Google shows off its car infotainment operating system, built into Android N

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California—Google has a full car infotainment operating system on display at I/O. We've long heard rumors of such a project and have spotted references to "Android Automotive" in Google's compatibility documents, but a car-focused version of Android is now quietly sitting in the back corner of Google I/O.

Previous forms of Google automotive computing came in the form of Android Auto, which was a casted interface that was beamed from a phone to a car screen. The car still ran some kind of host operating system, but that OS would move out of the way and let the Android phone use the built-in display like an external monitor. In contrast, this is a full operating system that runs directly on the car hardware. The car version of Android doesn't really have a launch date, or even a special name—"cars" are now just a supported form factor in Android N.

Google is demoing the OS in a Maserati Quattroporte, which it says it loaded up with Android without involvement from the car manufacturer. Inside, the Maserati runs a Snapdragon 820 with a 4K display in the center console. There is also a gauge cluster display that Android can control.

The demo car interface looks a lot like Android Auto, just taller. The Android Auto interface sits more or less untouched towards lower half of the screen, complete with the current navigation/app-switching bar you see today. With the taller screen, there are major additions above and below the normal interface. At the bottom are HVAC controls, a critical feature now that Android is the only OS in the car. Above the usual Android Auto interface there's a section that shows recently used apps (maybe this is "currently running apps?" The rep wouldn't say) which made switching between apps a breeze. Above that is a status bar, which had all the normal Android icons, including a vestigial battery icon.

The home screen was the one area that didn't compartmentalize Android Auto—the scrolling list view filled the entire screen. Android was also rendering the gauge cluster display in front of the driver. It looked like a normal set of guages except for notifications, which popped into the display. We never saw a notification pop in to the big screen.

A phone was paired to the car to pull in contact information, but other than that, the phone wasn't being used to drive the display or provide apps the way it is in Android Auto. This means you would have to get apps on the car somehow. Maybe through an on-board app Play Store?

Most of our questions resulted in answers along the lines of "this isn't ready yet" or "We're not worried about that right now." We were told several times the interface is not what's important. Google is more focused on the platform side of things, and car manufacturers are free (and expected) to customize or create their own interface. The reps there were very careful to say that this was not a product Google was selling, but a concept the company created to show off Android N's automotive support. The underlying Android platform will be made open source and available to OEMs, but of course the Googly bits like Maps and Search won't be available.

It's not widely known, but many cars use Android as the base for their infotainment systems today—and wouldn't you? Android is a free, touch-focused operating system, it's compatible with every piece of hardware imaginable, and there's already a decent SDK for making apps. Android gets abused and neglected as a car infotainment platform, though. The 2016 Hyundai Genesis uses Android for its infotainment system, but it uses the ancient Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The 2016 Honda Accord uses Android 4.2 for the infotainment system, with an exposed AOSP browser. How secure do you think a browser from 2012 is?

With Google making car infotainment systems an official Android platform, hopefully it can provide some guidance to car OEMs, specifically around updates and shipping up-to-date versions. Android doesn't have a great reputation when it comes to updates, but no one ships a five-year-old operating system on a flagship product the way car companies do. Google can also stabilize the app development side of things, and cars could have a widespread app platform the way smartphones do.

But remember—this is just a concept. It is quietly on display at Google I/O though, and the code will be out there for anyone to use. Google is clearly thinking about providing an underlying platform for cars the way it has for smartphones. Will anyone take it up on the offer?

There are no plans for a Nexus car. I asked.