As Google I/O gets closer each year the excitement over the possibility of new products being released hits fever pitch. This year it has been all about Android wear, the LG G Watch and the Moto 360 (plus a mystery watch), with a little bit of a Nexus 8 rumour thrown in there as well. But wait, there’s more.
Today there is a rumour about Google launching it’s own car operating system to rival Apple’s CarPlay. Earlier this year at CES Google announced the Open Auto Alliance (OAA) to bring Android to car operating systems. They teamed up with General Motors, Honda, Audi, Hyundai, and Nvidia and it seems that alliance is ready to bare fruit. Google’s offering to the auto industry, known as Google Auto Link (GAL) by the teams working on it within Google, is not a standalone operating system but actually a projected system from an Android phone.
The GAL is a projection of an Android device which can be controlled by the dials and buttons on the car info-tainment hardware. Sounds to me like a reverse-Chromecast-for-the-car experience. How it will be displayed is unknown but the fact that it is a projection of an Android phone makes it very enticing to those of us who love our Android devices.
The big test will be whether the big car manufacturers pick it up or not. There might be a few car manufacturers in the OAA but it seems a longshot that manufacturers will bet on this system. Most manufacturers seem to acknowledge iPhones and that is it so I find it hard to believe that they will alienate so many of the buying public by putting in an info-tainment system that requires an Android device. Maybe it will come as an option instead of that overpriced Bose system they always offer?
Can you see this making it into mainstream cars? Do you think it will be successful? Do you agree with it being a projection rather than an embedded, stand-alone operating system?
Needs to work as a standalone system or its going to be useless. And since mirrorlink and other alternatives are around that already mirror your android phone I don’t see the big deal.
Of course, depending on what device you have (any decent Sony, some Samsung’s and apparently the LG G2 and HTC have claimed support but on what models I’m unsure), you already have a CarPlay alternative in the form of MirrorLink. It’s not quite as smooth as CarPlay but it does the job.
If it’s just a touch screen then there’s no reason it can’t support both major OS… iOS or Android…
I want this yesterday.
Car manufactures will use it, they used to making their own systems, but everyone of them have bad user experience. Not by using Android will save them money, and they dont have a choice but to use it because smart phone needs to integrate with cars.
I’ve put N7 in my car and i hope Car Play can be install on it.
I’m also wondering what aftermarket car audio company will react to this.