Google Announces Its Answer to Apple’s CarPlay: Android Auto

Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

At today’s I/O conference, Android director of engineering Patrick Brady kicked the tires on Android Auto, the company’s long-awaited in-car infotainment system. Android Auto will be featured in cars from partners that are members of the Open Automotive Alliance—40 carmakers around the world in all—and the first cars compatible with the system will be available by the end of the year.

Android Auto looks and run similar to Apple’s CarPlay system, which was announced earlier this year. It’s not an operating system installed in the car itself; instead, you physically plug an Android phone into a car’s console, and the car’s center display becomes a larger-screened interface for the phone. According to Google, the entire Android Auto experience is voice-enabled; you can also use steering-wheel-mounted controls and the console touchscreen.

Android Product Manager Andy Brenner performed the test drive of Android Auto in a faux Kia.

“All of the apps we see here are running on Andy’s phone, which means the experience gets better when he updates his apps or gets a newer, faster phone,” explained Brady. The on-stage demo offered a quick tour of audio, messaging, and navigation applications.

Android Auto will offer a big-screen experience for Google Maps, a potentially huge advantage over the Apple Maps-powered CarPlay system. The in-car Google Maps features include live traffic information and local search. As you’d expect, the navigation system can look up and provide turn-by-turn directions for spoken-word locations, but the voice-dictated features go deeper than that.

During the demo, the system was able to respond to queries about what time certain businesses opened and closed, and simply saying “navigate there” brought up directions without having to repeat the full name of the destination.

The music demo was a quick spin around Google Play Music. The in-car version of the app has “simple, glanceable controls for the car,” according to Brady, and supports access to albums, playlists, and radio stations.

Messaging features also look similar to CarPlay. The voice-enabled system will read out messages you receive and also let you dictate messages to send.

To help independent developers create in-car apps, Google also announced the Android Auto SDK. At first, it will offer APIs for messaging and music apps only. Big-name audio apps available for the Android Auto platform will include Spotify, MLB At Bat, Pandora, Pocket Casts, Joyride, iHeart Radio, and Songza.

Of the 40 Open Auto Alliance members that will support the Android Auto system, there are a few interesting overlaps: Honda, Hyundai, and Volvo, which are all carmakers that will also offer Apple’s CarPlay system in future cars.