How to Make a Wireless Android Auto Dongle for Your Car Using Raspberry Pi

Aug. 20, 2024

My car supports Android Auto by default, but it requires a wired connection. Due to this, I find it incredibly cumbersome to use. I looked into wireless Android Auto dongles in India, but they are expensive and cost more than $50 (~Rs 4,000). Not to mention, most of them come from not-so-trustworthy manufacturers. So, I started scouring the internet for an alternative and, after some research, I found a way to set up wireless Android Auto usingRaspberry Pi.

Thanks to the WirelessAndroidAutoDongle project on GitHub (visit), I turned my car’s Android Auto experience from wired to wireless. So, in this guide, I bring you an affordable way to create your own wireless Android Auto dongle using Raspberry Pi.

Setup Requirements

First things first, you will need a Raspberry Pi board that comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. Specifically, these RPi boards are supported out of the box.

You will also need an SD card; could be of any size. It only takes just 32 MB of space. The car head unit must support wired Android Auto and should have a screen.

Now, go ahead and download the image file fromGitHubto flash on your Raspberry Pi. Depending on your RPi board, download the image file. The file size is just about 32 MB.

Next, download BalenaEtcher (Free) and install it on your computer. This will allow you to flash the image onto the SD card.

Now that your Raspberry Pi board is ready, it’s time to plug it into the car and test it out:

So this is how you can create a wireless Android Auto dongle using Raspberry Pi. In my usage so far, it works perfectly on my Raspberry Pi Zero W and supports all the Android Auto features, including calls, Google Maps navigation, Google Assistant, music controls, and much more. Moreover, it costs only $15 (Rs 1800 in India) and boots up within 40 seconds.

Anyway, that’s all for this handy guide. If you want toset up Pi-hole on Raspberry Pi to block adsand trackers on your network, follow our detailed guide. If you are facing any issues setting up the wireless Android Auto experience, let us know in the comments below.

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.