Android Auto drops connection

Sometimes Android Auto looses its connection or doesn't come up immediately. I've had the best results when I connect the USB (to my HTC M9) before I start the car.

Any suggestions?

My wife uses an iphone and its a nuisance to turn off the carplay to turn on android. My phone automatically connects to bluetooth and audio, but it is finicky connecting the display. And I always have to say it is a midi connection. My wife usually drives the car, so perhaps it will be more intuitive the more I am in the car, but if it gets easier, there is a learning curve for that process.Oh yeah, OK google activates the screen when my wife's displaying car play, so searching is useless and I could not get her carplay map to enter a location search.. You get the gist, I think there is room for improvement, but its between companies..

Check the quality of your USB cord. The world is flooded with cables that are beyond terrible, and the gold plated cloth covered ones are no exception, nor is an expensive cable insurance against bad quality. You may have noticed that some of them don't even support data. Your phone's jack could also be suspect. Remember, just because the phone charges doesn't mean that the data pins are making contact (or even exist in some cases) The cable that came with your phone is probably going to be the best, provided it's not some weird no-name phone. Unfortunately, you'll probably have some trial and error testing to do.

Good luck.