Gadgetory

well here I am in my car with my Android phone and that combination normally means some hodgepodge Bluetooth connection for streaming and calling some contacts transfer some variable basket of apps with different interfaces and this thing clipped on the windshield or worse juggled in my hand here's how we go into the future this new Sonata has the first production rollout of Android auto an affordable car it all starts down here you cable your Android phone into the system as if you were gonna charge it let's say it's not Wireless right now then you lose the phone look up here on the dash that icon just changed to Android auto when you press that you're about to enter the world of your phone but on the dash for example right here your home screen if you will it's kind of a Google now look things you've done or looked at recently or irrelevant to where you are right now your round home button you recognize that from your phone your phone icon you're gonna have icon here's music and here's a return to main screen you get over here to navigation if you recognize that interface that's Google Maps your Google search box and this is live and connected through your phone plus the voice command to do that beautiful freeform search that we love that goes through the steering wheel AT&T Park San Francisco here is AT&T Park and of course the routing and traffic calculations the same ones you have on your phone but notice it's not literally taking the whole screen and putting it there it's artfully translating it to the automotive experience and limiting it to these main hints of apps calling is very straightforward again touch the call nice big Clear button interfaces as well to get things done on the touch screen over here under music it goes to your last streaming source from several on your phone and if you want to get to other choices it's got a drop-down next to it here are some music services with more to come now if you were listening to say radio before you hit Android auto it respects that and doesn't force you to suddenly switch to streaming customers have told us that's what they want so they want the phone experience that's where where their life is in a lot of ways their music their calendar the places they want to go it's in their phone so they bring that into the car and they bring it in a way that minimizes driver distraction the beauty of this is that it lets you live with your phone the same way in the car as you do outside okay so your initial takeaway on this is how consistent it is the experience on your phone how it strips away things that aren't essential to driving you basically get what the big three here on the screen imported from Android also your interface is rock-solid you've got a bigger screen mounted with good touch response and integration to the voice command button on the wheel though blessedly the voice command is still handled by Google in the cloud not by a car system now specific to this car the cost will be nothing if you got a 15 or one of the pending 16 sonatas this is a free retrograde or upgrade now that free upgrade has to be done at the dealer right now but later this summer Hyundai says they'll make a download available at my Hyundai comm and that it will be simple enough that you won't have to figure breaking your ride it takes a little bit of time that reflash is the head unit you basically plug it in and you do nothing until you remove it when it's done and it will tell you it's done so really almost no interaction with the vehicle other cars will follow later within their lineup the other thing is you don't lose the other Hyundai features not in this car if you already have nav in the vehicle you get back your places icon and you can drop back down to Hyundai navigation all the Hyundai media the Hyundai radio choices so this is a dual stack strategy later on Hyundai will have something called a display audio system where they're gonna strip out navigation and a few other bells and whistles and you get a lot of the Google goodness in there as a primary function not an added function and one of the most interesting things about this is that it may signal the beginning of carmakers admitting to some degree that they don't do mobile as well as the mobile company it would be essentially impossible for us to keep up with every infotainment option out there so by letting Google handle that we're able to bring just a variety of apps into the car and meet the customers needs send a message to Amy Johnson now the other shoe to drop soon is carplay which does basically the same things in the same way but on your iPhone Hyundai has that coming in early 2016 and the day after Hyundai put Android auto in showrooms Chevy announced virtually all its 2016 will offer Android auto and apple carplay by 2020 it's expected that 40 million cars will Android auto and nearly that many carplay according to a recent estimate by IHS Automotive so here is our first taste of the new vanguard apple carplay Android auto together they are a massively important story of Mobile's becoming consistent in the - and finally here hitting the market at a very affordable price point