Android Head Unit in 2018 Silverado with Bose (IO6)

[asilverblazer]

These head units are everywhere, they are cheap, and of course suspect quality. I bought one anyway. Here's why, my factory screen would randomly take some time off, sometimes it would come back on when you restart, sometimes it needed the night off. It was just the display, the touch functions still worked, the sound still worked, you just couldn't see anything; annoying. Checked the internet recommended frequent problems to no avail. New display $150-200, Amazon part, Amazon quality. Not reassuring.

 

I never cared for the display integration in this generation dash, it looked too small in its bezel, the control knob below it is a material smorgasbord of black to chrome to black to silver... and discreetly below all that. A CD player, from the 1900's. The half dozen buttons, 8" screen, and CD player look so spread out on the bezel it almost like they downsized the screen at the last minute and spread everything out on the bezel. Side note: No need to maybe consider bringing the seat HVAC controls up from behind the shifter to anyone's line of sight.

 

Looking at all the products on Amazon is mind numbing, the reviews are pointless, the specifications are all over the place, prices vary quite a bit, Android tablet size, Android version, core quantity, RAM amount, memory size, etc. Buyer beware.

Based strictly on the pictures I knew I wanted a 10" tablet, as I alluded to above, this size seems like what GM wanted to put in to begin with - then that guy from the 1900's came around and pointed out the missing CD player. Then the guy who wears gloves, pointed out lack of volume knob... I get that one, I kind of miss the knob. If the unit functioned like a piece of junk and sounded terrible - I would be hard pressed to swap it out. It looks perfect there. 

 

How I picked the tablet I ended up with? Start with 10" tablet, some mention or acknowledgement that Bose adaptation is possible, most recent Android version, then the highest numbers for the rest. Except price, lowest price.

 

...experience Amazon buying experience...

 

Opening the unit is intimidating. Wires, wires, wires, wires, wires, wires, wires. Some plugs, wires, a panel removal tool (cool freebie nowhere in the description), a speaker, a reverse camera, two sets of reverse camera cables, A hopelessly optimistic single page installation sheet. Slightly more realistic owners manual. And the unit, mounted in the bezel.

 

Then the Bose Fiber Optic Adapter, one obscure box, another set of wires (see above), no instructions, no manual.

 

I watched some youtube videos, paying close attention that they were installing into a similar truck WITH Bose. Everything is supposed to be plug and play - just finding the right plug to play with is the key.

 

It seems that there are essentially two harness typically provided, one that makes the truck plug in to some of the devices (I call this one the one with the green plug) and another that connects the devices to the Android (I think they call this one the power cable.) This green plug harness ended up being a hitch in my giddy-up, the FIRST Bose adapter I bought didn't come with its own green plug harness... I had to return that one, and buy one from the same 'store' as my Android came from - it showed a new 'green plug' harness included with it.

 

Physical installation is simple enough. Pop the bezel off, disconnect seats, set aside. Unscrew factory display and pull out, disconnect and set aside. Unscrew, remove, disconnect, set aside CD player.

 

Remove two screws at bottom of glove box, open, remove two screws at top of glove box, pull out and set aside. 

 

Behind the glove box is where the reverse camera harness plugs in. Like most of these harnesses, unplug the factory connection and plug it into the new harness, plug the new harness into the truck where it plugged in previously. Run the new harness up behind everything to where the new unit will install. 

 

Put the glove box back.

 

The steering column cover has to come off to connect the steering wheel control harness. It's pretty brutal - I think it breaks, you'll think it breaks. Grab the tilt lever and proceed to pull with all your might straight out of the truck towards the drivers door - but not so hard that when it comes loose and smack yourself in the head you don't knock yourself out. It gets worse. The bottom pulls straight off down. There are clips at the holes on the bottom, that I suppose with enough probing you could accidently get them to release, but not likely. Instead, you'll pull on the bottom until it sounds like you've literally ripped it to pieces and smashed you're hands down into you lap filled with broken glass, because that's obviously where the blood comes from. Hard part over, there is a steering wheel harness in the kit, unplug truck, plug into harness, plug harness into truck. I spent some time carefully zip tying this little bundle of joy up tight to make sure the shroud has the best chance of going back on. Run the new signal wires behind the knee panel, that conveniently and effortlessly just pulls forward, up to where the new Android unit will be.

