Google Boosts In-Car Connectivity With Android Auto

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I like the idea of your phone being the center of your in-car system versus something that is built into the car itself.

Android Auto is a completely voice-enabled, contextually based system, so speaking to your car will allow it to pass along info on opening and closing times of places near you, display restaurant listings, send messages, play music and make calls. The info is then displayed on screen via cards, much like you're used to seeing in Google Now.
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Where you go, when you go, and how fast you go are all important data collection points that Google needs to build a more complete picture of you and only expose you selectively to the things Google knows you need. I'm glad to see them working hard to have a more pervasive, malignant presence in the lives of so many unwitting gadget-infatuated people. Good for them!
 
Heard about this rumor a bit ago--I really like this idea. In-car infotainment systems are really archaic, and it doesn't get updated with technology. A good system that streams from the phone to a display with touch and routes audio to the car's speakers is the best option for people with smartphones. Really like an aftermarket option though; not something the manufacturer is going to tack on an extra couple grand for.
 
Can we please work on getting something that is actually useful, like a readout of how many more miles your car can go before requiring more gas?
 
I'm getting a 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid EX-L next week. I've test driven the hell out of the thing, with my iPhone 5s and my wife's Galaxy S3 synced the HondaLink's Bluetooth. Works just fine. I don't see why Google feels the need to make anything proprietary (Apple too with their CarPlay). Just use Bluetooth and be done with it!
 
Azhar said:
I'm getting a 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid EX-L next week. I've test driven the hell out of the thing, with my iPhone 5s and my wife's Galaxy S3 synced the HondaLink's Bluetooth. Works just fine. I don't see why Google feels the need to make anything proprietary (Apple too with their CarPlay). Just use Bluetooth and be done with it!
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How does it do maps/navigation?
 
teh_chem said:
How does it do maps/navigation?
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I'll find out soon enough. My first priority is the reduction of gas price. EV hybrid isn't feasible because my house was built in 1910 and my detached garage doesn't have electricity (yet). So it's either pay $200 a week for my 16/18mpg Maxima to go to work or pay $30 a week for a 50-55mpg hybrid or pay a few thousand to upgrade our electricity and install them in my garage and get an EV hybrid which would pay for itself in 5-7 years.

The 2014 Honda hybrid is our best bet, GPS or no GPS. I could always mount my iPhone for GPS if the car's GPS doesn't satisfy me.
 
2014. Still no way to get google maps in my dash without buying a Tesla. But what I really want is to talk to my car, so by all means.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Where you go, when you go, and how fast you go are all important data collection points that Google needs to build a more complete picture of you and only expose you selectively to the things Google knows you need. I'm glad to see them working hard to have a more pervasive, malignant presence in the lives of so many unwitting gadget-infatuated people. Good for them!
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Uh, no. This is just hooking the phone you already had with you up to the car, using the car as a dumb screen with some physical controls. There's no additional data collection here.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Where you go, when you go, and how fast you go are all important data collection points that Google needs to build a more complete picture of you and only expose you selectively to the things Google knows you need. I'm glad to see them working hard to have a more pervasive, malignant presence in the lives of so many unwitting gadget-infatuated people. Good for them!
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2258345996_a5fe2f9ced.jpg
 
I have been asking for this for a long time. ALL car companies should be pressed by consumers to cinclude docks large and flexible enough to fit anything from a small phone to a mid sized tablet and the car company should have an application that allows the phone to act as a display that controls some or all of the features of the car. Even if part 2 is not done at least they should have the dock. It is insulting that in the year 2015 most cars will still require you to jimmy rig your own mount into them.

Unfortunately the car companies are still hell bent on trying to force you to upgrade to a nagigation system that is a crappy design and way over priced for what it is. A low resolution low power, shoddy programmed tablet.
 
Azhar said:
So it's either pay $200 a week for my 16/18mpg Maxima to go to work or pay $30 a week for a 50-55mpg hybrid or pay a few thousand to upgrade our electricity and install them in my garage and get an EV hybrid which would pay for itself in 5-7 years.
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Your dreaming if you think you are going to get 50-55 mpg on the Accord Hybrid. You might get that out of a Prius, but not a larger car like the Accord.

