Audi and Volkswagen give us a look at how they’re using Android Auto [VIDEO]
In July Google officially announced Android Auto at Google I/O. Fast forward to this year at CES and we’re finally starting to see what car manufacturers have been doing with it. First up is Volkswagon and Audi. In case you didn’t know, Audi is actually a subsidiary of Volkswagon. They have a lot in common, including their Android Auto offerings.
The Volkswagen system is very familiar looking. It has large buttons and knobs along the left and right side of the touchscreen display. In the demo we were given an iPhone and Nexus 5 were connected. You can choose which interface (Car Play or Android Auto) to launch from the menu. From there it’s your typical Android Auto experience.
The Audi system is much different. It has a big touchpad with buttons all along its edges, and a giant knob for scrolling through menus. The touchpad is very important because the display is not a touchscreen. Like the VW system, you have to launch Android Auto from the menu (skip to 3:00).
What do you think of these in-car systems? We’ll have to side with Volkswagen if we’re choosing a winner. The touchpad from Audi seems like a big distraction for drivers. They even advertise that it has handwriting detection! Kids, don’t write and drive.
