EV Control CenterHome
EV Control Center (Private)

Privacy Policy

EV Control Center is a personal Android Automotive app that shows energy, charging, trip and diagnostic information for the vehicle it runs on. It is distributed through Google Play internal testing to its developer and a small group of invited testers.

Last updated October 7, 2026 · version 3.4.1
Recorded on the VehicleEverything is stored only on the vehicle's head unit, in the app's private storage.Your Recordings Leave Only When You Send ThemYour recorded data leaves the vehicle only when you export or send it yourself (the online features that send something to do their job are described after this list).No Ads, No AnalyticsThe app contains no advertising, no analytics, no crash-reporting SDK, and no account system of its own (Google Drive backup uses your Google account, only if you connect it).Never SoldData is not sold or shared with anyone.No Account or ServerEV Control Center (Private) keeps your data on the vehicle and has no account or server of its own.

What the App Reads

Where It Is Stored

Everything is stored only on the vehicle's head unit, in the app's private storage: trips, charging sessions, 1-second samples for charts, and a rolling log of raw vehicle events (kept for a limited time, then deleted).

Problem Reports

If the app stops because of an error, freezes for several seconds, or Android closes it, the app writes a short report on the head unit: the time, the app and Android version, the head unit's maker and model, how long the app had been running, the error and where in the app it happened, and the last screens used (in 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 including a switch of media app the app undid; since 3.4.1 the app no longer does that). When you send one from App Health or the "The app had a problem" card, the diagnostics summary and the last media events kept in memory go with it (both described below). Reports contain no location, trips or keys (coordinates are blurred and keys are removed), are kept for at most 60 days, and are listed in Diagnostics > Feedback > App health, where you can read or delete them. Backups you make in Settings > Backup and restore are also kept on the head unit (the latest one and a safety copy from before the last restore).

Charging History1.8.0

For each fast charge, the app notes the charging station it found at the vehicle's position (from the charger listing the map already uses) and keeps that on the head unit and in your backups, to show your history by network in Settings > Chargers and on the charger's card. Your charger preferences are settings like the others. Nothing of this is sent anywhere.

Power Out and Reports2.1.0

When you start the power-out monitor (Energy > Battery), the app follows the battery's energy until you stop it and keeps those sessions on the head unit and in your backups. The monthly report card, journeys and "since your last charge" are worked out on the head unit from your recorded drives and charges; the gas comparison uses only the figures you set in Settings. Nothing of this is sent anywhere (with AI answers on, a few of these totals go with your questions to your own AI service: see AI answers below).

Peak Hours, Charger History and the Battery Health Report2.2.0

The peak-hours alert and the peak share of each home charge are worked out on the head unit from your recorded charges and the rate plan you chose. How a charging station worked for you comes from your own recorded charges there. The battery health report is made on the head unit; it leaves the vehicle only when you save it to a file, your Google Drive (folder "EV Control Center exports") or your PC.

Ask Your Vehicle2.3.0optional

When you tap the microphone at the top and ask a question, the head unit's own speech recognition service (usually Google's) turns what you say into text. Since 2.7.1 the app asks that service directly, so it also works while driving; for that Android asks you once to allow the microphone. The microphone is used only while the "Ask your vehicle" window is listening (Android shows its microphone sign meanwhile); the sound goes to the speech service and nothing else, and the app keeps no recording. The answer comes from the app's own figures on the head unit. Only when you ask about a place ("will I make it to Flagstaff"), the place name is looked up with Android's geocoding service (Google) to find where it is; the app sends nothing else with it (with AI answers on, questions the app can't answer go to your own AI service: see AI answers below).

Trip Logbook2.3.0

The tags and purposes you give your drives stay on the head unit and in your backups; the logbook CSV leaves the vehicle only when you save it to a file.

