Google has spent the last few years working (somewhat quietly) on an Android-based operating system for cars that doesn’t require the use of a smartphone. Built on Android P, it’s meant to be far more advanced than the existing version of Android Auto, which simply projects a phone interface onto a car’s infotainment screen. It’s also supposed to be a more robust solution than some past infotainment systems that were built on forked (and very old) versions of Android without much help from Google, if any at all.
We’re about to get more familiar with this new in-car
Android experience, though. Google has struck deals with Volvo and Audi
to start rolling out these systems in 2020, and over the last year,
we’ve seen a few examples of what they will look like.
This new Android-based system would offer the benefits of
modern Android Auto (like access to the automotive-approved app
ecosystem on the Google Play Store). It will tap into a car’s
system-level operations, meaning you could ask Google Assistant to turn
on the heat, turn off the seat warmers, or even book maintenance
appointments. The system is also customizable to suit carmakers’
differing styles, giving them more control than they get with projected
Android Auto (or Apple’s CarPlay, for that matter).
This opens up all sorts of interesting new questions
about the future of in-car infotainment systems. Google’s had its share
of platform battles in the past. Is this another new frontier in that
fight? How much of a sea change are we in for? And how does Google view
these multiple, disparate versions of Android in the car? I sat down
with Patrick Brady, the head of Android Auto, at the Consumer
Electronics Show earlier this month hash it all out. We started by
catching up on where projected Android Auto is today, but we eventually
talked about everything from bringing the tech to motorcycles to making
aftermarket systems with native Android and much more.
Also, to be clear, Google tells me it refers to this new platform as both “embedded” or “native” Android and
“embedded” or “native” Android Auto, though it prefers the former — or
more simply, “powered by Android.” (Brady and I use some of these terms
interchangeably.)
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Patrick Brady: For Android Auto, what we
call our “projected solution,” where Android Auto’s running on your
phone and connects to a compatible car, I think adoption is not really
the question at this point. And we’re now at a point where we’ve worked
with over 50 different car brands and getting it launched everywhere.
We’ve expanded our geographic coverage. So just a short time ago, we
launched in South Korea, we launched in Taiwan, we launched in South
Africa and several other countries, and we’ll continue to do that and
make it more available. The big focus now is going to be on improving
the core experience. And so we, just a while ago, in November last year,
it seems like decades ago, right?
Sean O’Kane: Monday feels like decades ago at this point, honestly.
We launched an update that improves the media experience.
Traditionally, we had kind of two models for playing media. You could
talk to the Assistant and have it play something for you. And that’s
great for when you know what you want to play. But sometimes you’re
thinking, “Oh I want to play Coldplay, but I can’t remember the name of
the album.” Then we had browsing, but in a car, that’s obviously not
ideal for accessing your full catalog because you just can’t go through
that depth of content while you’re driving. So back in November, we
launched something where now when you search for something, if I say,
“play Coldplay,” or even “play jazz,” we start playing something, but we
also give you the ability to pivot into other categorized content that
the app provides.
So if you want to play something on Spotify, and you say
“play Coldplay,” it will start playing but then show you “here’s the
list of their albums, and here’s their top songs.” And we’ve found
that’s actually reducing the amount that users are browsing in the car,
which is a good thing, and it’s helping them access the content they
want in a more safe and seamless way.
There’s several other things like that. Wireless
we’re very excited about. Obviously, it has launched in aftermarket
units today. But we’re excited about getting that out with carmakers in
embedded systems shortly. And then we’ll be doing kind of a big UI
refresh that we teased at Google I/O last year that takes advantage of
some of the larger screens we’re seeing in cars today.
Last year, we showed it in a Range Rover Velar that has a
super wide screen, and so now we can actually enable you to see a full
Google Maps view with the map and turn by turn. But also next to that,
it’ll show whatever’s playing on YouTube Music or Spotify or whatever it
might be and allow you to control that. So you don’t have to switch
between the two. And there’s a few other things we’re doing in the
system UI to really make it blend better with the in-car environment and
again take advantage of the different form factors and screens.
Does that present any challenges? Because for the
tech-obsessed, it’s nice to see these car manufacturers coming out with
bigger screens, and we’re not at a point where we’re doing resistive
touchscreens anymore really. The technology’s catching up. Whether or
not you really love having a giant screen in your car is a separate
conversation. But does that present a challenge in having all of these
form factors, or do you have that pretty well figured out at this point?
The screen size and the orientation and shape is one
complexity. But then there’s also — Acura has a touchpad, right? You
have relative and you have absolute touchpad. There’s rotary
controllers. You have touchscreens. You have all these different input
methods. So it definitely is a challenge. You know we have motorcycle
manufacturers that want to ship Android Auto, and they’re going to be
just driven with a D-pad.
Yeah, there’s that Honda bike with CarPlay. I still really want to try that out.
Yeah, so we’re talking with Honda, and we’re working on
that. So it is complex. I think the good news is that it pushes you to
create a simpler system. And so some of what we’ll be rolling out over
the course of the next six months in 2019 are simplifications of the
system that I think will help it adapt to the different screen shapes
and sizes, to the different input methods. But also, at the end of the
day, I think it will make it more intuitive and useful for users. So
we’re really excited about that.
So that’s on the classic project, the Android
Auto-projected solution. The other thing we’re seeing is carmakers
across the board, and you talked about Volvo, we’ve also signed on
Renault-Nissan. And there’s a bunch of other companies we’re talking to
about adopting Android as their built-in infotainment system in the car.
As they all work to replace all the mechanical knobs and dials with
digital surfaces, software obviously becomes much more important. We’re
seeing larger and larger screens. We’re seeing your HVAC controls and
your FM radio controls and everything is moving onto the screen with
software. And they need a platform to power that. And they also see the
consumer demand for things like CarPlay and Android Auto, and the
carmakers want to enable that digital ecosystem in their embedded
offering, in their infotainment system.
CarPlay and Android Auto are great in that they allow you
to bring your digital ecosystem into the car. But it does present to
you as a consumer that you have two worlds, you need to deal with the
native system and your smartphone at the same time. That’s not
necessarily what consumers asked for. But it’s one way of delivering
that. What we’re really excited about with the embedded offering for
Android in the car is now we can create a single blended system, where
you have Spotify and you have your HVAC controls and you have the backup
camera and you have Google Maps or Waze, and it’s all one system. It
takes advantage of the entire digital surface in the car. And we think
we’re going to be able to strike a great balance where it feels
naturally integrated into the car.