AlanB1976

Hi all
Firstly, apologies if this is somewhere already. I just thought I'd share a Waze hack I found.

So, as with many, I was very disappointed to find out that I couldn’t use Android Auto on my nice fancy Virtual Cockpit. Even more disappointed to find out that I couldn’t even see the map on VC while navigating through AA. Personally I think the look of the Audi satnav on the VC is fantastic. Distance and lane indicators were great and having the map right in front of you was the icing on the cake. However, I’ve found all in-house systems lacking in traffic avoidance. After all they rely on TMC, rather than the active tracking of google, tomtom, etc., so I always tend to google maps as my choice of satnav. Waze I’m not mad about but love the community element and being notified of speed cameras, obstacles, etc. Just no all-in-one perfect solution.

So, I had a very tedious start up regime in the mornings….I would start google maps to see what overall route it chose for my trip in to work (using Google’s traffic avoidance), then start VC navigation and verify that it is using the same route (so at least a good start even if it can’t react to traffic as well) and then load waze (without navigation) so I can navigate on the nice VC screen but still see community alerts on the MMI screen. A real pain.

However, in my continuous switching, I happened on a method of having waze navigation running in conjunction with VC maps (with or without VC navigation). Below are the steps I took to get that. I haven’t fully tested this but I can replicate it and it does work on another Audi. This unfortunately doesn’t seem to work in attempting to use ‘Maps’ in AA with VC, only waze.

1. Start Waze (in AA) and start your navigation. VC will turn off map and show compass
2. Change AA to use ‘Maps’ for satnav. AA will show ‘Maps’ and VC will still just show compass
3. Start MMI navigation. I used voice from steering wheel but should work through MMI controls as well. ‘Maps’ navigation on AA turns off (if it was on) and just shows the map on AA with VC changing to display map with navigation.
4. Change AA to use Waze for satnav (do not set up navigation again, just choose waze). The navigation that was previously set up in Waze is still active and running on the centre screen through AA. Concurrently, the MMI navigation is still running and the map is showing on the VC. And yes, there are now 2 ladies telling you to turn (hopefully in the same direction).
5. You can now, if you want, cancel the navigation on VC and have it just display the maps while Waze on AA is doing the navigating. Or possibly just silence one so you have both navigating but only receiving one set of voice instructions.

Waze and MMI (in VC) both navigating.
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So, as I said, not a perfect solution but something where you can appreciate the beauty of the VC while using the community of Waze.

Please post any relevant tips and tricks with VC, MMI and AA.

Thanks
Alan

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Vaneam2

Thank you for the nice write-up and taking time to report your findings!

kentyman

Can you confirm what versions this works in? I have 0692 and it works, but am going to attempt to convince my dealer to update me to 0918 (don't want 1118 because it won't allow VIM). I would like this trick to keep working if I can update.

AlanB1976

I'm not sure. I don't even know what version I'm running. Are there any good benefits to the update?

kentyman

Can you check your software version? It's in a menu you item under either Vehicle or Settings.

The one benefit I know of in 09xx is being able to adjust the subwoofer volume.

AlanB1976

Just checked and I'm on 1106. I did however update maps about a month ago and don't know if that updates everything at the same time. I haven't tested this trick since as I don't do as much driving anymore and don't have waze anymore (firmware update) so can't test now.
If it was only the maps that updated, then still works up to 1106.

kentyman

Maps updates don't update software version, so I believe you have confirmed that it still works with 1106+. Thanks for checking!

kentyman

I've found that I can use much fewer steps to get Waze and Virtual Cockpit navigation:

1. Start navigation through Waze in Android Auto
2. Switch to Nav through center controls
3. Start navigation through center controls
4. Switch Virtual Cockpit to navigation
5. Switch back to Android Auto (click back, rotate wheel clockwise all the way, rotate wheel counter-clockwise just once, press wheel)

However, this does not seem to work if I try Google Maps through Android Auto instead of Waze. Do y'all see the same behavior?

treoless

Can anyone check if this trick still works? It stopped working for me some time last year after an Android or maybe Waze update.

1stRS

Just curious about this. It appears that Waze did patch this loophole. Crazy that we get a compass in VC, instead of a map, during CarPlay or AA Navigation.

These guys hacked the older MIBs, all one has to do to run ALL/restricted apps via Android Auto is follow the “How to Install”.

https://github.com/jilleb/mib2-toolbox