I don't ask for many features when choosing a rental car, but Android Auto is usually top of the list. Having that bigger screen for Google Maps on long drives is so handy, and the large UI for calls and music genuinely make me a safer driver. I've gotten so used to it, it's difficult to really enjoy a car without it. This time, my rental car was a little different. I was provided a 2018 Audi Q5 Quattro, which on top of a ridiculous 248 horsepower engine came with an Android Auto interface that did not include a touchscreen. Wait, what's happening here?

There's very little about Android Auto that isn't clearly designed to be touched. Even when you just use the Android Auto app on your phone, the UI is designed for you to be able to make quick glances and mash a finger against a big button with little concern for accuracy. It's pretty hard to miss these big buttons, which is a big part of the appeal especially on a larger display. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines But the 7-inch media display in the 2018 Q5 has no touch capabilities. It's just glass. That's because the entire rest of the Audi-made interface is controlled with a dial down next to the shifter knob. It's a large button that can be twisted left or right, and pressed in to select, but also can be shifted in the standard D-Pad set of directions. There are quick actions for music and volume controls on the steering wheel, but you did basically everything else with this dial. To say this took some getting used to is a bit of an understatement. If I wanted to jump to the Google Play Music interface from the Google Maps interface, I had to pull down on the dial so I could access the quick launch buttons, and then rotate the dial to the one I wanted and press down to select. To get back to the main interface from this bottom nav, I needed to push the dial up. If I wanted to access the Hamburger Menu on any screen, I needed to slide the dial to the left. Anytime I would rather use my voice, I needed to slide the dial to the right and wait for the telltale ding to come through the car speakers. As you can see, this added a lot of extra steps to pretty much everything. There's no situation in which tapping the touch screen wouldn't have been a shorter trip for using this interface, but it was also clear Google and Audi made sure every part of the Android Auto interface was still accessible. I mostly don't hate this