No fancy car dashboard required.
A couple years ago, both Google and Apple announced extensions of their respective mobile platforms – Android and iOS – to car dashboards. The idea was simple: to replace difficult to use, outdated car dashboard systems with the power of modern smartphones. Google launched Android Auto, while Apple launched CarPlay. Essentially every latest car now supports Android Auto and CarPlay. You just need to connect your phone with your car dashboard.
What these systems do is bring music, communication and navigation in one easy-to-use, generally voice activated interface. By doing so, they reduce risk of accidents from using your phone while you drive. You can give commands via voice for hands-off interaction, which allows you to focus on the road.
However, Android Auto and CarPlay face one obstacle in their way to dominating car dashboards worldwide: most of the world doesn’t have the latest cars.
Android Auto for everyone
To cater to that much larger part of the market, Google has announced an update to Android Auto which brings it to every car. They’ve built Android Auto’s core features right into every modern Android smartphone with an app, so you can use it without relying on your car dashboard system.
To use it, you just launch the Android Auto app before you start driving. You can also set it to launch automatically when it connects to a particular device i.e. your dashboard via Bluetooth.
Download Android Auto [Google Play]
Android Auto 2.0 is being rolled out slowly to 30+ markets around the world. To check if it is available in yours, visit the official Android Auto website.