Whether you’re just grabbing a sandwich for lunch or heading out on a long road trip, it’s convenient to have Android Auto by your side. It makes it easy to navigate, listen to your favorite playlists, chat with a friend you’re going to be late with, or even use apps you can download on Android Auto. But with this seamless convenience comes a nasty pitfall: a dead phone battery. This is a frustrating inconvenience if you have to continue using your phone after the ride. So why exactly does Android Auto drain your phone’s battery so quickly?
In simple terms, this is the amount of multitasking CPU your phone handles. When Android Auto is running, your car’s dashboard becomes a simple screen while your phone handles all the processing. It constantly locks onto GPS satellites, streams high-quality audio, and keeps the microphone awake in case you need to send it voice commands. Additionally, driving on the highway forces your device’s cellular modem to keep searching for a signal. He constantly has to abandon weak cell towers and grab new ones as quickly as possible. Maintaining a data connection while moving quickly is one of the most exhausting tasks a mobile chip can handle.
Wireless Android Auto increases this power consumption. Transmitting all this map and audio data also requires a stable, high-speed Wi-Fi connection between the device and the car. Transferring that much data wirelessly without charging effectively turns your phone into a fast-disappearing mobile hotspot. Smartphones can handle Android Auto, but their lithium-ion batteries struggle to keep up.
How hard work and extreme heat make things worse
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Believe it or not, these software requirements are only part of the reason why Android Auto recharges your phone’s battery (although other apps can also drain your smartphone’s battery). The physical environment inside your car also plays an important role; specifically, direct sunlight and heat. Phones are routinely thrown into passenger seats, placed in cramped cup holders, or magnetized to a dashboard holder in direct sunlight. Plus, when your phone’s processor is working overtime juggling browsing and media, it naturally heats up. This internal hardware heat combined with a sunny car cabin will likely drain the battery considerably faster, just to keep your phone running smoothly.
To make matters worse, plugging the device in to charge doesn’t always stop the bleeding. How? Placing your phone on your car’s built-in wireless charger will also generate a lot of excess heat. If a phone is running a heavy Android Auto workload while resting on a hot pad in a sunny car, it’s likely to trigger its internal security alarms, because heat is a lithium-ion battery’s worst enemy. In this case, your phone may stop charging to avoid thermal damage, leaving you with a hot and almost dead phone at the end of the trip. To help your phone, minimize Android Auto use (and consider downloading media and maps first), charge it fully before leaving the house, and store it in a cool, shaded place while you’re in the car. Other Android Auto features can also make long trips easier.
