With Google I/O around the corner, and Android Auto being out for a few months now, it’s time to take a look at what we might see from Google about Android Auto at their annual developer conference. We’re not expecting a huge update to Android, like we saw last year with Android L. And that makes many of us think that we’ll see more on Android Wear, Android TV and Android Auto, which were all announced alongside Android L.
Android Auto is a really cool product, but so far, it’s a bit difficult to justify spending nearly a grand to get a third-party head unit in your car that does Android Auto. I think we might see Google bring Android Auto to tablets. This way you can just mount a tablet into your car and use Android Auto through that. Which a lot of people would rather do anyways.
One thing that really needs to be worked on with Android Auto is the voice commands. In my review (which isn’t published yet, hang tight), I talked about how well they don’t work most of the time. And judging by the Google I/O schedule that’s been published, voice seems to be a big part of Android M. Including being able to interact with apps completely by voice. The fact that Google can’t hear you when you have the fan on in your car, is something that really needs to be fixed, if we’re going to have voice everywhere.
The only other thing I’d like to see improved in Android Auto is the app support. As I state in my review that’s coming out tomorrow, App support is pretty much non-existent. We have a handful of messaging apps and a handful of media apps and that’s it. I’d like to see apps like Nokia’s HERE Maps get support, so users can choose between HERE and Google Maps if they so wish. I’d also like to see some roadside assistance apps and features built into Android Auto. That would make it a much more compelling buy, especially if you have a car that doesn’t have Android Auto just yet.