Google discontinues Android Auto mobile service, in-car mobile internet upgrades

Google, which is trying to get a piece of the pie in the field of connected vehicles, has made some new changes recently.

Recently, Google announced that the latest version of Android, Android 12, will stop supporting Android Auto, and some Google users will no longer be able to use this feature on their phones.

In its place is the Google Assistant Driving Mode.

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Android 12 no longer supports Android Auto

Foreign media XDA said in an article published last Thursday that some Google users recently found that the Android Auto mobile app could not run properly when they opened it, and a reminder notification popped up saying "Android Auto is now only available for car screens."

So far, this notification reminder only appears on Pixel phones running Android 12. If you use a new Pixel with Android 12 to download this software from the Google App Store, it will be marked as "incompatible", which indicates that Android Auto may only stop service for specific users.

Subsequently, Google responded and confirmed that Android Auto for mobile screens will indeed be closed with the release of Android 12. Users of Android 12 and above will no longer be able to enjoy this experience, but users using older versions of the operating system will still be able to run the app normally.

Additionally, Google Assistant driving mode will become a built-in driving mode for Android 12 phones.

Google's full statement is below:

• Google Assistant Driving Mode is our update to the mobile driving experience. For users who use Android Auto in their vehicle, the Android Auto experience will not disappear. For users who use the Android Auto app on their phone, it will be converted to Google Assistant Driving Mode. Starting with Android 12, Google Assistant Driving Mode will become a built-in driving mode for mobile devices.

Android Auto has a low presence

Android Auto is an Android feature designed specifically for cars launched by Google. It debuted at Google's I/O conference in 2014 and openly challenged Apple's CarPlay.

Through Android Auto, Google hopes to connect mobile phones to compatible cars through this function, helping drivers to interact with car screens and mobile phone applications through voice, whether it is navigation, listening to music, or making phone calls and text messages, which will save time and effort.

In short, Google wants to develop an Android-based car system, hoping to enter the automotive market, solve the problem of the difficulty of using traditional automotive systems, and take the opportunity to expand its smartphone business.

A year later, the system was successfully put into mass production on the 2015 Hyundai Sonata.

At that time, some foreign media commented that if you are used to using Google Maps, its in-car navigation will be consistent with expectations. However, some people believe that compared with Wave, another navigation application under Google, the device does not provide enough latest traffic information and the broadcast is not timely enough.

However, the 2015 Google I/O conference did not mention Android Auto at all; it was not until 2016 that Google spent a few minutes at the end of the I/O conference to introduce some upgrades to Android Auto.

This upgrade mainly includes three aspects:

• Android Auto can support in-car hotspot connection, connecting the phone through the car's WiFi to allow the phone system to be presented in the car, replacing the previous problem of connecting with USB;
• With Google Voice connected, you can use "OK, Google" to wake up the operating system;
• Integrate more software suitable for people to use in the car, such as Spodify and Google Map, and invite more developers to create in-car applications.

However, in the three years since then, with the advent and continued development of Google Asssitant, Google seems to be increasingly focused on bringing the driving experience to Google Assistant.

In 2019, Google announced Google Assistant Driving Mode, and stated that it would focus all its efforts on redesigning Android Auto on cars, and that Android Auto on mobile phones would not be further updated. At this time, Android Auto had already shown signs of discontinuing service on mobile phones.

Where is the future of mobile phone and car interconnection?

In fact, in the field of in-vehicle mobile Internet systems, in addition to Google and Apple, domestic HBAT also has related solutions, such as Alibaba's Banma Smart Driving, Baidu's CarLife and Apollo, Tencent's AI in Car, and Huawei's HMS for Car.

However, the Internet of Vehicles solutions, especially mobile phone mapping solutions similar to Google Android Auto, have been developed for nearly ten years, but have not received a good market response. Industry insiders often regard them as a transitional solution for building the Internet of Vehicles.

There are indeed some problems with the mobile phone mapping solution. For example, the real-time development and ecological scalability of the car system cannot match that of mobile phones. The iteration speed of mobile phone applications is too fast, and the car system needs to spend a lot of time and energy to keep up with the mobile phone.

In addition, for security reasons, car manufacturers are reluctant to open up too much data to third parties, nor are they willing to hand over software control to mobile phone manufacturers. This is also the main obstacle to achieving mobile phone-car interconnection.

So, how will mobile phones and car machines get along in the future? Volkswagen Wenwen CEO Zhang Renjie gave an answer when communicating with Leifeng.com's New Intelligent Driving:

• The mobile phone does what the mobile phone should do, and the car computer does what the car computer should do. That is, the applications that can be completed through the mobile phone projection can be directly implemented on the mobile phone, and the applications that cannot be completed by the mobile phone can be implemented through the car computer.

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