Android Auto

Before you start

Android Auto support is part of the Windshield Weather Android app; there is nothing extra to install. It needs:

• the Android app, signed in, on your phone — see Install the app;
• a car or head unit with Android Auto;
• at least one saved drive — planned on the phone, or on any device signed in to the same account.

Connect and open it

1. Connect your phone to the car

   By cable or wirelessly, the way you usually start Android Auto.

2. Open Windshield Weather from the Android Auto launcher

   It opens on a map with the weather where you are now. If the phone is signed out, the car says “Sign in to see your drives” — while safely parked, choose Open app on phone and sign in. Sign-in instructions and this action are unavailable while driving. Only look at your phone when it is safe.

3. Choose Drives

   Pick a drive to see its route and its sections.

Getting a drive onto the car

Android Auto shows your saved drives, as the phone has them. A drive you save on the phone appears on the car seconds later; one saved on another device — your iPhone, a tablet, the web — appears once the phone has synced it.

Drives planned from Explore or Drives are saved when planning starts, even if the forecast fails. There is no separate Save step.

The car lists drives that are still to come, and those you left within the last four hours. Use Previous drives for older saved drives, newest first, and Next for more pages. There is no planning on the car’s screen; plan on the phone before you set off.

On the car’s screen

• Drives — each with when it leaves: “leaving now”, “today at 18:00”, and so on.
• A drive — the route on the map, and its Sections, numbered from 01, each with its rating in words: Calm, Mild, Caution, Hazard or Extreme. Tap one for a few lines on its condition, arrival time, wind and visibility. Use Sections to return from a weather detail to the drive.
• Briefing — playback progress, the current stretch, and Play and Pause. It plays through the car. Read opens its full text while parked.
• Layers — radar and wind, each on or off. The car shows the newest radar picture only, and the wind as a still map of its speed for the current hour.

When Weather alerts is available for your account, turn it on in Layers to see official alert areas. Warnings are hatched and watches outlined, with the issuing office marked OFFICIAL. In a drive, open its official-alert row for the issuer, level, time on your route, the headline and source attribution. Map returns to the drive with the layer on. Expired alerts disappear; unavailable coverage is labelled rather than treated as no alerts.

Units and the 12- or 24-hour clock follow the app’s settings on your phone.

A heads-up for hazards

When you open a drive on the car and its worst section is rated HAZARD or EXTREME, the car shows one notification: “Hazard on your drive”, with what, where and when — “Freezing drizzle near Clines Corners at 08:30 MST.” Tap it to open that section.

When an official warning from the US National Weather Service is in effect where you will be, it leads that one notification instead: “Winter Storm Warning on your drive”, naming the office that issued it, with the forecast’s worst section after it. Watches, advisories and statements never trigger it.

It is checked once, when you open the drive, not continuously, and CAUTION does not trigger it. On Android 13 and later it needs notification permission, which the app asks for once, after you plan your first drive from Drives. If you declined, allow notifications for Windshield Weather in Android settings.

Stops

New drives planned on the phone start with Suggested stops; Android Auto shows their answered stops. The forecast list includes read-only stop rows between sections, with a square glyph and arrival → leaving times. Use Next to reach later sections and stops. Stop planning and editing stay on the phone; the car map has no stop pins.