I am wondering aloud just how different the 2016 Honda Accord 7" infotainment display is from the 2015/6 Honda Fit 7" display. Are they the same part numbers?

For me, apples are fruit to be eaten and keep the doctor away. If my android device can work with the 2016 Accord display, and this has yet to be proven, could a simple ROM flash transform the 2015 Fit 7" into a more useful head unit? One of the benefits of having no buttons, annoying as this might be for volume control, is that what's displayed can be easily changed with a ROM upgrade.



2016 Honda Accord 7" Display, How can we find this part number?
7-Inch Display Audio with High-Resolution WVGA (800x480)



2016 Honda Fit 7" Display, Navigation Assembly, Part #
7-Inch Display Audio with High-Resolution WVGA (800x480)

It looks like the parts are slightly different, in that the Fit display has two buttons on the left, which are not on the Accord display. The Fit display has no garnish, so the display includes these two buttons. Would Honda design two completely different head units that physically look virtually identical? I hope that this is all just software with the same hardware.

Could Honda do a ROM upgrade on the 2015/6 Fit US EX/Canadian LX/EX radios? How do dealers reflash a car?



2015 Honda Civic 7" Display
7-inch Display Audio with High-Resolution WVGA (800x480) Electrostatic Touch-Screen,

 

One issue I think you would run into flashing the accord software to a Fit head unit is that most of the other Honda's have two screens in them. Information that goes to the upper screen will have no place to be displayed. If the head units from the other Honda's support Android Auto there is most likely more memory built in and possibly a beefier processor. On the Fit decisions appear to be made almost completely on cost, my guess would be that the head unit has just enough memory to operate and no more. I owned a first gen SkyActiv Mazda 3 before, the owners manual listed many configurable options for the displays, locking, sounds, etc. But none of them worked, when I asked why they told me that to add the SkyActiv package and some of the new information displays they had to use memory space that was previously used for the missing settings.

 

I know the Accord one is slightly different in some of its background capabilities over the 2015 Civic, which in the specs sheet Honda says the Civic 2015 EX has the Honda Link Next Generation, and I can do the android auto thing in mine.

But with the Accord there is a way to get into some deeper developer modes and turn off the motion restriction lock out that you can't turn off on the Civic verison.

Seems weird the Fit would be much different than the Civic, the Civic does have the 4 inch i-MID display also but I wouldn't figure that would stop it from doing the iPhone and Android integration stuff.

 

There's no way to flash it with the same code. Impossible. Even the smallest of differences will prevent a firmware transfer. This isn't exactly like rooting your phone to get it to load a new operating system.

 

I realize that there will be minor differences between the different models, but damnit the code base should be near 85% common. They are all cars, from the same manufacturer, looks like they use the same hardware, same screen size and attributes, same user interface, same screen resolution, doing the same entertainment requirements.

The 2016 Accord, Civic and Fit use the same 7" WVGA 800x480 electrostatic screen.

I code for Android devices. The system is set up to easily deploy code to handle different devices, manufacturers, screen sizes, resolutions and processors. Coding for the same manufacturer, similar hardware, screen size, resolution, similar UI would reduce development, testing and deployment time and costs.

 

Gorilla is saying with distribution updates for both in hand you probably couldn't get one to update the other. Seems likely. Prevents mistakes in the field from ending up making bricks. They likely have some signature in the head unit telling them what it is and a check in the process for flashing an update to verify the update is for that signature head unit. If you knew enough, you might be able to patch the update to make it look correct. But they might have an integrity check on the update bits as well. Could you get around that? Well, anything is possible. But maybe they sign it with a key. And on and on.

TorontoBoy is saying that if you had the source for both you could likely migrate features from one to the other and build a workable update that moved the features. Also likely true. Now all he needs is the source.

I don't think the question is whether Honda could put Android Auto in 2015 or 2016 Fits. Sure they could. The question is whether they want to or will. The answer on both counts seems a resounding no.