Finally, an automaker puts decent infotainment first

[mrk]

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/volvo-android-infotainment-experience/

I recommend watching the whole video in the article. This is pretty great news and whilst the demo is only a concept of what is possible, it is about damn time car makers thought seriously about what kind of integration they adopt with not only the car's hardware, but also entertainment and navigation. There isn't a single OEM system I've seen where I've thought "this is really cool", they are either just ok, or gash.

Android P also utilises a new dynamic sound processing engine, think Viiper4Android for those who used to root their phones in the past, sound quality should be excellent for all cars running a system like this. Also given how super advanced Google Assistant has now become, doing stuff like messaging/navigating or changing car settings with your voice should be totally natural. And because it's a tailored experience based on the driver, everything is bespoke to that person, so it just works.

Google Nav on the driver's instrument cluster is also really cool, and I hope 3rd party apps like Waze add support for those API calls as well. Actually hope is too easy, it's almost certain they will support stuff like this when the time comes.

I also like how Volvo have geared it toward giving a custom experience for each driver, how the seats and stuff move to each driver's preference, pulling in their navigation data, playlists and everything else when they get in the car and their phone/key etc is connected.


Cool.

 

[mrk]

Something like this would also be excellent for vehicle tracking. You could find your car via Google's Android Device Manager, lock it out, track it in realtime using Cerberus or other apps, or pre-heat the HVAC on a winter's morning from the comfort of your armchair without having to subscribe to something, as all this is through an open source platform and your car will be sat there connected to the home WiFi or sim card in the car.

 

[mrk]

Sad times when a cars highlight is it's radio instead of a decent engine and drive. Cars these days just aren't exciting.

Where does anything say this is the highlight over anything else? This article is related to Google's recent I/O event, so naturally everything shown would revolve around Android.

Infotainment is one of the bigger failing points in most modern cars though, and I have yet to use one that has made me go "ok this is actually really cool". The vast majority have rubbish navigation for starters, then music integration with connected services whether OTA or via bluetooth has varying degrees of success and usability. It's one of the reasons I really enjoy using my car's stereo, it runs android, has native Waze, Spotify and GoneMad apps do cover all my needs.

 

[mrk]

I think it would be the opposite^

At present when the car is years old it's harder to update the maps etc. With a pure Android system running off Google's back end, and utilising the Play Store, you can always update the maps, because Google updates that side of things, not the manufacturer. This is why this is a big deal. The owner no longer has to source updates from the car maker. They just update the Maps app of their choice from the Play Store just like they do on their phones.

Point is, this is a natural extension from Android Auto and Apple Car play, you are no longer streaming apps from a connected phone to the car's screen, instead you've got the whole Android OS in the car, which then gets updated by Google, not the automaker. And because Android now uses Treble, the OS update side of things sits on its own partition, so the device manufacturer doesn't have to spend time re-developing everything for each update.

 

[mrk]

Yup as long as you can still update apps then that's all you need. OS updates are just a bonus. The integration UI bits can remain unchanged for years, the stuff like HVAC controls etc pretty much never need to be updated, for example.

My current Android unit runs Android 4.4.4, but because it has the latest Play Services, I can continue using the latest media and nav apps for a few more Android generations yet until the current API level gets dropped.

 

[mrk]

seems the Android P equalizer is just 5 channels versus viper option of 10, so that will limit ability to autotune for a car acoustics ?
also, will it be limited bandwidth/quality bluetooth streaming off of phones, as opposed to wifi ?

would be nice to see auto makers, say more about the digital to analog/dac circuitry in their integrated systems,but similar to mobile phones, the audio quality now seems to take second place vesus other functionality - processing power for apps/screen ....


Also

Hmm interesting, perhaps it seems Google are doing things in the right direction, but maybe not quite there yet compared to Viper (example). I use Viper on my Android head unit and it transforms the stock speakers genuinely like night and day. It is as if I swapped out the stock amps and speakers with something aftermarket just by toggling a few sliders and options in the app.