French car makers, Citroen and Peugeot have announced that they are bringing Android Auto to a slew of vehicles this year. Citroen is bringing it to 6 of theirs, while Peugeot are adding 9. It’s also worth noting that the luxury brand DS will also be adding support in the near future. While these car makers are bigger in Europe and Asia than in the US, it’s still great to see Android Auto coming to more and more vehicles these days.
For Citroen, they have 6 vehicles with support today, and one that will be getting it soon. The list of currently supported vehicles include the 2017 C3, 2017 C4 Picasso, 2017 Grand C4 Picasso, 2017 C-Elysee, 2017 Jumpy and 2017 SpaceTourer. The 2017 C4 will be getting support at some point in the future – likely later on this year. When it comes to Peugeot, there are 9 cars with support as of today including the 2017 208, 2017 2008, 2017 301, 2017 3008, 2017 508, 2017 508 SW, 2017 5008, 2017 Expert and 2017 Traveller. The DS models that will get support soon are the 2017 DS4 and 2017 DS5.
Android Auto is already available in a slew of cars, and it was reported earlier this year that there will be over a hundred new models added in 2017. At this point, that number might be eclipsed pretty soon. 2017 has been a good year for Android Auto so far, and we’re only 4 months into the year. It’s also worth noting that while it’s great to see vehicles coming with Android Auto built in, you don’t actually need it built in to use Android Auto. Instead you can get a car mount and mount your phone in your car and use the Android Auto app to get the same experience. The major advantages that come with having it built into the car is a larger screen and a better GPS signal, since it is using the car’s GPS and not your smartphones, among other advantages.
For those that may not be aware, Android Auto allows you to seamlessly stream your favorite music in the car, make phone calls, reply to messages and use Google Maps for navigation. It may not seem like a big deal, but it’s pretty useful, and a whole lot better than the infotainment system that comes in most cars as standard these days. Not to mention, Google Maps is perhaps the best navigation software available right now.