Letting Big Tech interact with a car’s hardware opens a whole can of worms. So, Android Automotive has thus far been limited to infotainment systems to handle mapping and streaming music—all the things you can do with a phone mounted to the dashboard. Google’s next step offers carmakers a full Android Automotive SDV, allowing the embedded Google software to interact with non-safety parts of the car. So the Android-powered screen in a car might be able to control the air conditioning or pipe in driving data to let you know when maintenance is required. However, it won’t be responsible for making sure your intelligent braking or lane-keeping systems work as intended.
Credit:
Volkswagen
VW’s infotainment is built atop Android Automotive OS.
Credit:
Volkswagen
Google claims the new AAOS will take pressure off of individual carmakers to provide a good user experience, while also delivering features to drivers more quickly and efficiently with Android OTAs. The locked-down Android Automotive experience has gotten some traction, with companies like Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen, and Rivian using it in at least some vehicles. They’re not all on board with the platform’s SDV future yet, though.
Google says its early work on AAOS SDV includes Renault and Qualcomm. The OS will be released to open source later this year, allowing other automakers to experiment with it. Naturally, they’ll have to go through Google if they want to actually license the services that make it all work.
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