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Google Launches Android Automotive Consortium

Posted by samzenpus on from the search-and-drive dept.

DeviceGuru writes "Google announced an initiative with Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai, and Nvidia aimed at fostering and standardizing Android in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The Open Automotive Alliance (OAA) is dedicated to a common platform that will drive innovation, and make technology in the car safer and more intuitive for everyone, says the group. The OAA is further committed to bringing the Android platform to cars starting in 2014. In its FAQ, the OAA suggests that this is not a full-blown Android in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system, but rather a standardized integration stack between automotive systems and mobile Android devices. However, the OAA FAQ also discloses broader ambitions for 2015 and beyond: 'We're also developing new Android platform features that will enable the car itself to become a connected Android device.'"

24 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Naturally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google wants Android in the dash of cars so they can track you. "Hey, you just passed one of our ... um, I mean, you just passed a Carl's Jr. - aren't you hungry?"

    I guess self driving cars aren't enough for Google. They want to be in the driver's seat of dashboard technology too.

    1. Re:Naturally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Normally, we call a product "vaporware" before there is one single independent test of it.

      For some reason, with Google self-driving cars, we assume they deliver up to claimed spec. We cite the statistic about fewer accidents than with human drivers, even though conditions were chosen by Google, expert human back-ups were available throughout who were dedicated to the job of ensuring a car is driven safely, and there was zero review of the evidence used to make the claims.

      The Google robot car, for anyone remotely following the modern scientific method, should be regarded as an experimental idea, not a working implementation.

  2. Just give me a standard size and connector! by sootman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think of the kind of computer or phone you had 5 or 10 years ago. Do you want a 5-10 year old device hard-wired into your car 5-10 years from now?

    And no matter how "open" Google tries to make things, vehicle OEMs are just as bad as handset OEMs and cellular carriers and they WILL make these things suck. I know a guy who has a $100 windshield-mount GPS in his GPS-equipped car because he didn't want to pay the dealer $hundreds to update the maps in his built-in unit. So now he has a device on his windshield with a dangling cord and some dead space in his dash.

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    1. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yup, I definitely agree with this.

      My wife's last car had in-dash GPS. Unfortunately, when we asked about getting an update to the maps, it would have cost about $900 for the new DVD.

      When you can replace the damned thing for less than $150 for a dedicated unit, what's the point in having it?

      By the time you get technology in a car, it's 5 years old ... and by the time the car is 5 years old, the in-dash technology is usually so outdated as to be useless.

      The auto-makers are all scrambling to get this stuff into their cars because it's the new hotness. But by the time they've built and deployed it, it's old and busted. You end up paying several times what you could buy a device for at any electronics store, for a device which is mostly obsolete by the time you even have it.

      My 6 year old Tom Tom, I still get map updates for.

      And, really, as people are slowly learning that distracted driving is really dangerous, adding all of these "in-vehicle-infotainment" is just more crap and distraction. You want to entertain your kids in your car? Buy 'em a $200 tablet.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The only company that can actually get automotive companies to actually agree and do something "right" is Apple. If Apple put a 1-2 DIN audio head, they would push out the half-hearted attempts by vehicle makers and after market companies (Alpine, Sony) just like Apple seized the MP3 player market by storm.

      Apple would make a killing if they went into the automotive audio market. Standardizing the car interface, offering streaming, XM radio, AM/FM radio, and even apps so one can start the vehicle from remote, set the temperature and see when the vehicle is warmed up... stuff nobody can ever dream of doing except Apple.

      Android will just fragment as vehicle makers want their own features (OnStar), while Apple is the only game in town that can present a unified UI regardless of maker.

    3. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Joking aside i do remember a time when many people would simply trade up every year or so, and once the car was not new, the dealers really could have cared less.

      Now there's an understatement -- the dealers were ecstatic to have people doing that.

      You buy a new car, and it massively depreciates as you drive it off the lot. Then two years later you come in, provide them with new inventory to sell, and then sell you another car at full price.

      For car dealers, that's pretty much the pipe-dream. Because you're essentially paying over and over again.

      I've known people who traded in a car every 1-2 years -- and I've mostly been of the opinion they're subsidizing the dealers at their own expense.

      I've always referred to the depreciation of a new car and buying another one before you've amortized the first as a "stupidity tax". Unless you're so well off you can afford to be giving up that much on depreciation and not care, you're probably getting screwed in the long run.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by msauve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So, the solution is "one size fits all," or maybe "our way, or not the highway." I'm not buying it.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    5. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I'll pass. The last thing I want is my car audio usurped by a company that overcharges for useless handholding. I like the fact I can dump a bunch of mp3s onto a flash drive and plug it into my aftermarket stereo with no fuss. Apple tries too hard to manage everything with itunes/ipods/iphones and just ends up getting in the way.

    6. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by s122604 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The main reason people get new cars less frequently is that cars are a lot better than they used to be. It used to be getting a car to 100k miles without major engine work was a rare occurrence. Now, the automotive consumer gets pissed if that doesn't happen.

      I know that flies in the face of the "everything was better when I was young" old-man logic, but it's still a fact.

      The industry is looking for reasons to get customers into the showrooms on a faster cycle, hence the heavy focus on enhancements like this

      It also kinda explains why making the product easily upgradable isn't a big concern.