Plug-ins Without a Charge, the Efficiency Map and Media2.4.0

When the vehicle is plugged in for a few minutes and never charges, the app notes when, where and the charging station it found there (from the same charger listing as the map) and keeps that on the head unit and in your backups (Trips; delete one there). "Tell me at" keeps its level only until the battery gets there or you unplug. The efficiency-by-road map layer is worked out on the head unit from your recorded drives. The media controls send play, pause and skip to the media app on the head unit. If you allow Notification access for this app ("Show song titles"), Android shares the title, artist and app of what's playing; the app shows them and reads no notifications. With that access it also follows, on the head unit and also while it isn't open, which media app plays, and keeps one thing: the name of the media app you listened to last (on the head unit, not in backups). Play then resumes that app, if needed by asking the app itself to play. EV Control never plays, pauses or switches your media by itself, only when you tap its media buttons (in 3.3.2 and 3.3.3 it switched back to your radio when another app took over after a voice question; 3.4.1 removed that). Separately, whether or not song titles are on, the app keeps the last 40 media events in memory only: which media app played, paused or took over, when EV Control listened or spoke and what kind of sound was playing then, and which media buttons you tapped, with times, never song titles. They go along with problem reports you send, with Report This Answer, and with feedback when you leave the diagnostics summary ticked. Nothing else of this is sent anywhere.

AI Answersoptional3.2.0

Off until you enter your own key in Settings > AI Answers for Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), or since 3.4.1 Grok (xAI) or Muse Spark (Meta). Then a question Ask Your Vehicle can't answer itself goes to that service under your account (with keys for more than one service, only the one you pick under Answer With gets your questions). Since 3.2.2 any question can go to it, about the vehicle or not, with a summary of what the app records (the driving over the last 30 days and all recorded driving: drives, miles, time moving and time stopped, average speeds, energy, regen, the longest drive, and since 3.3.3 the time and energy of stops kept in a drive with Keep Driving; the last drive's day, time, distance, duration, efficiency, such a stop and outside temperature; the last 30 days of charging and the last charge: when, how much, from what level to what level, how long, its peak power, fast or at home, cost; the vehicle's typical charging speeds and where fast charging slows down; the home electricity price and the gas comparison you set; this and last month's totals, with the gas comparison and the CO2 saved; battery health, cycles, charge-level habits and parked drain; the app's and GM's range accuracy; the efficiency the app learned, by speed too, and the vehicle's EPA rating; GM's own range readout now; the number of road trips; since 3.3.1 the app's version and the notes of its latest three releases) and these figures: the vehicle you picked in Settings (make, model, version and years), battery level and energy, how far it can go and the reserve you keep, efficiency, charging state, the last drive's distance and efficiency, drives and miles since the last charge and the level it charged to, the nearest fast charger's network and distance, the outside temperature and weather, this month's charging cost and savings, the trailers or loads you set up (their names, weights and learned efficiency), and the local time. Never your position, routes, a charging station's own name, your name or account. For news, scores and other current questions (3.2.2), the service searches the web for your question (Claude's web search, OpenAI's search model, Google Search grounding for Gemini, the web search tools of xAI and Meta for Grok and Muse Spark); it bills that to your key, and the search gets the question, never your position. For Grok and Muse Spark (3.4.1) the app sends the setting that asks the service not to keep the request (xAI says it otherwise keeps it for 30 days; Meta doesn't say what it does with that setting), and for Muse Spark it uses only Meta's standard models, never the cheaper "Contributor" ones Meta trains on. Questions about the app itself and about a town you name are answered on the head unit, so the distance to that town is never sent to the AI service. The service's own privacy terms apply to what you send it. Your key stays on the vehicle (not in backups, exports or reports) and is sent only to that service. To skip typing a key (3.2.1), with Google Drive connected: the app puts an empty Google Doc, "EV Control Center Keys" ("EV Control Center AI Keys" before 3.3.3), in your "EV Control Center backups" folder, with a line for each key (3.3.3: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Muse Spark and HERE); you paste keys into it on your phone or computer; Get Keys From Google Drive reads it, keeps the keys on the vehicle, deletes that document from your Drive at once and permanently (it doesn't go to Drive's trash), puts a new empty one in its place, and then checks each key with its service (your own HERE key with HERE, as below; a key shaped like an AI service's is never sent to HERE). 3.3.3 kept Grok (xAI) and Muse Spark (Meta) keys on the vehicle without using them; since 3.4.1 they are checked with xAI and Meta like the others when the app starts (again at the next start if the check can't be done then); a key that works is saved, and that service answers only once you pick it in Settings > AI Answers (with no other AI key, AI answers stay off until you turn them on). A document holding anything the app can't read as a key is not deleted (it may hold your only copy). When it connects to Google Drive, makes a backup or lists your backups, the app also reads a keys document from before 3.3.3 that is still there, on the vehicle: one nobody wrote in is replaced by the new one; any other stays as it is. The document is in your Drive under your Google account; nothing goes to the developer. Report This Answer sends the question, the answer, the AI service and model that gave it and the diagnostics summary described under Send feedback below (since 3.3.2 with the last media events, never song titles), not the figures sent with the question and never the key. Without a key, a question the app can't answer can be handed to your vehicle's own assistant (for example Google Assistant), when the vehicle allows it.