 

Put the knee panel back.

 

Put the top shroud back on, put the bottom shroud back on, carefully aligning it to the top shroud AND AT THE SAME TIME use your third hand to align the rubber shifter boot. Snap it all back together. Convince yourself the gap is the same size it was before.

 

Transfer the HVAC controls from the old bezel to the new one.

 

I bought some USB A to mini adapters so that I could run the '6 PIN' USB cable down to the factory USB plugs in the console.

 

The rest is really easy. Referencing the youtube install video, unplug the truck and plug it into the 'green plug' harness, plug in the CANBUS Box, plug in the Bose adapter box, then start plugging things into the Android unit; the 'power cable', antennae adapter, reverse camera, steering wheel control, USB's, GPS antennae, etc. After I had everything plugged in, I carefully untangled and stretch the wires out and began zip tying them into one bundle. The CANBUS and Bose box have a nice home where the CD player was. Then carefully fed and tucked this mess back into the dash. Basic function check at this point is a good idea. Attach it with four screws from removal.

 

Reattach seat HVAC controls and reattach bezel.

 

Admire the finished product. Turn it on and get lost in menus and preferences and where is CARPLAY? What is this snowflake button randomly floating in the screen? How do I turn 'button press beep' off? CARPLAY isn't called CARPLAY... its something else, but once it's connected - it's CARPLAY - and wireless - and comes back on every time you start the truck back up - you might never have to leave CARPLAY. 

 

I'm not a CARPLAY fan but its clean and simple (more on that to follow) and plays my music and makes calls, everything I need this thing to do.

 

Learn new Android Head unit. That's as far as I've got with this thing. To put it simply, I think the Android OS runs a 'auto head unit' software as a new 'OS' of sorts, it has access to Android/Google apps but I haven't seen an Android tablet home screen. About that 'Auto head unit OS' So far pretty useless to me, not very customizable (yet), there are default three main apps displayed here. A car, that has a speed listed, but its blank (I think the GPS antennae is going to have to move to on top of the dash). A music app that can play music loaded to the devices hard drive (who does that?), an FM radio app (from the 1900's) there is a page of/for loaded apps. This device can connect to my iphones hotspot for internet use, but it doesn't do it automatic (yet?), so I can access the Google Play Store and whatever else. 

 

Biggest problem - I'm not an Android guy, so I have a learning curve of what is Android here vs. Chinese "Auto Head Unit OS". I'm not really sure what it can and can't do yet. Supposedly the '6 PIN' USB cable allows screen mirroring - but I haven't tried it yet.  I'd lie to see what I can do for a home screen that better suits my need, there is nothing on it except the app shortcut to CARPLAY that is useful. Track up button on the steering wheel doesn't, track down on the steering wheel tracks up. Volume buttons work. Reverse camera works, but the guidelines behave terribly, I'd like to turn them off. 

 

Links to the only three things I bought to make this work:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHF62MMG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9Y95VR8?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FXQ9TXL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

 

 

 

[mikeyk101]

A complete writeup with no pictures???

 

Just wanted to add after looking at the Amazon link for the unit, I like this one a lot better than the oversized units that I have seen before that replace all the controls like the climate control and extend higher than the dash.

Edited February 18, 2025 by mikeyk101

[asilverblazer]

Yep, no pictures. Honestly, I think they would make the 'review' worse with additional confusion and paranoia. Its a bunch of wires.

