AUDI TEAMS UP WITH GOOGLE AND NVIDIA TO BRING ANDROID TO IT'S AUTOMOBILES

AUDI AUTOMOBILE

After Apple announced iOS 7′s in-vehicle support, it seemed only logical that Google would respond in kind. Now it looks like a partnership with Audi will soon shed some light on that response.

The development pace of mobile operating systems and apps for those platforms makes it nearly impossible for vehicle manufacturers to keep up. The interfaces you see in vehicles today are dramatically inferior to what a smartphone is capable of, and that gap isn’t closing nearly fast enough.

Providing basic sync capabilities, as we’ve seen in recent years, helps address the problem somewhat. At the core of this issue, however, is the existence of the phone at all. Any time the driver has to interact with the phone in order to get the vehicle to do something is a failure. We’ve seen Apple’s response to this, and now it looks like Google is about to step up to the plate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Audi plans to announce a partnership with Google at CES. The nature of this partnership isn’t completely known, but a large focus will be placing Android features inside the car. Nvidia will be lending their Android experience by supplying the processors for this group project, but little more about the hardware is known.

Turn-by-turn navigation powered by the significantly updated Google Maps would be a huge deal in a car, but there’s a lot more that could happen here. Google Now integration would offer voice assistant features, as well as location based interests for just about everything. It’s a service that is already incredibly useful when out and about, but would become so much more powerful when embedded in a connected car.

It seems unlikely that Google will have only partnered with a single vehicle manufacturer, but this announcement with Audi may be the first foot forward when it comes to a larger plan for Android in vehicles.

On the other hand Audi has demonstrated an equal passion for self-driving cars and a great sense of humor, so it’s possible this is a one off deal. We’ll have all of the details after the announcement, but for now all we can do is hope that the screens in our cars are finally leaving the dark ages.