Navigation for Android Auto

This guide explains how to enable and integrate Android Auto with the Flutter Navigation SDK.

Requirements

Android device
Android Auto test device or Android Automotive OS emulator

Setup

Refer to the Android for Cars developer documentation to understand how the Android Auto works and to complete the initial setup. Key steps include:

Installing Android for Cars App Library.
Configuring your app's manifest file to include Android Auto.
Declaring a minimum car-app level in your manifest.
Creating 'CarAppService' and session

For all the steps above, you can refer to the Android example application for guidance.

Screen for Android Auto

Once your project is configured accordingly, and you are ready to build the screen for Android Auto, you can leverage the AndroidAutoBaseScreen provided by the SDK. This base class simplifies the setup by handling initialization, teardown, and rendering the map on the Android Auto display.

Please refer to the SampleAndroidAutoScreen.kt file in the Android example app for guidance.

To customize the Android Auto experience, override the onGetTemplate method in your custom AndroidAutoScreen class, providing your own Template:

override fun onGetTemplate(): Template {
    /** ... */
    @SuppressLint("MissingPermission")
    val navigationTemplateBuilder =
        NavigationTemplate.Builder()
            .setActionStrip(
                ActionStrip.Builder()
                    .addAction(
                        Action.Builder()
                            .setTitle("Re-center")
                            .setOnClickListener {
                                if (mGoogleMap == null) return@setOnClickListener
                                mGoogleMap!!.followMyLocation(GoogleMap.CameraPerspective.TILTED)
                            }
                            .build())
                    .addAction(
                        Action.Builder()
                            .setTitle("Custom event")
                            .setOnClickListener {
                                sendCustomNavigationAutoEvent("CustomAndroidAutoEvent", mapOf("sampleDataKey" to "sampleDataContent"))
                            }
                            .build())
                    .build())
            .setMapActionStrip(ActionStrip.Builder().addAction(Action.PAN).build())
    /** ... */
}

For advanced customization, you can bypass the base class and implement your own screen by inheriting Screen. You can use the provided AndroidAutoBaseScreen base class as a reference on how to do that.

Flutter Setup

On the Flutter side, you can use the GoogleMapsAutoViewController to interface with the CarPlay instance. The GoogleMapsAutoViewController allows you to call map functions on the CarPlay map view, and you can manage listeners using the provided functions.

final GoogleMapsAutoViewController _autoViewController =
      GoogleMapsAutoViewController();

_autoViewController.listenForCustomNavigationAutoEvents((event) {
    showMessage("Received event: ${event.event}");
});

Future<void> _setMapTypeForAutoToSatellite() async {
    await _autoViewController.setMapType(mapType: MapType.satellite);
}

For a more detailed example, refer to the lib/pages/navigation.dart file in the Flutter example application.

Example Project

For a fully functional Android Auto implementation, check out the Android Studio example app.

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