Car: Navigating to Ocean Beach.
And that’s how Android Auto, Google’s infotainment interface that can be installed in just about any new car, led me to the western edge of San Francisco, where I ate my sandwich, drank my soda, and watched the waves.
Today, Hyundai became the first automaker to put cars with Android Auto on dealer lots, starting with the 2015 Sonata sedan. The Korean brand is offering the system free of charge to anyone who opts for the navigation system, part of a $4,100 “tech package.” (The Sonata starts at $23,275.)
I just spent a long weekend with the Sonata, putting Android Auto in charge of taking me around San Francisco and handling my texts and phone calls. Minus a few hiccups, it did an excellent job.
What’s impressive about Google’s system isn’t that it looked up nearby sandwich shops and found a geographic landmark—those aren’t heavy lifts. What matters is that it handled them so much more easily than any automaker-provided system I’ve tested. It is remarkable for its simplicity and flexibility. It’s easy to use. It works.
That’s more than I can say about the vast majority of infotainment systems, made by car companies, on the market today. By and large, they stink. They are the source of more customer complaints than any other part of the car, according to JD Power. Consumer Reports loves nothing better than eviscerating automakers for crappy systems. It even revoked “recommended” status from the otherwise top-notch Honda Accord, based on the poor quality of the infotainment system.
Voice recognition is a collective disaster. (Noted, cars are terrible environments for sound.) I once asked a Cadillac ATS for navigation to Boston’s Logan airport. The radio tuned to Hair Nation XM. A BMW 7-Series tried sending me from JFK airport to Normandy, Missouri instead of Pelham, New York. A Lexus pulled up the correct street, but in Southern California instead of San Francisco.
This spectacular failure has created an easy opportunity for Google and Apple—masters of the mobile screen interface—to step into the void and extend their influence on our lives into our cars. In March 2014, Apple announced CarPlay, which turns a car’s center screen into an iOS device, with maps, messaging, music, and more. Google followed in June of that year with Android Auto, which offers the same thing, using Android.
Every major automaker has signed up to offer one or both, because none of them are dumb enough to refuse customers something they want. IHS predicts Android Auto and Apple CarPlay will be in 1.5 million cars by the end of 2015. By 2020, that number will jump to 68 million. Right now, the infotainment space is worth more than $31 billion.
The Best of Its Kind
It’s easy to set up: Just plug your phone into the car’s USB port (you’ll need a handset running Android 5.0 Lollipop) and select Android Auto on the eight-inch center screen. Voila: You’re in a new infotainment universe that works just like your phone, which means there’s no need to learn a new system or set up your contacts and favorite locations on yet another device.
The system is well designed for use in a car. The menus are stripped down to what you need and what seems safest while driving: Music and navigation on the screen, calls and texts through voice recognition. The buttons are big, making them easy to hit and minimizing the time your eyes are off the road.
Google Now’s card system, which delivers timely notifications and suggests navigation destinations based on your history and calendar, makes a ton of sense in the car. Combined, my house and my office make up more than 50 percent of my destinations, so I like having those immediately pop up as suggestions.
Source : http://www.wired.com/2015/05/android-auto-first-great-car-infotainment-system/
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