    7. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by Jakeula · · Score: 2

      I guess I shouldn't expect anyone on /. to RTFA, especially an AC, but Apple already is doing this with all the same auto makers and some others called iOSitC. Outside of the difficult to remember name of Apples group, I personally don't want Apple Maps guiding me around any town. Also, how will Android fragment the IVI? this isn't like a phone OS, IVI's don't leap to the latest hardware every few months. All you require is something like Spotify/Pandora for music, general peripheral connectors like AUX, USB, and SD cards, Bluetooth for calling, and navigation with an easy to use interface. All of that is achievable on older versions of Android, and I expect they will fork a specific version for IVI. Many players have been in the IVI game for a while with a lot of success, so I dont think Apple can corner a market on this even if they wanted to, what I think is happening is simply an OS standard. I have had a few IVI's over the course of my life and they all differ greatly in interface and functionality even with the same manufacturer. So iOS or Android doesn't matter really, we just need it to work and be the same.

    8. Re:Just give me a standard size and connector! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The main reason people get new cars less frequently is that cars are a lot better than they used to be. It used to be getting a car to 100k miles without major engine work was a rare occurrence. Now, the automotive consumer gets pissed if that doesn't happen.

      For which you can thank the Japanese for actually producing cars which weren't pieces of shit, and forcing the American manufacturers to compete on quality.

      There were a lot of years where Detroit put out absolutely crap cars, and expected people to buy them anyway.

      Meanwhile, Honda and Toyota were making cars which were better built and lasted longer.

      To this day, I still get into an American car and think "why can't you buy a fucking Honda, take it apart, and understand what goes into making a decent car?"

  3. A bit unsettling by jpmahala · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...enable the car itself to become a connected Android device."

    hmm. It's one thing for me to carry an android device around in my pocket. It's quite another to have an android carry me around in it's pocket.

  4. 2015: Year of the Linux Automobile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just imagine: instead of ACPI and driver issues, we can have life threatening kernel panics!

  5. Where's the Knob Alliance when you need them? by immaterial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I want knobs. Knobs and physical buttons. Let them surround a fancy whizz-bang touchscreen if you want, but I damn well want to be able to turn up the heat or volume without looking.

    1. Re: Where's the Knob Alliance when you need them? by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, because they dont' want to pay premium prices for a machine whose touch rots away from skin oils, bleach, and detergents within 5 years.. Tactile controls in cars are a necessity because it allows the driver to keep his eyes on the road. Digging through menus of bullshit is not acceptable.

    2. Re:Where's the Knob Alliance when you need them? by rsborg · · Score: 2

      I want knobs. Knobs and physical buttons. Let them surround a fancy whizz-bang touchscreen if you want, but I damn well want to be able to turn up the heat or volume without looking.

      That's what on-wheel controls are for. I've driven a car with touchscreen inputs for quite some time (2005 Prius), and I've never ever had issues (and neither have my parents) in using the car interface even while driving.

      The key to usability is, as you say, an appropriate set of on-wheel controls, and knobs/buttons for the key non-wheel controls (i.e., audio interface has both touchscreen and knob/button interface) where appropriate (i.e., high traffic controls) and the touch interface for the non-key, complex controls (i.e., monitoring fuel efficiency status, synch, navigation setup, etc).

      Is Tesla any different than Toyota's implementation of touchscreen?

      --
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  6. Critical infrastructure - air gap it. by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >>> "We're also developing new Android platform features that will enable the car itself to become a connected Android device"

    I prefer my cars air-gaped. Why? First, I don't trust automotive manufacturers to introduce adequate security measures. Second, I don't trust automotive manufacturers to stay on top of patching security holes over car's expected useful lifetime.

  7. Re:QNX by unixisc · · Score: 2

    Doubt it. QNX is far better established & proven. See no reason for cars to switch to Android, when they could use QNX and put on a better UI if the current one is inadequate

  8. Oh thank God by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2

    Well, if you needed proof of a higher power then here it is. Standard operating systems in cars are long overdue.

  9. Yeah! Finally! by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I can't come in to work today because my car has a virus" becomes a legitimate excuse.

    --
    That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
  10. Re:QNX by kaiser423 · · Score: 2

    Doubt it. QNX is far better established & proven. See no reason for cars to switch to Android, when they could use QNX and put on a better UI if the current one is inadequate

    Many auto makers have tried that and failed horribly. Then there's having good GPS applications, good radio streamers, etc that you then have to create. I think that's half the drive of using Android; Google is doing most of your software development and the app makers are doing the other 40%. The auto maker is left with a lot less of the workshare and a lot less of that support long tail.

  11. Here's a bright idea... by VFA · · Score: 2

    How about car manufacturers provide an option for NO computer in the car? My newest vehicle is a 1998 Volvo S70, but if I were to buy a new car I would be attracted to a NO COMPUTER option and a $2000 savings. I really have not used GPS or a smartphone in my car ever and I want to keep it that way. If I really wanted a computer in my car, I would much more appreciate an interface such as OBDII (OBDIII?) that expanded access and control to things like climate control and audio system. I could then choose my device (and OS) and connect to the car using an app written for that device to interface with cars. This, of course would make car dealers very unhappy. How else can they charge $900 for GPS maps update then? We as consumers must clamor for no hardware from auto maker other than the standard interface to have some basic control over the vehicle. Then BYODevice and BYOApp and you're off. That would be truly open, everything else is a lock-in. Perhaps I am just old fashioned, but in-car infotainment is a recipe for disaster on the roads anyway. But that's a whole other discussion.

  12. Re:QNX by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    Android Car!

    Malware... TO GO!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  13. Re:QNX by Nemyst · · Score: 2

    use QNX and put on a better UI

    Hahahaha. Phone OEMs are bad at making UIs, but they look like fucking geniuses compared to car manufacturers. Seems like you haven't used so-called "modern" dash computers.