There are a lot of variables that can affect the mileage (short trips, average speed, city vs highway, etc.), but if you look at fuely.com, most people are getting closer to 45 mpg on the Accord.
 
Trimlock said:
Both products you listed are already in cars, Android's is not.

I'm not going to trust Android's offering until I can try it out first.
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I hear google's bad at software. I'm pretty confident that Apple with it's history of stellar bug-free, hardly system compromising crAppleware like iTunes is going to blow Google out of the water.
 
Google doesn't make sense to me. They are "the" restless company, ALWAYS fucking with their apps, always making the smallest mundane changes. /Usually eliminating features that people like and take for granted in the process.

Always trying to portray themselves as an innovative the company, but, it took them until 2014 to figure out "car connectivity" might be something that people want, something so obvious that it's brainless.

/Suck as dick and die, google.
 
BloodyIron said:
Byebye ford sync and apple connect.
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Yeah ford is switching to QNX base system, apple already uses QNX, BMW, Porche acura, audi, chrysler, deawoo, GM, hyundai, land rover, and saab. all use qnx. I've read that google's system will operate as a layer ontop of qnx and i've read that it is its own thing. If its the first it will get market share but mostly in your lower end models. If its the latter wellllllll i just dont see it going anywhere.
 
a huge LOL to the person that thinks this will drive Sync and Apple connect out of cars.

You Android people are the new iphone users of 2007/8/9.
 
OEM said:
a huge LOL to the person that thinks this will drive Sync and Apple connect out of cars.

You Android people are the new iphone users of 2007/8/9.
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My car has Sync. It is the most useless garbage ever. I never touch it. It's clunky, it's ugly, it's slow, it's limited in capability, it doesnt do anything I want it to, and offers features I dont care about.

So I ripped it out and flush mounted a Nexus 7 in there instead. The moment I turned it on for the first time I immediately said "this will be in every car by the end of the decade". It's simply the next evolution for infotainment systems.
 
Lith1um said:
Google doesn't make sense to me. They are "the" restless company, ALWAYS fucking with their apps, always making the smallest mundane changes. /Usually eliminating features that people like and take for granted in the process.

Always trying to portray themselves as an innovative the company, but, it took them until 2014 to figure out "car connectivity" might be something that people want, something so obvious that it's brainless.

/Suck as dick and die, google.
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100% I would say I am a very casual android user, but use google based apps because I expect them to work together without much or fusss...

I don't have any major issues with android except for a few small (but really annoying things).

They took out the ability to select contacts from maps for Navigation. Sure you can go to people/contacts... then to maps from there but not the opposite... just stupid and pointless and why????

My other small but annoying bitchfest with them has to do with the messed up integration of picasa, drive, google+ and android phones. Sure I can back up my android pics to google+, does it appear in drive? nope, it does take my drive space though wtf???? I can store my photos in drive, edit/organize with picasa (or any other file based app) and they will go into google+ (cool) but why can't I have google+ store photos as files in drive? Why are they hidden?

More I look at google and MS stuff and try an use it as a "user" (Cause I just don't want o futz with some things), the more I clearly see they are mostly over-engineered and clearly designed by engineers... I appreciate Apple a bit more because though limited at least they integrate with their other products in a easy logical way.
 
nutzo said:
Your dreaming if you think you are going to get 50-55 mpg on the Accord Hybrid. You might get that out of a Prius, but not a larger car like the Accord.

There are a lot of variables that can affect the mileage (short trips, average speed, city vs highway, etc.), but if you look at fuely.com, most people are getting closer to 45 mpg on the Accord.
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Then I will get 45mpg. I don't like the way the Prius looks, so I'll take the next best thing. It's either The Accord or the Fusion.
 
McFry said:
My car has Sync. It is the most useless garbage ever. I never touch it. It's clunky, it's ugly, it's slow, it's limited in capability, it doesnt do anything I want it to, and offers features I dont care about.

So I ripped it out and flush mounted a Nexus 7 in there instead. The moment I turned it on for the first time I immediately said "this will be in every car by the end of the decade". It's simply the next evolution for infotainment systems.
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But cars don't need the brains as almost every person walks around with the brains all day in their phone. Having a dedicated in-dash processing device is overkill as opposed to a unit that essentially streams data from the phone to a display with a touch interface of some sort. In-dash dedicated units of any kind bring an aspect of locked-in tech, and forces the user to (try to) update yet another device.
 
