It has been a journey to hold on to this decades-old car Im driving without pouring any money into after-market upgrades. The car needs a ton of TLC for electric work and new shocks. Ive been holding out on dealing with the stereo for as long as possible. But a recent APK teardown of the Google app has me seeing red. Im driving to Los Angeles in a few months and need hands-free controls. I may not have them by then, at least not through the Roav Bolt dongle. Android Authority did some code sleuthing in a beta version of the Google app and found a dormant text string with the term depreciation_notification. This string seems to be associated with accessories like the Roav Bolt, which launched in 2019 after Google debuted the Google Assistant driving mode. The text associated with the string leads us to believe the end is nigh for these specific accessories launched during this era. It reads thusly: Google Assistant on your car accessory will be discontinued in coming weeks. To keep using Assistant, invoke queries either on your Mobile or via Android Auto. I contacted Google to ask if whats being seen here is valid. That last sentence in the notification text, especially the phrase invoke queries, doesnt sound like something Google would push through in a final release to users. Thats not user-friendly! (Neither is killing off accessories people rely on to navigate the perilous roads of the U.S. safely, but I digress.) Florence Ion / Gizmodo What Android Auto on the phone used to look like. Those were the good old days. I do believe that the Roav Bolt is essentially done for and that I need to move on to another solution. I bought it in 2019, three years into the Google Assistant journey. We were at a different time back then, when we thought the Assistant would remain a bot that connects to the search giants vast offering of indexed information. Anker makes the Roav Bolt. It plugs into the cigarette lightersorry, the auxiliary power outletto stream audio through the cars Bluetooth and allow you to call on the Google Assistant hands-free while driving. It accepted all the basic commands, like call somebody and skip songs. I could even ask for facts on the fly if my passenger disagreed with something I said. I saw the writing on the wall when Google scaled back Android Auto on phones and then rolled it in as part of the Google Maps experience. Last year, it twisted the knife already lobbied into the heart of accessories like the Roav Bolt when it transitioned the Google Assistant into Gemini. My usual setup stopped working entirely for several months. I could only manage a command one out of every three times I attempted it. Its the worst thing to endure when driving, and you need Google Maps to act fast.But none of this surprises me. I knew there would come a time when Id have to devise another solution for my very specific, niche problem with my car. These days, if you buy a new car, or even when you rent one, you get a vehicle with Android Auto (and Apple CarPlay) built-in. All you have to do is plug your phone into it with a cable. There is no reason for a phone-only driving mode for a specific subset of people. Still, I am sad that the dongle is about to be extinct. I thought I had it all figured out by investing a mere $50 (not adjusted for inflation) for Ankers Roav Bolt. For my upcoming trip, I may have to revert to a USB-C to the auxiliary plug-in I had going before. Its not idealits uglybut its free. Either that or I finally figure out how to hack the Spotify Car Thing.