Search on the Map3.2.2optional

The address or place you type or say in Search on the map goes to the vehicle's own geocoding service (Android's, usually Google's) to find where it is, the same as a town named in Ask your vehicle. Spoken words go through the vehicle's speech service first, as in Ask your vehicle. The vehicle's position doesn't go with it: the results are sorted by distance on the vehicle.

Speaking Feedbackoptional

"Speak it" in the feedback question or Diagnostics > Feedback uses the head unit's own speech recognizer (usually Google's) to turn what you say into text; the app receives only that text, records no audio, and sends the text only when you tap Send, like typed feedback.

Your Nameoptional

If you tell the app what to call you (on the welcome screen or in Settings > You), the name is kept with the other settings on the head unit and in the app's backups, and is used in the greeting and by Backseat Driver, and in the spoken welcome when the app starts (Settings > You). It is never sent anywhere, except inside spoken text (the welcome or Backseat Driver's recap) when you turn on the Natural voice (online), described below. Remove it any time in Settings > You.

What Leaves the Vehicle

Your recorded data leaves the vehicle only when you export or send it yourself (the online features that send something to do their job are described after this list):

The app contains no advertising, no analytics, no crash-reporting SDK, and no account system of its own (Google Drive backup uses your Google account, only if you connect it). Data is not sold or shared with anyone.

Map Tiles

The map comes from OpenFreeMap (openfreemap.org: the map and the fonts of its labels). Satellite and Hybrid imagery comes from MapTiler (maptiler.com, with the developer's key) or, in builds without that key, from the US Geological Survey's National Map; the Terrain style's hill shading comes from the public Terrarium elevation tiles on Amazon Web Services. Those requests carry the tile numbers of the area being viewed, no trip history.

Charger listings come from the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center (developer.nlr.gov, with the developer's key). The map asks for the chargers around the center of the grid square that holds the map's center (or, with Refresh Chargers, the vehicle): half a degree, about 30 to 35 miles, for fast chargers, a tenth of a degree for Level 2. It never sends the exact position, and keeps the answer on the vehicle for a week. During a DC fast charge, the app looks up the station in the same listing, once per charge and only while the app is on screen (otherwise it uses what's already on the vehicle), to tell 400 V from 800 V chargers. When "Check the route" finds that a trip needs a charging stop, the app also asks that listing for DC fast chargers around points about every 87 miles (140 km) along the route, at most 25 of them, each sent as the center of its grid square, with no trip history.

Charging Cost Plans

When you pick your utility in Settings > Charging Cost (Choose Plan), the app asks the OpenEI Utility Rate Database (api.openei.org, with the developer's key) for that utility's residential plans; only the utility's ID or name is sent.

Navigate hands the destination, and the planned charging stops' locations and names if you choose them, to Google Maps on the vehicle; Google's privacy policy applies there. Weather is off unless you turn it on in Settings > Weather. When it's on, the app asks Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com, no account) for: the forecast where the vehicle is, with the position rounded to 0.02 degrees (within about a mile), when the app starts or you turn the weather on and then, while the app is on screen, when the last forecast is 30 minutes old or the vehicle has moved about 6 miles (10 km); the forecast along a route you check or a trip you plan (up to 8 places along it, each rounded to 0.01 degrees, within about half a mile), and again every 30 minutes while a trip plan runs, for the rest of its route; the wind where the vehicle is (rounded the same way) when "Check the route", a trip plan or Next up asks HERE for a route; and the weather at the start of each drive (its coordinates rounded to 0.01 degrees, within about half a mile, and its date), for Trips and to learn the wind's effect on your drives. No trip history and no identity are sent. The outside temperature on Home and Drive comes from the vehicle itself and is never sent.

