Personally, I still prefer Android Auto (i.e. phone projected onto car screen) to Android Automotive (Android built into the car infotainment system). My phone gets way more updates than my car, and it’s cheaper to buy a new phone once it stops getting updates.
I have the same sentiment towards smart TVs vs plain old “dumb” TVs + a streamer.
Android Automotive (the car OS) does support phone projection (Android Auto and CarPlay).
From what I’ve seen in reviews of cars that have it, Automotive is pretty solid, and I’d take an EV that had it as long as CarPlay were an option. (So no GM for me).
They can’t gather data from my use of the built-in apps if I don’t use them.
Meanwhile GM is removing CarPlay and android auto so they can monetize the in-car experience z
I swear to god I hope that move bites them in the ass hard
I have to say, considering how Google half-asses things I’d have no confidence in this product. That said, a half-assed effort by Google is still probably better software than the full-ass software effort by carmakers.
My real dream is to get these things fully modular. Let my lift up the touchscreen to access a cavity where a little infotainment-SBC is wired into a couple of USB ports and a mini DisplayPort. What’s it got to run? Audio, touchscreen, GPS, phone-over-Bluetooth? That stuff is well-known. Basically the only place where I expect standard interfaces to fall on their face is climate control. As an API fallback, have the built-in car-computer run a private web-server for controlling the car’s non-standard hardware. Then just have the SBC use a browser for those screens. Only API needed is “what URIs do I show for what features like climate or trip-odometer or whatever screens can’t be standardized at the infotainment level”.
I know Audi has been using Linux based infotainment systems for years now, so I can see VAG moving towards this as a way of reducing development costs. I just hope the implementation is better than what’s in Volvo cars because right now the customization sucks around it.
