Volvo to Use Google Assistant, Play Store and Maps in Next-Gen Infotainment(media.volvocars.com) |
Volvo to Use Google Assistant, Play Store and Maps in Next-Gen Infotainment(media.volvocars.com) |
The reason infotainment sucks so hard is that car companies want to "own the experience" and also want to cut costs, so they underinvest and create poor experiences.
This Volvo hardware is going to be a minimum of 3 years old before it ships and will have to function for 10 years+.
How good is your 10 year old phone? How does it match up to the average consumer experience today? How's the speakers, camera, audio, OTA software, and display compare to what's available today?
Not owning the software ecosystem is a good first step but will be severely hampered by not aligning hardware development cycle expectations.
PS - I should clarify that the engine's computer received at least two recall updates. But Android doesn't try and replace that.
Why not just specify a "dashboard control tablet" form-factor, and have an empty spot there, expecting the user to supply their own (and replace it every year or two, as people tend to do with other mobile devices)? It'd be this decade's tape/CD player module.
Case in point: I haven't upgraded my desktop PC in 5 years either.
They can still shoot themselves in the foot by intentionally buying underpowered hardware, but that won't be the fault of hardware trends, it'll be the fault of making a bad initial choice.
So one the one hand you have Google Assistant: great voice recognition and queries against the Google search engine, and on the other hand you have Samsung which doesn't own a search engine and can't compete in the voice search market.
So it looks like Google is going to dominate the entire hands-free computing world (smartwatch, cars, and home assistants)
Google I/O is tomorrow so hopefully they'll announce some Android Wear with LTE and voice assistant.
Crankshaft does all of the above, plus it doesn't talk to the cloud, doesn't require you to be connected to "the cloud," doesn't collect your data, doesn't ask you to buy a new expensive car, doesn't nudge you to subscribe to any service, and has a stallmanism approach to software freedom.
Disclaimer: I made it.
The car looks and handles great, but we won't be getting another Volvo just because the electronics are so bad.
I've had CarPlay for the last couple years, and I use it exclusively now. Even for things like radio, I've started using the Sirius app via CarPlay instead of the native radio interface. I don't use built-in navigation either, I just use my phone's on the same head unit.
What kind of benefits can the deliver through a tighter integration? And will they be able to keep it up-to-date as easily I keep my phone up-to-date? Will be interesting to watch.
Yes it looks completely different, but delay between user action and response is horrific, sometimes over a second and sometimes doesn't even do anything. It's like those cheap Chinese after market systems, that runs poor hardware and just barely works. And all of this in a new 2017 car, imagine this after 5 or 10 years, will be totally useless... Hopefully Volvo will do a better job with usability of the system.
Install the Volvo app on my phone, pair, done.
don't really want random apps running in my car.
I don't care if the connection is cable, bluetooth wifi etc.
Plus you can stick the phone/tomtom on the windscreen. I find that rather than being something in my view that's annoying I end up using it as a heads up display, so I don't have to look down at my speedometer any more as it's right there on the windscreen.
Volvo supports both of those as well in their current infotainment systems.
If I'm going to have a car connected at all time to a LTE network, I want the software on it to be secure.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/volkswagen-an... Volkswagen and Audi Cars Vulnerable to Remote Hacking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BuRMdjij4g
Here's Audi's system
Maybe they are just evaluating it to get an idea of what to copy in the future?
Phones themselves aren't a problem if used safely, such as running Android Auto (full screen app version) and having it mounted so it can hear voice commands.
The problem is that people try to jerry-rig a poor man's version using Google Maps app, a phone sitting loose in the cup holder, and no voice commands ("let me pick it up briefly to pick a route").
It is the difference between ideal usage and real world usage. Built into the vehicle gives you closer to ideal usage every single time.
Ideally would be Google Maps and assistant built in.
Why would a manufacturer intentionally hurt the Blue Book value of their vehicles?
The Google Assistant seems to have custom code, so it would be understandable, if I can't replace that, but then it's hopefully at least possible to turn it off.
If not, I'm not buying a Volvo in my lifetime.
An European citizen unwilling to have an embedded system that tracks location, accesses mic and transmit GPS data has three options: burn the SIM card module, buy a pre-April-2018 car or something outside the EU.
In car tech is set on autopilot features which stymies development of anything that does not share that future. You can't invest $$$ in the next dashboard gizmos if you know that autopilot is going to 'change everything'. So it makes sense to just hnd it all over to Google now.
Google - "You are our product"
> This is literally what Android Auto and CarPlay are.
Except less open and less standards compliant?
I like the idea of them being upgradable, but it would seem to depend on more software and API discipline than I imagine VW or any the other manufacturers being interested in.
