Google, Apple in fight for the car dashboard

The battle to develop the next generation of car dashboard systems is hotting up and the coming weeks and months would see dealerships in the US start selling vehicles capable of running Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or both, The New York Times reported.

The systems go much beyond currently available Bluetooth pairing for playing music or making a hands-free call, and make for Google's or Apple's operating system taking over the centre screen along with certain buttons within the car.

According to John Maddox, assistant director of the University of Michigan's Mobility Transformation Center, consumers had spoken and they expected to have coordination between their phone and their vehicle.

Meanwhile, at Google's headquarters, Android Auto would soon be making its debut in US' cars after two years in development. When a smartphone is plugged into the car with a USB cord, the system powers up on a car's screen while the phone's screen, goes dark. The phone's screen is not to be touched while driving.

Apple's CarPlay worked in a similar fashion with bubbly icons for phone calls, music, maps, messaging and other apps appearing on the centre screen.

Though the idea of constantly connected drivers zipping down city roads would naturally raise concerns over distracted driving, according to the companies, their systems were designed with the opposite goal - to make cellphone-toting drivers safer.

Meanwhile, reports said that the Apple CarPlay website clearly showed that Toyota was one of its partner automakers confirmed to release vehicles that fitted with its infotainment system. According to the reports Toyota was not interested in offering CarPlay and it also did not have plans to include Google's Android Auto among its vehicles' features.

According to The New York Times, Toyota vehicles would come with the company's own infotainment system for US vehicles, and not CarPlay or Android Auto.

Toyota advanced technology communications manager John Hanson told the NYT as far as America was concerned, it would neither be using Apple's tech, nor Google's, as Toyota preferred to use its in-house proprietary platforms for such functions.