alt Hacker NewsWhenever I see this particular "feature" being blocked, all I can think of is my own past personal usage of this feature. It was purely to listen to podcasts or whatever while in the car. So by default this feature should just work, and it should be: turn on the source and listen.
Instead its disabled to try to extract more revenue out of users, so my personal use case becomes a potential road hazard for people who didn't give in and instead are fiddling with their phone to ensure that it keeps playing.
Can't imagine this is even a moment of discussion in 2026 when making the decision to block something like this.
my current flow for this if i ever have the misfortune of only having youtube as a source, is to turn on the video, and face the screen away from me in the cup holder. So personally I've found what i consider to be a safe alternative.
Can't imagine younger drivers are going to go through the same amount of caution to avoid grabbing their phone or looking at a video playing while they are driving.
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> So personally I've found what i consider to be a safe alternative.
A bit more effort, but downloading the podcast and listening to it via a basic audio player app that does not further enshitify itself daily is even safer.
Before I put a modded Youtube app on my phone to re-enable the feature, I would just leave the screen on, turn the brightness down, and place the phone face-down on my passenger seat (all before taking the vehicle out of park, of course).