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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.'"

12 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. 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 and by the time the car is 5 years old, the in-dash technology is usually so outdated as to be useless.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.

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    2. 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.

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    3. 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
    4. 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.

    5. 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?"

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.