When Google hosted a boot camp here this month for its Android operating system, there were some new faces in the room: auto manufacturers.
They made the trip to learn about Android Auto, a new dashboard system meant to let a smartphone power a car’s center screen. Tasks as varied as navigation, communication and music apps, all constantly talking to the cloud. And to the driver.
A similar scene is playing out just a few miles down the road at Apple, where a rival system, CarPlay, has been developed for iPhone users.
After years of being treated as an interesting side business, autos have become the latest obsession for Silicon Valley, with Apple assigning about 200 people to work on electric vehicle technology and Google saying it envisions the public using driverless car s within five years.
But nowhere is that obsession playing out more immediately than in the battle to develop the next generation of cars’ dashboard systems. In the coming weeks and months, dealerships around the country will begin selling vehicles capable of running Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or both.
The systems go far beyond currently available Bluetooth pairing for playing music or making a hands-free call, and allow for Google’s or Apple’s operating system to essentially take over the center screen and certain buttons within the car.
“Consumers have spoken,” said John Maddox, assistant director of the University of Michigan’s Mobility Transformation Center. “They expect to have coordination between their phone and their vehicle.”
Here at Google’s headquarters, Android Auto is about to make its debut in Americans’ cars after two years in development. Plug in a smartphone with a USB cord and the system powers up on a car’s screen. The phone’s screen, meanwhile, goes dark, not to be touched while driving.
Apple’s CarPlay works similarly, with bubbly icons for phone calls, music, maps, messaging and other apps appearing on the center screen. (Apple declined to comment for this article.)
While the idea of constantly connected drivers zipping along roads raises concerns about distracted driving, both companies say their systems are designed with the opposite goal: to make cellphone-toting drivers safer.
“We looked at what people do with their phones in the car, and it was scary,” said Andrew Brenner, the lead project manager of Google’s Android Auto team. “You want to say to them, ‘Yikes, no, don’t do that.’ ”
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