Google captured another big automaker in its journey to enhance the default operating system for cars. Honda will shortly commence turning out vehicles with Google’s embedded Android Automotive OS.
It includes Google’s voice-activated Assistant, Google Maps, and another automotive-approved Android app as the default infotainment.
The first Honda vehicles with embedded Android will begin rolling out in 2022. Honda wouldn’t state which models it demands to get the new infotainment systems first.
We will collaborate with Google to completely combine Google in-vehicle services in our vehicles, including using features like Google Assistant, Google Maps functionality more easily, and other in-vehicle apps offered through Google Play, a Honda spokesperson told in an email.
Android Automotive is different from Android Auto. The car’s default infotainment method is the former, checking everything from music to navigation to heating and air conditioning.
At the same time, the end is calculated from a smartphone onto the car’s dashboard display and competes with Apple’s CarPlay. Google also had some announcements about Android Auto.
Only two cars are available now with embedded Android Automotive, the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge.
But Google has executed contracts with many other automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, appearing in millions of future vehicles delivered with default Android operating systems.
The news that Honda is entering the Android Automotive combination won’t develop as a whole surprise, given that the automaker’s current operating system has been Android-based for years.
Honda was also a portion of the Google-led Open Automotive Alliance, Audi, Hyundai, and chipmaker Nvidia, which combined Android into in-car infotainment.
Originally, car groups appeared to need to hold big tech companies at arm’s distance to stop them from tapping into the lucrative consumer data streams moving in and out of their vehicles.
But Honda estimates that by delivering Google beneath the hood, it can reasonably sell more extra cars to consumers who would favor a more smartphone-like in-car experience than the OS software presently afforded by the automaker.