I recently brought my Trax to a dealer under warranty for service on the rear AC electric outlet. After having to explain to a service rep that AC stands for alternating current, not air conditioning (true story), the service staff replaced the outlet and in the process caused the shifter to lose its ability change gears in Manual mode--so two months later they changed the shift assembly. It now works fine (I had this service done at the same time as the lower control arm recall service; the car now sounds like it needs new ball joints. That's a separate issue.)


However, using Android Auto, now my navigation apps such as Waze or Google Maps do not change to Night Mode when it's dark out. If you've ever used Waze, you know that during regular daylight the map background is white; in Night Mode, the background turns gray and roads appear in black. Now, the screen stays bright white even when it's dark out, and I think the above-mentioned dealer messed up the wiring when replacing the AC outlet; they obviously messed up the shifter. What's worse, they seem not to know what I'm talking about.


Before I go back at them with a false accusation, is this a familiar problem? Am I maybe missing a setting somewhere, either in the car or in my cellphone? ( have gone into Android Auto's developer settings and adjusted the setting for Night Mode, to no avail). The dealer first said my car doesn't have the auto-dimming feature; I asked, "Then how could I know I used to have that capability and now I don't?" I swear they think we're morons. They then tried to explain it had to do with the dimming of the dash lights; it obviously doesn't, and I don't think they know anything about Android Auto, Night Mode, etc.


Thanks,


jamzpond

Mine has 3 settings, in Navigation you select display and mine is set to automatic. Other options are night and day. I never noticed if it's linked to the ambient light sensor or not. Next time I'm out and about I'll try and notice.

What I'm trying to get at, is maybe your ambient light sensor isn't sending the signal to the infotainment or isn't working at all. Do your headlights still come on by themselves at dusk?

Traxy, thanks for writing back. The headlights do come on at dusk and I believe you're correct about the ambient light sensor. This is something else about which the dealer service manager seemed clueless.

I know Google has added a new interface to Android Auto, but you can also enable Developer Mode which will allow you to check the Day/Night settings. Personally I locked mine to Night mode all the time because I prefer the darker background. Here's how to enable Developer Mode in case you haven't already.

Launch the Android Auto application on your smartphone

Tap on the hamburger menu icon in the top left corner

Select the*About*option

Tap repeatedly on the*About Android Autoportion of the heading until a pop-up states that Developer settings is*enabled

To locate the*Developer settings, select the multi-dot menu button in the top right corner

Tap on*Developer settings

I happened to be out last night before dusk and I was watching for the flip and both switched at the same time. When the lights turned on the navigation switched to the dark screen.

I take it all back. Driving tonight with the reminisce of ERIN it was dark early, lights came on as soon as I drove off around 18:30 but NAV screen was still white. So not related to the Ambient sensor at all. It turned black at 19:10 which means it isn't tied to sunset either, so you got me, now I'm puzzled all to ****....

Apparently it's a bug that appeared in the last couple Android Auto updates, saw a Reddit page with the same issue listed concerning Android Auto itself, not vehicle based at all. Best solution anyone else had there was enabled Developer Mode and manually forcing either day or night mode.

Traxy and Montkun, I'm learning you're likely both correct. I connected my wife's iPhone and achieved Night Mode with no issue. So it is likely something with the phone, which shows a system update on July 10, soon after which this problem started. Android Auto offers in-app "help and feedback" so I may learn more there. Thanks for your comments!

I just noticed that there was another update on September 3 for Android Auto, maybe they corrected the issue with daytime and nighttime. I'm not sure because I haven't defaulted my settings, but it could be worth a shot.

I have a Samsung phone and my night mode on Google maps always clicks on after dark. But when I'm not using Android auto my infotainment Center does not dim with the rest of the dash it stays bright white all the time. I always thought this was a little odd and that it should dim with the dimmer knob for the dash panel but it does not.