Motorola Has Made A Dongle For Wireless Android Auto

Motorola has developed the MA1 which can turn any car with a wired Android Auto capability into a wireless experience. It is a USB dongle that will start retailing in the US for a cool $90 starting January 30. It pairs over Bluetooth with your phone and then wirelessly transmits data over a 5Ghz Wi-Fi connection. While we are increasingly seeing vehicles with wireless Android Auto, even right now there are only a handful of cars that cots sub 30 lakhs in India that support the wireless avatar of Google's phone beaming software.

It is convenient however, the phone doesn't charge while this happens. This of course can be mitigated as the phone can be charged via a wired or wireless connection while you're leveraging the dongle.

The dongle enables wireless connectivity over a 5Ghz Wi-Fi connection

Motorola isn't fully behind this product as it has been developed by an ODM called Meizhou Guy Electronics which has licensed Motorola's brand to sell this product. This is not too dissimilar to the way Motorola branded televisions are sold in India on e-commerce websites.

One of the caveats to using this dongle is the fact that your phone has had Android 11 or above. And it goes without saying that if you're an iPhone user and hoping it even supports Apple CarPlay, you're in the cold. Google is also changing the Android Auto experience for Android 12 so there is no clarity if this will work with newer phones that have the latest version of Android, though likely it should work.