alt Hacker NewsHead units aren’t always-on. Typically they go into a low power standby 2-5 minutes after ignition / accessory mode turns off, and go completely power-off 30-ish minutes later.
Otherwise any car sitting unused for a week or two would have a dead battery.
Replies
Zigurd • yesterday at 2:27 PM
I learned that not all electronics goes into low power mode even when designed to run off a car battery, from using a cheap Bluetooth OBDII dongle.
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olyjohn • yesterday at 2:56 PM
They are always wired to battery power though. The point is that it could look powered off, and still be running a proxy.
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kotaKat • yesterday at 3:32 PM
Some of these Android units also double as DVRs and dashcam recorders (parking mode!) as well so may be hooked onto the normal +12v rail.
I'm pretty certain my car could go months running Android in low power mode just from the 12v battery, never mind the traction battery. But no, they had to have the head unit boot on every start and everything is slow for a minute, especially since the last update. These people can't code for shit.