Relatedly, the lifecycle of a lease is much closer to a phone, so for owners of the 30%[1] of cars out there that are leased, the upgrade cycle will presumably keep them "up to date". If the car manufacturers are pushing us more towards away from ownership (analogous to phones, software, etc.) then there is little incentive for them to make significant investments in upgrade-ability. And like legacy phone hardware companies, they are too busy preparing new phones to give much love to upgrading older ones.
Think of all the car owners with iPod connectivity crying in their new 5 years old cars all over the world. By the way, today's iPhones do not support iPod connectivity. And I'm talking about protocol, not about hardware port. Which is a hassle to replace in quite a few vehicles too.
Honest question, are there people that have had good CarPlay experiences?
How is this better than just sticking your phone on the dashboard?
Is driving so tedious that drivers are crying out to be infotained?
I genuinely don't understand why cars suddenly
have to have tablets built into them.
Hence, car companies _think_ an executive/luxury car needs to have a screen in the dashboard because that's just how it's been for as long as they can remember. And they think putting premium car features in midrange cars makes them more appealing to buyers.
In practice Volvo would probably just sell the data to others (i'm pretty sure they already do sell it to everyone from insurance carriers to you name it), and Google would probably just keep it.
At least that’s the case for normal iOS use.
Open standards such as the DIN dash mounts for in car entertainment systems do just fine. I've never seen an integrated audio system that I like, usually they're junk to begin with and they are obsolete long before the car is and hard - or sometimes even impossible - to get rid of.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/20/bmw-to-switch-apple-carp...
That said, I generally agree with you: I think a lot of the advancement we'll see in the coming years will be in the VR/AR space, which will present a different enough experience that users won't be comparing it to existing interfaces.
"Can I trust it to work?
It is alpha-level software, so no. It's not an official or even related to or certified by Google or Android. It's totally a hobby. But we hope you give it a try and have fun with it when it's safe to do so."
It's nowhere near the commercial applicability car manufacturers require. Nobody really cares about private users because thats not where the money is..
As long as the screens are dumb and the interface documented I don't see why that couldn't happen.
Suzuki's Jimny is one of the few (if not the only) 4x4 available that is not an SUV. At least around here.
If you're looking for minimalism, you should take a look at Bollinger's B1 (https://bollingermotors.com/)
Not so if the same CPU and stuff were jammed into a car (under condition that the heat is taken care of so it doesn't throttle itself).
I have an Audi now with Android auto, and I prefer their non-touchscreen interface to the touchscreen one. Cars and touchscreens just don't work in my opinion, I'd much rather work using just a scroll wheel and selector.
Although AA might be better suited to it than carplay is.
And I mirror your feelings, AA was a significant factor in my purchase, and it is a non-negotiable feature in my next car purchase.
I feel the same way about iCloud vs third party storage services for things like photo syncing.
:(
So in my 2002 el cheapo car, I can buy and install in ~ 15 minutes a 2018 infotainment system with a 7" IPS touch screen, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Waze, Spotify Connect, all the bells and whistles you can imagine.
But of course car manufacturers realized this was costing them sales, both in form of less incentive to buy a new car, and less incentive to spend $2k on the "upgrade" option for the stereo when a better aftermarket unit is <$1k, so they moved away from this standard.
You can also 3D print your own. There's free downloadable models of the DIN slots that you can add to a 3D scan of your cars centre console. Then depending on your car's interior trim, fibreglass it, or trim it in leather/whatever you want. Or you can just buy the DIN/Double DIN housing, dremel out where your stock headunit is embedded, and mould it in. Plenty of people on car forums do this and there's lots of guides online.
Considering the absolutely insane premium prices for sub-par entertainment systems in modern cars, I've personally found the above effort completely worth it.
I'm currently adding a RasPi and 7" touch screen with GPS for Google Maps, 1TB SSD of media, Spotify (via Wifi tether to my phone), USB ports in glovebox for USB sticks of media or charging phones, and more, to a 2012 car that came with an embedded CD/MP3 player with no nav, no screen, and no DIN slot.
Fully replaceable industry standard DIN mounts in dashboard is the best we got. Well, had. Car info, rear camera etc could be shown via mirrorlink-like setup inside of a replacable head unit.
Maybe we could have car stereo game going again and it'd start to improve. Today's infotainment suuuuucks. Thank god for steering wheel buttons. Otherwise they wouldn't be safely usable while driving. And yes, skipping songs or adjusting volume must be physical knobs to make it doable without taking eyes off the road.
https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/
This is yet another example of a car company unable to realize that they just don't make good car infotainment dashboards. This will just lead to further fragmentation of the Android ecosystem.
I don’t necessarily blame apple for this, but they clearly didn’t put strict enough requirements on the hardware that runs CarPlay.
I never bother with Carplay for less than a 1 hour trip.
As you say, it is probably a problem with some hardware.
I think the major problems here aren't safety or engineering, they are purely economic.
Which sounds more like they got a better deal from Apple.