McFry said:
My car has Sync. It is the most useless garbage ever. I never touch it. It's clunky, it's ugly, it's slow, it's limited in capability, it doesnt do anything I want it to, and offers features I dont care about.

So I ripped it out and flush mounted a Nexus 7 in there instead. The moment I turned it on for the first time I immediately said "this will be in every car by the end of the decade". It's simply the next evolution for infotainment systems.
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That sounds awesome. Tell you hardwired it into the car for power?
 
kllrnohj said:
Uh, no. This is just hooking the phone you already had with you up to the car, using the car as a dumb screen with some physical controls. There's no additional data collection here.
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I don't see how the phone will magically turn off all the external connections, GPS, and whatnot while you've got it connected to your car. If anything, the fact that it is car-connected will probably be noted in normal data collection practices when whatever app is needed to make it work is active. So I see your "Uh, no," and raise it an "Uh, yes." :p
 
maverikv said:
2014. Still no way to get google maps in my dash without buying a Tesla. But what I really want is to talk to my car, so by all means.
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Audi has Google maps integrated into their dash navigation. The first 6 months is free and then after that it is a subscription service. My father let the service expire and he still gets navigation, just without the Google satellite view/street view overlay options.

My concern with in-dash entertainment and navigation has always been the lack or extreme expense of upgrading the system. Car manufacturers have little motivation to allow you to update your 2006 to the same electronics package as a 2014 at a reasonable price. They would hurt the sales of new cars, even when a lot of consumers would rather spend a little more on a car that lasts 10+ years. This gap is then left to the third-party aftermarket that due to a investment/return model can only cater to the most popular models unless there is a wide degree of overlap with shared parts across multiple models and manufacturers.
 
teh_chem said:
But cars don't need the brains as almost every person walks around with the brains all day in their phone. Having a dedicated in-dash processing device is overkill as opposed to a unit that essentially streams data from the phone to a display with a touch interface of some sort. In-dash dedicated units of any kind bring an aspect of locked-in tech, and forces the user to (try to) update yet another device.
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Oh I agree, I definitely like the idea of screen casting to my car. But for now this is the next best thing. Car manufacturers simply lack the expertise in smooth UI design.
 
McFry said:
My car has Sync. It is the most useless garbage ever. I never touch it. It's clunky, it's ugly, it's slow, it's limited in capability, it doesnt do anything I want it to, and offers features I dont care about.

So I ripped it out and flush mounted a Nexus 7 in there instead. The moment I turned it on for the first time I immediately said "this will be in every car by the end of the decade". It's simply the next evolution for infotainment systems.
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Case in point: iPhone users of old.

I have Sync. Works just fine.
 
The REAL question is...
How long before we get a Windows OS with HUD in our cars that randomly turns our windshield blue loaded with error messages so as it crashes so we do as well?
 
Romale23 said:
Yeah ford is switching to QNX base system, apple already uses QNX, BMW, Porche acura, audi, chrysler, deawoo, GM, hyundai, land rover, and saab. all use qnx. I've read that google's system will operate as a layer ontop of qnx and i've read that it is its own thing. If its the first it will get market share but mostly in your lower end models. If its the latter wellllllll i just dont see it going anywhere.
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QNX is essentially middleware. The universal interface that every system will tie into, because it's highly unlikely that MS, Apple or Google is interested in maintaining different APIs for every car manufacture. And Android Auto may use QNX, but it's dependent on your phone to function, it's basically is just acting like an extended display.
 
OEM said:
Case in point: iPhone users of old.

I have Sync. Works just fine.
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Case in point: Hey Grandma!

I'm sure before you had sync you were defending your monochrome TomTom as "working just fine".

Can you touch a button and say "navigate to starbucks"?

When you do navigate somewhere, do you have to worry that your maps at 3 years old instead of always up to date in real time with Google Maps?

Can you touch a button and say "Play Bob Marley" and have it stream every Bob Marley song from Google Play Store? Or any other song for that matter?

Can you play Netflix movies while you drive for the wife to have something to do?

Can you stream that one song that you cant find anywhere but youtube?

Can you have your car check and dictate your corporate email? Gmail?

Can you theme your car system with live wallpapers and different buttons?
 
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