Google is preparing an update for Android Auto. On the agenda: the arrival of Gemini Live, Google’s AI, which will allow users to interact with their car. The audio section of Android Auto is also expected to evolve with the addition of new features.
Google regularly updates Android Auto, its system that allows users to display their smartphone content on their car. Our colleagues at the Android Authority website dug into the code of the latest version of the app. They found inactive lines of code that give an idea of what Google is preparing for future updates.
Gemini Live to Chat with Your Car
The most interesting discovery is named “kitt”: it could be the integration of Gemini Live within Android Auto. If you’re not familiar with Gemini Live, it’s Google’s new conversational artificial intelligence. This means you can talk to this AI as you would with a human. It’s the AI found on the new Google Pixel 9, but it’s also available with other Android smartphones.
It’s useful for asking complex questions, but more importantly, for asking Gemini Live to perform tasks on Android Auto. For example, you could ask it to play music or enter an address into Google Maps. Currently, Google Assistant handles these tasks, but it is a much simpler AI that cannot have conversations with you.
Media and Radio Management
The other new features are a bit more basic. One of them is the support for local media, allowing users to, for example, play music stored on a USB drive.
Google also plans to integrate car radio management (AM, FM, DAB, HD) directly into Android Auto. This would make it easier to change radio stations without having to go back to the car’s interface. Everything would happen directly in Android Auto, with the option to add favorite stations.
Let’s remember that Android Auto is simply an app running on the driver’s smartphone that displays its content on the car’s screen. However, the car needs to be compatible. But it’s far from what Android Automotive (also known as Google Automotive) offers, as seen in the Audi Q6 e-tron, where the system operates without a smartphone and has numerous built-in applications and features.”
