They say it because they are trying to get rid of us. It is not true, we update firmwares via USB, it is only that some firmwares leaked to forums, FCA does not share these to customers (via say my alfaromeo account or any other my maps), and they are normally not willing to give anybody update as it takes their time, and updating from earlier versions than MV072.xxx.xxx requires then to update 6 other ECUs (officially, unofficially they work OK without update). Updates is hassle, takes time (IPC is like 1h, used to be 4 two years ago but they optimized Witech2, other are much faster) and brings some risks e.g. of bricking (I heard from my friend in one dealership of two IPC bricked during update).

Surelly FCA is not willing to do anything. Probably telling them that we do update ETM firmwares via USB ourselves and what they say is bulls..t won't help at all - they will say it is not official and without required other ECU updates not safe or so.

Alternative option is that wide screen sits somewhere in Proxi, but we do not know where - of course they won't tell us, surelly they will again say modifications of proxi is not safe etc.

Not sure if you are planning to keep pressing on them, or give up?
Anyway, thanks for your attempt as far, looks like my next phone will be iPhone + will add WiFi Carplay bridge.

 

The level of ignorance within FCA / Alfa / wherever is just mindblowing.
I cannot understand how they are still in business at this point. This whole screen-size debacle is just one of many examples.

Honestly - I feel sorry for the 5 people who actually care about their work at FCA and do their job properly (exaggerating).
All the nonsense we are experiencing clearly stems from career-obsessed bean counters, trying to save pennies while throwing away brand reputation in the long term, and not the engineers and technicians who do actual work or the few dealerships willing to put up with all the nonsense from FCA.

@AlfaRomeoCares - I know this is probably way out of your responsibility, but maybe someone, somewhere actually cares and has a chance to report to someone at Alfa who has both authority and a functioning brain.

 

I find this whole thing a bit of a faff. We've been test driving all kinds of cars for weeks and my Giulia's responsive rotary controller combined with the well- integrated screen and steering wheel Google assistant is one of the best systems in terms of distraction free, driver focused functionality. Sure, it would be nice to have the whole screen like Apple, but moaning about 2 inches of black space when you should be looking at the road and the thing works better than 90 percent of the systems out there just seems absurd.

 

The real bummer is Uconnect used in almost every other FCA vehicle is superior. For some reason, they wanted to use something different for Alfa.

 

well, there are some annoying and even in certain situations issues of infotainment, but not sure if they will be reason for FCA to work on fix as they are rare (hard to show to dealer service).
on MV090 firmware (never on MV080(I got such non standard with replaced radio) or MV085 I put later), I experienced following issue:
-when just on BT connection (not AA) and making call, very rarely spotify does not pause music but still playing, only I loose bass out of music, and the call talk is mixed with music.

Also, on all firmwares MV080, MV085 and MV090 when on AA I have sometimes issue that after end of call, I have no back spotify music (even I pause/play again) as well as no google maps messages. to resolve I need to make another call (or disconnect and connect again phone via USB) - enough to just ring and interrupt like reswitch to phone and back cycle.

On both FCA may say it is phone issue, though IMHO not : on the first one I didn't experienced it ever with the same phone but on older firmwares, on the 2nd issue I experienced it also with my previous phone with different android version etc.

There is lack of back button function when zooming on google maps - workaround during navigation is to do a voice command to search for any travel point, then cancel from the list of found results.

They are doubtfully any critical/safety, just annoying.

 

Well they did make a Feature update to the 1st gen Hardware not too long ago.
(Navigation Adress Autocomplete).

That is a non-critical update to a 4 year old unit. So why would they not update a 1 year old unit?

 

I think they had still too many issues with 1st gen even on firmwares like MV002.009.055 (which was released in early 2018 and later .059 in US and .061 in Australia), so they decided to prepare this MV002.010.041 which is probably MV090 stripped off the functions for AA/ACP and recompiled for different CPU/hardware setup on 1st gen radios.
I would love to believe that FCA anyway earlier or later find reason to update/fix things in MV090 and that they will decide to add dual screen to list of fixes

 

Any updates to this thread? Recently purchased Stelvio and wife's iPhone Carplay looks amazing vs. the small maps you get on AA.

