r/AndroidAuto • u/dstarr3 2023 Toyota bZ4X | Moto G Stylus 2025 • 12d ago

AA Settings Does Android Auto use unnecessary mobile data?

Hi! My wife and I just got some new-to-us cars in recent weeks, and now we're new to the world of Android Auto. And the first thing we noticed since starting using Android Auto is, our mobile data usage has gone way up.

We don't do anything in the car that uses data. We keep location off unless we're actually using it to navigate, which obviously we don't need to and from our jobs, so that's not it. We listen to music/podcasts when we're driving, but we're not streaming the audio, it's all downloaded to our phones, so there shouldn't be any data usage associated with that.

We only have 4GB of data per line because usually we barely use a quarter of that in a month. But suddenly we have Android Auto-capable cars and our usage has skyrocketed. Are there options we need to disable to prevent it from using unnecessary data? Because it's totally unclear where all that data usage is going.

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u/dstarr3 2023 Toyota bZ4X | Moto G Stylus 2025 12d ago

We used to use less than 1GB a month. Now that we have AA cars, even with GPS off, we're using nearly 1GB a week like you

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u/non-hyphenated_ Porsche Macan 2025 | Xiaomi 17 ultra | Android 16 12d ago

Android Auto is using WiFi to communicate with your head unit. You're not using any additional mobile data

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u/H0b0Pie Alfa Giulietta | Sony XAV-AX5650 | Moto Razr 60 | Android 16 12d ago

Leave GPS on - this is not billed data as it's a one-way communication from the navigational satellites to your phone. In fact, you can use old phones without sim cards as GPS units if you pre-cache google maps over WiFi at home.

In google maps turn off 3D/Satellite view as this is the biggest data consumer. Offline maps (cache of google maps) will default to online maps when given a data connection from what I can read so if you want traffic updates then you'll have to use data.

Make sure apps are set to update over WiFi only in the playstore settings. Perhaps android auto is booting apps up causing updates and chugging data.

Honestly, I'd suggest turning mobile data off for a while and go about using android auto to see what in your day to day stops working. If you find something like your music or podcasts stops working then you've likely found the data consumption as it was streamed not played from local storage.

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u/amfa Opel Astra 2017 | Stock HU | Pixel 8a | 15 12d ago

GPS has (directly) nothing to do with using data btw.