Open in ABRP (2.0.0, the route and charger cards) shows a QR code with a link to A Better Route Planner (abetterrouteplanner.com) holding the vehicle's position and the destination. Nothing is sent until you scan or open it; then ABRP's privacy policy applies. Leave later (Check the route, with Weather on) asks Open-Meteo for the forecast along the route for the time you pick, the same way as for leaving now.

Real road reach (and "Check the route") is off unless you turn it on in Settings > Range or on the map. When it's on, while the map is open, and the vehicle is outside its road maps or Road Reach on This Vehicle is off or can't work it out (since 3.3.0, inside the maps it's worked out on the vehicle, see Road maps), the app sends the vehicle's current position, the energy available and an energy-use profile (no trips, history or identity) to HERE Technologies to calculate which roads you can reach. It asks again when there's no result yet, the vehicle has moved about 6 miles (10 km), the battery has changed by 3% of its capacity, the outside temperature by more than 9 °F (5 °C), the reserve, the load or what the app learned has changed, or the last result is 6 hours old; never more often than every 3 minutes, and within a monthly limit. "Check the route" also sends the destination you picked. HERE's privacy policy applies to those requests. With road reach on, Navigate to a point or charger that wasn't checked first also asks HERE for that one route (the vehicle's position and the destination), to show the trip plan (plan vs actual) on the Drive screen; Re-plan does the same. The plan and its outcome stay on the vehicle (Trips, and Send to PC if you use it). Traffic and hazards (a map layer, off unless you turn it on) shows live traffic and incidents such as construction, closures and accidents from HERE. While it's on and the map is open, the app requests HERE's traffic tiles for the area you are looking at as the map draws it, and the incident list for that area (with a margin, at most about 35 miles each way from the map's center; no trips or identity): every 5 minutes, or sooner, at most once a minute, when the map moves out of the area fetched last. "Check the route" also returns the incidents along the route.

Your own HERE key (2.5.0, optional): you can enter a HERE key from your own HERE account in Settings > Range (3.3.3: or paste it into the keys document in your Google Drive, described under AI answers, and tap Get Keys From Google Drive). The app then sends it with its HERE requests (the same requests as above) in place of the developer's key, so they count against your HERE account. The key is checked once with HERE when you enter it, is stored only on the vehicle, and is never part of backups, exports, problem reports or feedback. "Remove my key" deletes it.

Weather radar (2.4.0, a map layer, off unless you turn it on) shows the US weather radar (NOAA NEXRAD) from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at Iowa State University. While it's on and the map is open, the app downloads its radar tiles for the area you are looking at, like map tiles, and checks the time of the latest radar sweep every 5 minutes (a request with no position in it). Food and coffee nearby (2.4.0, on the charging screen, only when you tap Find) asks OpenStreetMap's Overpass service (overpass-api.de, or a second public Overpass server when that one is busy) for cafés, restaurants and shops around the charger. It sends the center of a grid square of about 800 feet (250 m) that holds the vehicle, not the exact position and no identity, and asks for places within about 0.4 mile (670 m) of it; the answer is kept on the head unit for a week.

Backseat Driver (Settings, off unless you turn it on) works on the vehicle. Its spoken recap is optional, and uses the vehicle's own voice unless you also turn on Natural voice (online). With Natural voice on, everything the app says aloud uses the online voices of the vehicle's text-to-speech service (Google's on vehicles with Google built-in): the words about to be spoken are sent there to be read out, over the vehicle's connection. That covers Backseat Driver's recaps (for example your name if you gave one, the grade and notes on the drive you just finished, or what a charge added), spoken answers to Ask your vehicle, including AI answers, spoken alerts and tips, the spoken welcome, Help's Read It to Me and EV Radio's briefings. Nothing else is sent, and Google's privacy policy applies to those requests. Badges and recaps stay on the vehicle.

EV Radio (2.6.0, renamed in 2.8.1) offers short spoken briefings (morning brief, last drive, this week, charging update) as a media source on the vehicle. They are put together on the vehicle from its own figures when you play one, read by the vehicle's voice into a short audio file kept in the app's cache on the vehicle, and played through the vehicle's media system. With Natural voice (online) on, a briefing's words go to Google's text-to-speech service, as for Backseat Driver; otherwise nothing leaves the vehicle. The media screen shows only each briefing's name, not its contents. Only the vehicle's own media apps, Android's system controls and this app can play them.

