MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — 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 engineers 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.’ ”
Mr.
Brenner said his team tried to figure out how to minimize distraction
during tasks people frequently do while driving, while also deciding
what should be prevented in the car altogether. Google even built its
own driver-distraction lab, to test different variations.
Android
Auto, for example, has no “back” button like the smartphone version. No
“recents” button either. Google Maps has been adjusted to make fonts
bigger and streets less detailed, for easier reading while driving.
No action should take more than two seconds — consistent with the Transportation Department’s voluntary guidelines.
“Things that we don’t show are just as important as what we do show,” Mr. Brenner said.
Music
is most definitely in. Streaming video? Most definitely not. Most
social media will also be blocked, and texts can be sent only with voice
commands. Apps on the screen are optimized for speed: glance, touch and
eyes back to the road.
“It’s
these little glances at the screen that people do in a car,” he said.
“We want something that’s very glanceable, that can be seen and done
quickly.”
On a recent afternoon, Mr. Brenner drove through the streets here in a Hyundai Sonata
equipped with a demonstration version of Android Auto. Part techie,
part car guy, Mr. Brenner was hired two years ago after Google
discovered he had rigged up a Nexus 7 tablet to his dashboard in an
early attempt to make his own connected car.
“Navigate
to Krispy Kreme,” he said after settling into the driver’s seat. Up
popped the nearest location on the screen, and a voice began
turn-by-turn directions. A little music never hurt either: “Play Black
Sabbath,” he said.
The
Krispy Kreme near Google’s campus played a notable role for Mr. Brenner
and his team of engineers. It was the destination they always tried to
reach during testing without Android Auto failing along the way.
“They
thought we were a little nuts,” he said. “We would pull up with four
people taking notes and order three dozen doughnuts for the engineering
team.”
It
took until last April to finally succeed in making the trip without a
glitch. They added some Champagne to bring back from that doughnut run.
When
the Android Auto project began, it included a core group of automakers
like General Motors, Audi, Honda and Hyundai. Now, as it prepares for
its debut, roughly two dozen car brands have signed on to offer it soon.
Apple has teamed up with roughly the same number of brands, many of
which will offer both systems.
Most
automakers are staying mum on their exact start dates, but Hyundai is
expected to act shortly, and Volkswagen has indicated availability for
its next Golf. G.M. has said the same about its Spark subcompact.
One
of the most widespread adopters will be Ford, which this year will
begin offering both Android Auto and CarPlay in conjunction with the
revamping of the automaker’s much-criticized Sync system. By the end of
2016, they will be available on all Fords sold in the United States.
“We
don’t want people to have to make a vehicle choice based on which
mobile phone they have,” said Don Butler, Ford’s executive director for
connected vehicles and services. “We want to accommodate all customers
and their devices.”
While
automakers traditionally aimed to control all aspects of the
infotainment experience — building their own closed-off, proprietary
systems — the results were not always stellar. And the pace of
technology meant a car’s hardware and software could become dated
quickly.
In
some cases, the systems carried what seemed to be needless costs, like
an annual fee for updating map software — something unthinkable for any
user of Google Maps or Apple Maps.
Mr. Butler said that leveraging smartphones and the ecosystem of apps surrounding them provided a new way forward.
“The
challenge with closed systems is you need to predict where the future
is heading, or have enough robustness that it’s future proof, which of
course is virtually impossible,” he said. “We think it’s better to put a
broad platform for innovation in place.”
One
area where automakers have struggled mightily, but the tech giants have
found more success, is in voice recognition. Using voice commands has
huge potential to help keep drivers’ eyes focused on the road. The
challenge there is that they have to work.
“Many
of the systems out there now in cars, the voice interface is almost
unusable,” said Mr. Maddox, the University of Michigan transportation
expert. “It’s inaccurate, people get frustrated and they’ll just stop
using it.”
J.D.
Power’s 2014 Initial Quality Study found that consumers cited bad voice
recognition as their most dissatisfying experience when buying a new
car.
In
Apple’s CarPlay, Siri, the voice-controlled assistant, guides the
system, and the company provided specifications to automakers to ensure
that a user’s voice is easily understandable while inside the car. If a
user’s car has a touch screen or control knobs, CarPlay can be
controlled that way as well.
Google
has taken similar steps to make sure that consumers can speak as they
normally do. As he approached the doughnut shop, Mr. Brenner said that
getting consumers comfortable with voice commands is all about allowing
them to say things in different ways.
“I
could have said ‘Take me to Krispy Kreme,’ or ‘Go to Krispy Kreme’ or
even just ‘Krispy Kreme’ and it would have figured out what I wanted,”
he said.
But
despite the momentum building in Silicon Valley, not all automakers are
sold on the idea of giving up their dashboards to the tech giants.
John
Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology
communications, said while the company talked frequently with both
Google and Apple, it currently had no plans to adopt Android Auto or
CarPlay in the United States.
“We
may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our
in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Mr. Hanson
said.
Fiat
Chrysler, considered to have one of the better infotainment platforms
on the market, has signed on to support Google’s and Apple’s systems.
But a bit of lament is evident.
“We’re
confident that our systems deliver a good experience for our
customers,” said Eric Mayne, a spokesman at Chrysler. “But we’re not
standing still either.”
As
Mr. Brenner pulled into the drive-through line at Krispy Kreme, the
attendant on duty, seeing three people in the car, asked: “You guys want
anything?”
“One original glazed doughnut please,” he replied.
“Only one?” came the surprised response. “Anything else?”
“No, we’re all set,” he said.
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