At I/O on Wednesday, Google finally gave us a detailed sneak peak of its connected vehicle infotainment system, which it is calling Android Auto. The system projects the Android smartphone's user interface into the dashboard display, but it optimizes the controls so they can easily be used by drivers without getting distracted from the road.
Android engineering director Patrick Brady demoed the app on stage at I/O showing how Google Maps and Music and the SMS client in the phone can be manipulated with on-screen touch controls, steering wheel buttons and voice commands. All of the actual software runs in the Android phone, though. The automaker's infotainment hardware is basically acting as peripheral display and control system.
Android Auto creates a driver-optimized version of your Android phone's UI on the dashboard (source: Google)
"It looks and feels like it's part of the car, but all of the apps we're seeing are on the phone," Brady said. Consequently, as the car ages and its hardware becomes obsolete, Android Auto stays young, updating its operating system and individual app software like any other Android platform, he said.
For instance the Google Music client becomes a much bigger, simpler interface that a driver can use to skip through songs much like they would on embedded car stereo. Questions or searches put to Google Now are all answered via spoken voice, so drivers don't have to read text on screen.
The messaging client not only composed messages via voice commands but reads all text back to the driver so he never has to look at the screen. And of course, one of the most used Google apps in the car, Maps gets a custom interface that looks more like an embedded navigation system.
Google Maps in Android Auto (photo: Janko Roettgers)
It's still unclear whether all apps on your phone will transfer over to the dash display, but my bet is it won't. Google and its automaker partners don't want you watching Netflix while in the driver's seat. Instead it will likely limit the program only to Android Auto optimized apps.
Brady announced some of Android Auto's first developer partners which include: Joyride, Stitcher, MLB At Bat, Pandora, TuneIn, Umano, PocketCasts, and iHeartRadio.
Google is launching an SDK as part of the new L operating system's big batch of new application programming interfaces. Among the first to be tools to be released will be audio streaming and messaging APIs, Brady said.
I suspect Google is going to be much more hands on in approving Android Auto capable apps than it is smartphone and tablet apps – though perhaps not as conservative the automakers – banning overly distracting apps such as those that rely on video streaming or require drivers to interact or look at the screen too much.
Google signaled its automotive infotainment plans in January by creating the Open Automotive Alliance, a consortium of automakers and hardware suppliers, committed to supporting Android in the dashboard. Then we got six months of quiet with no details about the project until I/O today.
Like its competing platform CarPlay, developed by Apple(s aapl), it doesn't appear that Android Auto is designed to completely replace the infotainment system in the car. In fact, we'll likely see both CarPlay and Android Auto in the same vehicles. The list of partners in Google and Apple's automotive partnership program are nearly identical.
Google's Open Automotive Alliance partners(Photo: Janko Roettgers)
Google announced a bevy of new automotive partners in OAA building off its initial four founding members GM, Audi, Honda and Hyundai, making the platform available to most every automaker in the world with a few notable exceptions like Toyota.