Next up (2.7.0, Settings > Calendar, off until you set it up) tells you when to leave for your next appointments and the battery you'd arrive with. It reads the vehicle's own calendar (with Android's calendar permission) and/or your calendar's private iCal address, which you type in. With the address, the app downloads that calendar from your calendar service (Google, Microsoft or Apple) about every 30 minutes; the request carries nothing but the address. The address is a secret, so it is stored only on the vehicle and is never part of backups, exports, problem reports or feedback; "Remove the address" deletes it and the downloaded copy. An appointment's place (the location text, no title or time) is looked up with Android's map search, as for Ask your vehicle, so it goes to Google; found places are kept on the vehicle for 30 days. The drive is estimated on the vehicle. With real road reach on, the next appointment also gets one HERE route from the vehicle's position, as for "Check the route". The "Time to leave" alert and the Morning brief's mention of your next appointment are made on the vehicle. Appointments are kept only for the next few days and only on the vehicle.

Road Maps (2.7.2; 2.10.0: one per state; 3.3.0: by themselves, and road reach on the vehicle)

The app gets the list of maps from the app's own website (ev-control-center.web.app, on Firebase Hosting) and downloads state road maps (made from OpenStreetMap data) from there: when you tap Download in Settings > Road Maps, and, with Get Road Maps by Themselves on (the default), by itself when the vehicle is parked with a connection: every state within about 400 miles of home (of where the vehicle is, until you tag a charge as Home) and within about 150 miles of where the vehicle is. Which states those are is worked out on the vehicle from that list, your home (where you tagged a charge as Home) and the vehicle's position; the requests carry nothing about you or your vehicle, and like any website, the host sees the vehicle's internet address and which state maps it downloads (which can hint at the region you live and drive in). With the maps, road reach is worked out on the vehicle itself (Road Reach on This Vehicle, on by default): nothing is sent for it. Outside the maps, or when Road Reach on This Vehicle is off or can't work it out, HERE draws it, and only if you turned on Real Road Reach (HERE) (see Real road reach). The app also compares your recorded drives with the maps (Energy > Lab); the results stay on the vehicle and in your backups. Remove deletes a map; while Get Road Maps by Themselves is on, a removed map within those distances downloads again.

Shared Road Trips2.10.0

Road trips (Trips > Road Trips) are worked out on the vehicle from your recorded drives and charges. Nothing is shared unless you tap Share: the app then shows a QR code with a link to a page on the app's website (ev-control-center.web.app/t/). The trip itself (its numbers, the charging stops and, if it fits, a simplified route) is inside the link after the "#", the part of a web address that browsers never send to a website, so the trip is not uploaded or stored anywhere by the app: the page reads it in the browser of the phone that scanned the code and draws it there. Before you share, you choose what to leave out: anything within ½ mile of home, of the places where you spent the nights (overnight charges then show without the place), the first and last ½ mile of each day, and the costs. Anyone you give the link to can open it, so share it only with people you want to see the trip. To draw the map, that browser loads the MapLibre map library from unpkg.com and map tiles from OpenFreeMap (openfreemap.org) for the area of the route; like any website, those services see that phone's internet address.

To learn your vehicle's energy use on hills, the app downloads public terrain elevation tiles (the same Terrarium tiles on Amazon Web Services that the map's Terrain style uses) for the areas you drove. Only tile numbers are requested (each tile covers about 5 miles, 8 km, on a side), never your coordinates or trips, though the tiles asked for show the areas you drove. If Weather is on, the wind at a drive's start is used too (see Weather).

You can also delete recorded trips in the app: Settings > Recorded Drives deletes one drive, or everything including the raw vehicle log.

Deleting Your Data

EV Control Center (Private) keeps your data on the vehicle and has no account or server of its own. To delete it:

Apart from Google Drive and AI answers, which run under your own accounts, the requests the app makes itself carry no account, name or vehicle identity of yours. They do carry the app's name and version (its User-Agent, "EvControlCenter/<version> (com.amueller.evcontrol; Android Automotive)") and, for HERE, the charger listing, OpenEI and MapTiler, the developer's key (or your own HERE key), and like any internet request each service sees the vehicle's internet address. Those providers' own privacy policies apply. AI answers go to the service you picked under your own key, so that service knows the questions came from your account; its privacy terms apply.

Contact

akmueller32@gmail.com

Changes by Version