Hands Free and Steering Wheel

Hands-free and steering wheel

Tapping a head unit while driving is a hassle, so Dashwheel tries to do things by itself or from the wheel.

Spoken

• Alerts (calls, doors, tyres, belt, radar, climate, engine faults, coolant, battery, servicing) can be spoken. Speech ducks under navigation guidance and waits while reversing. Fault codes are said by name, not letter by letter.
• One switch per event: Settings → Sound and voice → What the car says lists everything the car says by itself, each with its own switch.
• Start-up briefing: shorter, says a servicing appointment first, and no longer greets. See AI Mechanic and Gemini.
• Messages from the phone read aloud, with quick or voice replies.
• Speed limit said once per limit, as "Over the limit, 80"; off until you turn it on. Weather warnings (orange, red) spoken.
• Turn instructions go ahead of other sentences; old ones are never said after a call or a reverse.
• Quiet (in the ⋮ menu and on the wheel) stops the voice at once and keeps every unasked sentence quiet for the drive; the wheel's Dismiss also stops the voice.
• One voice language for everything; spoken lines use full words (kilometres, revs, kilometres an hour).

Steering-wheel buttons

Settings → Driving → Steering wheel buttons opens a button map:

• While it's open, every press adds a button or lights a known one green; nothing runs.
• Place buttons (left / right of the wheel, behind it, beside the screen) and give each one an action: next / previous dashboard, Gemini Live, media, voice, mute, the second screen's next page, LPG tank full, LPG or petrol…
• Buttons that send nothing to apps: add them by hand and Listen for it. Dashwheel listens on several layers (Android keys, the unit's key service, raw input and CAN with root) and keeps the best one.

Status: emulator-tested; some K706 buttons don't reach apps at all.

• Back from the wheel goes to the app in the tile you touched last, for two minutes: see Apps on the Dashboard.
• Keys pass through Dashwheel's accessibility service only while something needs them (a button being learned, the second screen's page keys, an app in a tile, wheel buttons the unit's key service doesn't deliver). Before 2026-10-10 the K706 saw each key twice, and its screen-off key turned the screen straight back on; it works again.

Home follows the drive

Moments change Home by itself as the drive goes on (engine on, guiding, long drive, parked, a fault), with nothing to tap.

Head-unit keys (QF, root)

Settings → Driving → Head unit keys: choose which app the unit's Maps / voice / custom keys open.

Volume

• A wheel button set to volume up / down keeps going while held.
• Volume follows speed: a switch plus Starts at, Most added and Loudest at, in single volume steps (default 60 → 120 km/h, +2 steps).
• Volume keys handled by Dashwheel where the unit allows (Settings → Sound and voice → Show all settings → Volume control).
• Volume bar in Dashwheel's design instead of the unit's grey one, as a pill, card, banner or side panel: Settings → Pop-ups → Volume. It shows when you turn the knob or use the wheel or voice, not when the volume follows the speed or when a voice starts speaking; tap or drag it to set the volume, muted shows in orange. Needs Magisk and takes over at the next start of the head unit. Status: car-tested on the K706 (GitHub edition only).