Google has thrown its hat into the in-car entertainment industry and extended its rivalry with Apple beyond the simple realms of smartphones and tablets and onto your dashboard. Announced at yesterday's Google I/O developer conference Android Auto is now racing Apple's CarPlay into bringing smartphone connectivity to the car.
Developed under the auspices of the Open Automotive Alliance - a consortium that includes Google, chip-maker NVidia and car brands such as Fiat-Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and the Volkswagen family - Android Auto will begin to roll out with the introduction of the newest Android ecosystem labelled Android 5.0 L. Once connected to a compatible car the system allows for a mirroring of some of the smartphone's applications giving drivers easy access to functions such as telephone, navigation and music. Google will also release the Software Development Kit (SDK) to third parties that will allow the likes of Spotify, Facebook and Twitter to develop their own car-friendly apps.
Already car manufacturers have begun to roll in behind Android Auto with Audi saying its offerings from 2015 will include the technology in its regular MMI infotainment system, Volvo will introduce it in the XC90 before it makes its way to the rest of the cars based on its Scalable Product Architecture (that'll be everything bar the V40) and Kia, whose Soul was used by Google to demonstrate the technology at the conference, will offer it on select models from next year as part of the UVO Premium Navigation system. Announcements from other manufacturers are expected soon.
Anything else?
As Android Auto will be 'baked' into the newest version of the Operating System (OS) not all Android phones will feature the capability. Only those phones that have been released recently (Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 etc.) will get the new OS, meaning those on older phones will have to do without. There is a possibility Google could add the functionality to older OSs or the phone manufacturers themselves could do it, but for the moment it is latest generation phones only.