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ROD LOPEZ: Hello.
I'm Rod Lopez, Product Manager for Android Auto.
And together with Jennifer Chui, a Technical Program Manager,
we'll be sharing exciting new updates
across Android for Cars.
Let's start by briefly going over our vision and commitment
to automotive.
Our vision of striving for a safe and seamless
connected experience in every car
continues to guide all of our work.
And our commitment to auto has only grown in the past decade
thanks to developers like you, our OEM partners and our users.
There are three experiences to help drivers no matter
the car that they own.
Assistant Driving Mode, which lives on the phone screen;
Android Auto, which allows you to connect
your phone to the car display; and Android Automotive OS
with Google Built In, which integrates Google Apps
right into the car's display.
We'll be focusing on the latter two experiences
in today's session.
We're reaching scale and continuing
to grow across our products.
Android Auto, which allows users to connect their phone
to their car to access their favorite apps right
on the display, is experiencing some real strong momentum.
There are now over 150 million Android Auto-compatible cars
driving on roads all across the globe, with supported models
from nearly every major car maker.
There's also been significant growth on Android Automotive
OS with Google Built In.
This experience allows users to access Google Assistant, Google
Maps, and apps from Google Play directly from the car display
without the need for a phone.
And with this deeper integration,
app updates take place over the air via Google Play,
allowing for continuous improvements.
This experience is already available on a number of cars
from top brands like Polestar, Volvo, General Motors,
and Renault, and it's coming to many more soon.
Now, let's jump into some updates and new experiences.
For starters, Android Auto is increasingly
becoming a completely wireless experience,
with more and more cars supporting wireless
connectivity and the introduction of the Motorola
MA1 Wireless Adapter.
We're also continuing our efforts
to make all your devices work better together, with features
like Fast Pair, which pairs your phone to the car
with just one tap; and Digital Car Key, allowing you to unlock
and start your car using just your phone.
Additionally, we've been hard at work
on a brand new design for Android Auto,
and we're excited to be able to share it with you for the very
first time.
Here's a sneak peek.
This new UI brings our pioneering split-screen
functionality to all screen sizes and form factors.
It prioritizes core user needs, like navigation, podcasts,
music, and audiobooks, putting them front and center,
reducing the need to switch between apps to see
what's playing, to favorite a song,
or to find the best route.
The design is adaptive and responsive,
optimizing its layout for any screen,
and scaling perfectly to even the largest
portrait and wide displays.
The new design also integrates the best of Google Assistant
into Android Auto, from relevant alerts
to contextual suggestions that help
you safely accomplish more.
And they also make your drive more enjoyable.
Whether it's returning a missed call,
sharing arrival times with a friend,
or playing recommended music, the Google Assistant
can now make it happen with a tap on the screen,
or using your voice.
Last but not least, we're introducing
a set of streamlined flows to quickly message and call
your favorite contacts with just one tap,
and the ability to reply to messages
with minimal distraction by simply selecting
a suggested response on the screen.
We're thrilled about this new evolution for Android Auto,
and we can't wait to get it out to Android users just
in time for the summer.
For cars powered by Android Automotive OS with Google
Built In.
We're focused on bringing you helpful experiences in the car,
even while parked.
We previously announced that we're
bringing video into the car.
And we're now expanding the apps available, with providers
like Tubi TV, YouTube, Epix, and more.
And beyond video, we'll also bring parked experiences
like browsing to the car.
With these additions, you'll be able to stay entertained
while charging your car or waiting for curbside pickup.
Lots of exciting momentum in updates.
Now, I'm going to pass it off to Jennifer,
to share more about how you can bring those experiences to life
in the car.
JENNIFER CHUI: Thanks, Rod.
As Android for Cars platforms continue to scale and improve,
drivers expect more of their favorite apps
to be available in their cars.
We have seen how rich app ecosystems helped
to create incredible user value in mobile,
and we believe that similar forces will play out in TV,
wearables, and automotive.
And this is where you come in.
Developers are a crucial part of this ecosystem
that we're building in the automotive industry.
We know that building experiences for cars
is extremely complex, considering
the variety of screen shapes, sizes, and input methods,
not to mention the need to minimize driver distraction.
That's why we're continuing to focus on making developing
for cars as easy as possible.
We introduced the Car App Library
in 2020, which provides a set of templates,
with a simple framework for developers
to build app experiences that work
across both Android for Cars platforms.
With the Car App Library, apps automatically
adapt to different vehicle screens
and even to the unique look and feel across car makers,
without any additional work from developers.
To date, we've seen strong adoption of the Car App
Library, with over 200 parking, charging, and navigation maps
published thus far.
Without you, none of this momentum would be possible.
Many of the apps published have been on Android Auto.
So we're happy to share new updates
to make it easier to bring these apps to Android Automotive OS.
Now, all developers can publish supported apps directly
to production on both platforms.
And we've released new design guidelines
to help you along the way.
Drivers of select Volvo and Polestar cars
with Android Automotive OS can already
experience new parking, charging, and navigation apps
today, and they'll be available in more
cars in the near future.
We've also created new templates,
and expanded our supported apps, adding driver apps
to the Navigation category, like Lyft,
which will be available for drivers in beta soon.
And the charging and parking category
will expand to include more points of interest apps,
like Auto Pass and Fuelio, to help users find locations
of places they want to go.
In addition to expanding supported apps,
we're committed to adding new features and improvements
to the Car App Library.
With the release of Car App Library 1.3
later this month, we're enriching
the navigation feature set, to make
them as useful as their mobile versions.
This includes map interactivity in all map templates;
content refresh, to update point of interest list destinations
dynamically; navigating to multiple destinations;
and alerters, to notify users of things like a traffic camera
head or a new rider request for driver apps.
Beyond apps that drivers can use while on the road,
we're offering more experiences while parked.
As Rod mentioned, we're excited to announce
you'll soon be able to bring video apps to the car,
and browser apps at a later date.
Minimal effort is required to translate your large screen
tablet apps into a parked car experience,
making it easier than ever to develop for and reach users
in the car.
Of course, when developing for cars,
it's important to think about integrating voice as well.
Google Assistant is deeply integrated into our new Android
Auto UI, and now you can enable voice-forward interactions
for your apps in the car.
Please make sure to check out the Assistant
and Android for Car session if you're
interested in learning more.
We hope you're as excited as we are
about the strong momentum in updates
across Android for Cars.
To learn more about how to get started on all
of our announcements today for bringing apps to Android
Automotive OS, to developing parked experiences like video
in the car, check out our developer website
at g.co/AndroidforCars.
Thanks for joining, and see you on the road ahead.
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