 

The screen does seem to sit a little low and I understand why many other makes are making them higher - it seems like a more natural line of sight. The top of the screen is about where the 8" screen was, but some much more is down lower that it feels overall lower. Which is weird in itself because this generation's dash always felt like a giant vertical wall in front of you that you have to look over compared to the GMT900.

 

I've learned the more appropriate term for the Chinese "Auto Head Unit OS" is the "Android Car Launcher" its an app and there are others to pick from, each of those apps having there own themes as well. Finding one I like is next. They all have a weird focus on speedometers that use the GPS, don't need one, I already have a speedometer, and I need to move the GPS antennae. 

 

Need to get steering wheel buttons figured out.

 

Maybe an onboard app that I connect to an ELM thing to pull up codes or other stuff with out having to use my code reader/scanner. Maybe monitor other PIDs besides what my Banks gauge already does, so low priority. 

 

 

 

[jalexa5834]

Nice write-up! Thanks! Let us know how things pan out on this unit. I'm a 'Droid guy and have looked a bit at this type of unit as well. I have a 2014 GMC Sierra and I think GM could have been a bit more 'modern' in their attempt at media offerings as well.

Jim

[asilverblazer]

There are lots of launcher app options available. It'll take a while to review and compare them all and determine if I want to switch to a different one. I'm not sure how much control a different launcher can take from the original and whether that is a good or bad thing. 

 

Wireless CARPLAY comes up automatic, so its almost acting like its own 'launcher'. This is why I'm not looking into the alternate launchers very much. But - I am looking at slight annoyances with CARPLAY. 

1) No temperature display. 

2) The 'home' display where it shows currently playing music, plus another map type app is a little too rigid. This is where I'd prefer to show a weather type widget/app but haven't succeeded yet.  

 

Back to the Android unit - for some reason I can't modify the steering wheel controls like most videos show. There is an 'app' to change them, but I can't get it to work. The car selection, that controls a bunch of the settings seems to maybe over ride the steering wheel 'app' controls. 

 

The main problem is that the track advance and back buttons aren't right. To advance you have to press the lower button, which is normally back. The top button doesn't do anything. 

 

Lastly, its a tad too quiet, at max volume its not quite as loud as I would like. A gain setting would be nice. This could also be limited by the BOSE amp in someway; I'm not sure how smart it is at 'controlling' output.

 

I could also nit pick other stuff, the vehicle it displays for door ajar warnings and the back up sensors is a generic sedan - would be nice to be able to change. (Who knows maybe with enough fiddling I could change it, or it might be possible in another launcher...) GPS reception is spotty, I noticed it doesn't work all the time, needed for the launchers speed display and maps.

 

Amusingly, it came loaded with a bunch of photos of people symbols and cartoon characters in the gallery, all stereotypical to the units country of origin. 

 

 

[davejhone2365]

On 2/18/2025 at 9:15 AM, asilverblazer said:

These head units are everywhere, they are cheap, and of course suspect quality. I bought one anyway. Here's why, my factory screen would randomly take some time off, sometimes it would come back on when you restart, sometimes it needed the night off. It was just the display, the touch functions still worked, the sound still worked, you just couldn't see anything; annoying. Checked the internet recommended frequent problems to no avail. New display $150-200, Amazon part, Amazon quality. Not reassuring.

 

I never cared for the display integration in this generation dash, it looked too small in its bezel, the control knob below it is a material smorgasbord of black to chrome to black to silver... and discreetly below all that. A CD player, from the 1900's. The half dozen buttons, 8" screen, and CD player look so spread out on the bezel it almost like they downsized the screen at the last minute and spread everything out on the bezel. Side note: No need to maybe consider bringing the seat HVAC controls up from behind the shifter to anyone's line of sight.

 

Looking at all the products on Amazon is mind numbing, the reviews are pointless, the specifications are all over the place, prices vary quite a bit, Android tablet size, Android version, core quantity, RAM amount, memory size, etc. Buyer beware.

