Android Auto update on the cards that'll add a long-awaited missing feature

Over the past couple of years, the trend has moved away from using a car’s native infotainment system, with many simply choosing to use a smartphone-based system instead. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are overwhelmingly what drivers are choosing – and Android Auto could be about to get a boost.

The beauty of using a smartphone-based system is that everything is familiar and many of the apps that you have on your phone will just work on your car, making it really easy to stream your music, for example.

Over the past couple of years we’ve seen Android Auto offer a more dynamic display layout, splitting the content so you can have mapping and music up at the same time, as well as tweaking various other aspects.

But, there’s always been an omission when it comes to playback. What if you don’t want to stream? What if you want to play music or even video from a USB drive connected to your head unit? According to details from 9to5Google, Google could be about to fix this problem and give you another option for your entertainment.

Found lurking in the code for the Android App, references to “local car media” have been discovered, as well as new icons, suggesting that you’ll be able to access your downloaded music that you have plugged into the car via USB – as well as giving you control over your car radio.

That would mean that if you were driving in an area with no data, you’d be able to use the car’s systems to provide those services.

Gemini Live could turns your car into Kitt

While adding support for local media is very 2005, the potential for adding Gemini Live is very 2024. Gemini Live is Google’s conversational AI. It launched recently as an extension of Gemini’s services available to Gemini Advanced subscribers and allows ongoing conversations with the Google AI.

It’s a feature that I explored in the Pixel 9 and it’s true that if you wanted an experience like Kitt from Knight Rider, then Gemini Live might offer that. Certainly, you can talk to Gemini and get human-like responses, with a great depth of knowledge, but I’m not sure why you would want to do that in your car.

Google Assistant has offered access to those essentials when driving, adept at controlling music, searching and navigating, reading messages and placing calls. The Google Assistant experience has been a little hit-and-miss on Android Auto for some time – and it might be that Gemini is seen as the simple solution to that.

However, my experience of Gemini is that it feels like a work in progress, while I struggle to see how Gemini Live would boost the driving experience. Google thinks you’ll use it to form ideas and plan things, but I found Gemini Live to mostly just summarise generic information and never really tell me what I needed to know.

Put that into a car, and you could spend your time behind the wheel chatting to AI, but I think I’d rather listen to all that music I downloaded onto a USB in 2005.