Android Auto – with the emphasis on Auto

The world can be divided into two types: Apple or Android. It is almost that black and white.

Mobility, however, can be a very narrowly-defined concept. The mobile phone that travels so well in your pocket or handbag doesn't travel so well once linked to your car, as it turns out.

So Google returned to the drawing board with Android to develop and drive Android Auto in a different direction specifically for automotive mobility.

"We do not believe that a phone user interface [UI] is the same as a car UI," said Henry Newton-Dunn, Design Manager at Google. "In many ways never the twain shall meet."

It is a matter of distraction.

"Any time you talk about automotive and mobile technologies you really have to talk about distraction," said Evan Malahy, Design Lead, Android Auto. "As mobile phones demand more and more attention and are more immersive, that becomes a dangerous temptation to consider those two worlds [mobility and automotive] coming together."

It seems obvious, as Malahy explains: "Android Auto needs to be designed for driving. We had to refocus how we thought about Android Auto's UI. We had to fundamentally rethink what it meant to have an Android-based system in the vehicle. The worst thing we could have done was taken a phone UI full of attention grabbing things and slam that into the dash and call it done."

Everything about Android had to be turned on its head as the team at Google redesigned it to create Android Auto to eliminate distractions, to simplify its function and to interact with the driver safely.

"For the user, Android Auto almost had to be second nature," said Newton-Dunn.

The key feature of Android Auto is its directness and how simply and consistently it presents commands to the driver for communication, navigation, music or entertainment. Newton-Dunn breaks it down further, "We wanted the entire platform to be knowable and familiar."

That includes significant testing for left-hand and right-hand use, claims Newton-Dunn. "We thought that left-handed use [ie: RHD vehicles], it would make a huge amount of difference in terms of where things are placed. But we found that with touch screen it is more about having things around the edge of the screen because it is thought to do with the way that you anchor [your hand] and touch."

It was an enormous challenge to create one system that works with all input types across so many different vehicle makes and models.

"There is incredible diversity in the automotive design world for interior design, HMI, heads-up displays, and we wanted to enable that and amplify that," said Malahy.

The car is becoming deeply connected, and as it progresses toward more autonomous control, Malahy predicts the way we interact with the car will have a design impact in terms of HMI and computing outside of the car.

"The future is something we talk about," said Newton-Dunn. "The automotive industry has been thinking about the future a lot longer than Google."