Based strictly on the pictures I knew I wanted a 10" tablet, as I alluded to above, this size seems like what GM wanted to put in to begin with - then that guy from the 1900's came around and pointed out the missing CD player. Then the guy who wears gloves, pointed out lack of volume knob... I get that one, I kind of miss the knob. If the unit functioned like a piece of junk and sounded terrible - I would be hard pressed to swap it out. It looks perfect there. 

 

How I picked the tablet I ended up with? Start with 10" tablet, some mention or acknowledgement that Bose adaptation is possible, most recent Android version, then the highest numbers for the rest. Except price, lowest price.

 

...experience Amazon buying experience...

 

Opening the unit is intimidating. Wires, wires, wires, wires, wires, wires, wires. Some plugs, wires, a panel removal tool (cool freebie nowhere in the description), a speaker, a reverse camera, two sets of reverse camera cables, A hopelessly optimistic single page installation sheet. Slightly more realistic owners manual. And the unit, mounted in the bezel.

 

Then the Bose Fiber Optic Adapter, one obscure box, another set of wires (see above), no instructions, no manual.

 

I watched some youtube videos, paying close attention that they were installing into a similar truck WITH Bose. Everything is supposed to be plug and play - just finding the right plug to play with is the key.

 

It seems that there are essentially two harness typically provided, one that makes the truck plug in to some of the devices (I call this one the one with the green plug) and another that connects the devices to the Android (I think they call this one the power cable.) This green plug harness ended up being a hitch in my giddy-up, the FIRST Bose adapter I bought didn't come with its own green plug harness... I had to return that one, and buy one from the same 'store' as my Android came from - it showed a new 'green plug' harness included with it.

 

Physical installation is simple enough. Pop the bezel off, disconnect seats, set aside. Unscrew factory display and pull out, disconnect and set aside. Unscrew, remove, disconnect, set aside CD player.

 

Remove two screws at bottom of glove box, open, remove two screws at top of glove box, pull out and set aside. 

 

Behind the glove box is where the reverse camera harness plugs in. Like most of these harnesses, unplug the factory connection and plug it into the new harness, plug the new harness into the truck where it plugged in previously. Run the new harness up behind everything to where the new unit will install. 

 

Put the glove box back.

 

The steering column cover has to come off to connect the steering wheel control harness. It's pretty brutal - I think it breaks, you'll think it breaks. Grab the tilt lever and proceed to pull with all your might straight out of the truck towards the drivers door - but not so hard that when it comes loose and smack yourself in the head you don't knock yourself out. It gets worse. The bottom pulls straight off down. There are clips at the holes on the bottom, that I suppose with enough probing you could accidently get them to release, but not likely. Instead, you'll pull on the bottom until it sounds like you've literally ripped it to pieces and smashed you're hands down into you lap filled with broken glass, because that's obviously where the blood comes from. Hard part over, there is a steering wheel harness in the kit, unplug truck, plug into harness, plug harness into truck. I spent some time carefully zip tying this little bundle of joy up tight to make sure the shroud has the best chance of going back on. Run the new signal wires behind the knee panel, that conveniently and effortlessly just pulls forward, up to where the new Android unit will be.

 

Put the knee panel back.

 

Put the top shroud back on, put the bottom shroud back on, carefully aligning it to the top shroud AND AT THE SAME TIME use your third hand to align the rubber shifter boot. Snap it all back together. Convince yourself the gap is the same size it was before.

 

Transfer the HVAC controls from the old bezel to the new one.

 

I bought some USB A to mini adapters so that I could run the '6 PIN' USB cable down to the factory USB plugs in the console.

 

The rest is really easy. Referencing the youtube install video, unplug the truck and plug it into the 'green plug' harness, plug in the CANBUS Box, plug in the Bose adapter box, then start plugging things into the Android unit; the 'power cable', antennae adapter, reverse camera, steering wheel control, USB's, GPS antennae, etc. After I had everything plugged in, I carefully untangled and stretch the wires out and began zip tying them into one bundle. The CANBUS and Bose box have a nice home where the CD player was. Then carefully fed and tucked this mess back into the dash. Basic function check at this point is a good idea. Attach it with four screws from removal.

