Last week’s Google I/O was arguably one of the most eventful in recent memory, especially for us Android fans. After all, the vast majority of the keynote was Android, Android, Android and that was a very good thing, not just for us but for Google and the industry as a whole. One of the bigger announcements was how Android Auto was going to look like and how it was going to work. A pretty simple, yet powerful interface was shown off on stage as well as demoed throughout the conference. Android Auto is Google’s contribution to the Open Automotive Alliance that the company announced earlier on in the year. With big names like Audi, Volvo, GM Hyundai and NVIDIA, said Alliance already had some powerful ingredients to get started with.
This past week though, Google and friends welcomed another member into the family, with LG joining the Automotive Alliance. It’s said that LG will be offering up audio visual navigation systems for cars running Android Auto and was demonstrating their work on the show floor during last week’s action-packed conference. Much like the Android Auto demo that was carried out onstage, LG’s systems will allow for a compatible phone to be plugged into the car and the main display take charge, complete with voice control as we saw onstage.
We’re not surprised that LG has joined the Open Automotive Alliance, after all they’ve been pretty big partners of Google’s for some time now, producing two Nexus smartphones and now one of the first Android Wear watches with the G Watch. Android Auto should be a big help for not only the tech industry, but also the automotive industry, the question of how manufacturers bring the smartphone into the car has lingered for some time and with the OAA, Google has essentially solved that problem for car makers. By next year, new car buyers should be able to choose from a decent range of cars with Android Auto built-in, with Volvo, Audi, GM and others all onboard.