 

Sadly no... doesn't look like there ever will be at this point. It's fixed on 2020 models so I doubt at this point they will ever go back and fix older models. I hate iOS but between this and the fact that my motorcycle (Indian Challenger) has carplay but no android auto I'm seriously considering switching.

 

Someone asked for a tutorial on the installation of Carplay, this is the best one that I've found. (there's also a Stelvio one)

CarPlay installation tutorial on Alfa Romeo Giulia

We will see here in pictures how to install Apple Carplay on an Alfa Romeo Giulia.Hardware needed: a T20 torx screwdriver + a socket wrench.Installation time: 30-40 minutes

thecarplayer.com

 

Please keep bugging your dealers / Alfa.
I haven't achieved anything as Alfa in Austria doesn't care about the 4 cars they sold here.

Maybe you guys in the US have more leverage...

 

I had a callback a few months ago from someone in Italy at Alfa after logging something officially with them. - They claimed that 'They'd pass the information on, but it's highly unlikely that they will release a fix.'

 

Can we install the 2020 version somehow?

 

It is possible - someone in Italy has done it.
Crazy expensive though...

 

I finally just caved and switched to an iphone...at least for a bit. Carplay using the whole screen is so much nicer than AA only using 2/3. I'm a bit dissapointed with carplay on my bike though as Indian requires a headset connected also for carplay to even turn on. Once they add android auto this summer I think I'll end up switching back to an android phone..if not before then.

 

RIP

 

Saw this today on reddit. Someone was able to edit a file in the firmware to get wide/split screen on their car. Anyone know how to do this on our car?

 

Detail steps here

Investigating Android Auto forced splitscreen / widescreen on MIB2

Not a day goes by without any curiosity… so I decided to play around with some things that I didn't look at before. This time, the main target was: Android Auto splitscreen. As you may know, Android…

www.drive2.ru

 

he talks about dual screen not widescreen and that is difference. i got dpi changed because i use aawireless wifi aa bridge device, but that change still used 2/3rd od screen width, just within added 2nd screen like here New photo by Leszek P (epsonix)
all was also too much zoomed out. i use nonstandard dpi of 130 to keep bottom bar lower and google maps informational windows
smaller so allow more map view (below may be dpi 150 cant remember)

New item by Leszek Posłuszny (epsonix)

photos.app.goo.gl

proxi does not have any working setting for this, at least i havent found one. i think we need get access to headunit via e.g usb what looks like the guy in MB got and modified headunit confoguration files. i got once to guy who did such on other car make, he connected usb network card to car usb, tried to set some manual ip/gateway most likable settings but in 30 minutes he went nowhere. maybe there is trick to get developer access, maybe some non-standard ip etc , really without leak from headunit developers it may be difficult to figure out how to get access and what to change to unlock wide screen. surelly widescreen is possible in giulia/stelvio 2nd gen headunits as in early 2018 google presented dual screen feature in Giulia and they had shown it widescreen. question is how to do this. note that tge guy i mentioned also extracted firmware update file and found some config files, maybe way would be to edit them abd do update(may need some checksums to recalculate) who is experienced enough and willing to take the risk on his car?

 

This doesn't work well on our screens. I have messed around with the DPI using AAWireless, it does split the android screen but you STILL get the ugly 'Android Auto' Logo on the right. Effectively making this into 3 columns. Sorry!

 

Please go ahead and bug your support. Maybe the US customer service cares.

I've given up because I can't get past 1st level support over here...

 

we need somebody who knows how to get developer access to headunit OS/filesystem, possibly owner so motivated to spend enough time digging there to figure out what need to be changed to get rid of aa logo

 

Even if it had an ALFA logo rather than the AA logo it would be an improvement

 

I think most of us would be willing to give someone a donation to whomever figures this out.

 

Is this issue is only affecting the pre-facelift Giulia's?

 

post facelifts have wide screen, though to get dual dpi needs to change eg easy when using aawireless bridge

 

I think that the only way is hack headunit fw. I Hope someone works to do.

 

Need a GoFundMe started to buy some shady 5 year old Linux exploit from the dark web

 

Not going to help much on a QNX based (iirc) OS.

 

My 5 minutes of research lead to some Genivi open source Linux project

 

I would most definitely contribute to a fix for this for sure