 

Reattach seat HVAC controls and reattach bezel.

 

Admire the finished product. Turn it on and get lost in menus and preferences and where is CARPLAY? What is this snowflake button randomly floating in the screen? How do I turn 'button press beep' off? CARPLAY isn't called CARPLAY... its something else, but once it's connected - it's CARPLAY - and wireless - and comes back on every time you start the truck back up - you might never have to leave CARPLAY. 

 

I'm not a CARPLAY fan but its clean and simple (more on that to follow) and plays my music and makes calls, everything I need this thing to do.

 

Learn new Android Head unit. That's as far as I've got with this thing. To put it simply, I think the Android OS runs a 'auto head unit' software as a new 'OS' of sorts, it has access to Android/Google apps but I haven't seen an Android tablet home screen. About that 'Auto head unit OS' So far pretty useless to me, not very customizable (yet), there are default three main apps displayed here. A car, that has a speed listed, but its blank (I think the GPS antennae is going to have to move to on top of the dash). A music app that can play music loaded to the devices hard drive (who does that?), an FM radio app (from the 1900's) there is a page of/for loaded apps. This device can connect to my iphones hotspot for internet use, but it doesn't do it automatic (yet?), so I can access the Google Play Store and whatever else. 

 

Biggest problem - I'm not an Android guy, so I have a learning curve of what is Android here vs. Chinese "Auto Head Unit OS". I'm not really sure what it can and can't do yet. Supposedly the '6 PIN' USB cable allows screen mirroring - but I haven't tried it yet.  I'd lie to see what I can do for a home screen that better suits my need, there is nothing on it except the app shortcut to CARPLAY that is useful. Track up button on the steering wheel doesn't, track down on the steering wheel tracks up. Volume buttons work. Reverse camera works, but the guidelines behave terribly, I'd like to turn them off. 

 

Links to the only three things I bought to make this work:

 

 

 

 

 

Yes i follow this

[asilverblazer]

Some updates:

 

On 2/26/2025 at 10:37 AM, asilverblazer said:

Wireless CARPLAY...

2) The 'home' display where it shows currently playing music, plus another map type app is a little too rigid. This is where I'd prefer to show a weather type widget/app but haven't succeeded yet.  

This is kind of resolved with the latest Apple update that has CARPLAY widgets, I can show apps/content/info that I prefer as a home screen. "Now playing", weather, etc.

 

On 2/26/2025 at 10:37 AM, asilverblazer said:

Back to the Android unit - for some reason I can't modify the steering wheel controls like most videos show. There is an 'app' to change them, but I can't get it to work. The car selection, that controls a bunch of the settings seems to maybe over ride the steering wheel 'app' controls. 

 

The main problem is that the track advance and back buttons aren't right. To advance you have to press the lower button, which is normally back. The top button doesn't do anything.

I contacted the seller and after a software update, I now have steering wheel controls that behave as expected.

 

Any other issues and nitpicks I have gotten used to or are not important enough to warrant messing with.

 

I stay in CARPLAY all the time, so any Android or launcher issues are not important. 

 

The only other item I see is the graphic of a car that I would prefer more to resemble the truck.

 

So far, the product has been performing reliably since installation. 

[MikeBMW]

I went through two of these before I settled on the Autotec Pro Andriod unit.
I sent the old ones to @Snowcamo, I think he made use of them.
https://autotecpro.com/product/chevrolet-silverado-gmc-sierra-14-4-ips-qhd-2k-touch-screen-navigation-infotainment-system-android-11-gps-bt-wifi-carplay-onstar-4g-lte/?v=e4b09f3f8402
 

Sorry, I'm horrible when it comes to making videos. 

Edited February 18 by MikeBMW