Android auto Integration kit, and moved on to adding additional function to provide more compatibility and those 'cherry on top' features, to differentiate ours to other aftermarket products.
The latest update we've done, was to add more compatibility with steering wheel controls:
Which is quite heavily targeted for CarPlay and its newest iOS13.x version.
The issue We've fronted since May 2020 - that iOS13.2 onwards, is that the CarPlay trying to take over the phone call function, which is normal - but the problem is unlike the previous versions of iOS, CarPlay doesn't let Bluetooth to take over from there.
Normally after CarPlay recognizes a phone call coming through / or going out, it will allow Bluetooth of RNS850 / RCD550 to engage and let it handle the phone call.
However from iOS13.2 , the CarPlay stopped doing that 'switch over' function.
Now, for those CarPlay fitted from factory or with whole headunit swap over like Alpine / Pioneer headunit etc, this issue probably not exist, as they have a control module fitted to swap and transfer sound source / call link.
But with this aftermarket product like ours which doesn't change anything from the car nor breaches into the existing functions of audio, that control module is near impossible to be implemented at this stage.
Hence, the alternative fix we've came up with is, not using the bluetooth at all, but installing dedicated ext.mic that will handle both call and voice commands, and assigning certain function on steering wheel controls of the car to execute it.
Which has been demonstrated in the video below:
With the steering wheel control adapter we've developed, not every single function but it will allow you to utilize track / volume (which supported without it anyway), and also to use the Answer button for either answering the phone call, or press and hold to trigger voice command via siri / google assistant.
The whole updated product is now available and currently under 2020 EOFY promotion - valid till end of the month (July 2020), from the link below:
Thank you for reading.
