Android Automotive goes mainstream: A review of GM’s new infotainment system

Android Automotive, Google’s automotive operating system, has historically been fairly niche, with only a handful of well-known cars like the Polestar 2. But now, Android Automotive is going mainstream, and we’re starting to see some major automakers rolling out Google’s operating system across their lineups.

Today we’re looking at the 2022 GMC Yukon, but in reality it’s General Motors’ Android Automotive system that will roll out to most of GM’s lineup in the future.Same for the Hummer EV1 It comes with a basic setup, and with all the parts sharing going on at GM, expect this system to make an appearance in Chevy, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick. In the near future, Ford and Honda will enter the Android Automotive ecosystem, and Google’s automotive OS will soon be ubiquitous.

Let’s put the usual disclaimer aside: this article No About Android Auto, Google’s tethered phone app and Apple’s CarPlay competitor.android car, fully spelled out (sometimes called “Google Built-In”) means your car is one big Android device. A car’s infotainment system runs on a computer, which runs Android. Even if you have your iPhone in your pocket, your car’s OS remains the same (but it does support CarPlay). For most models, buying General Motors means buying an Android Car. During setup, a message pops up on the screen that says, “By using this car, you agree to the Google Terms of Service.”

The idea here kind of makes sense. Consumers want their car infotainment systems to look and act like smartphones. Then why not install a smartphone OS in your car? Then you get all the smooth-scrolling, touchscreen-based, swipe-he navigation that people have come to expect from modern computers. Android Automotive is an OS that benefited from Google, and like phone companies, manufacturers like Ford, GM, and Volvo have signed deals with Google to license the OS and a number of his Google apps. This car has perhaps the biggest killer app in the automotive industry, Google Maps. You also get Google Assistant voice commands and his Google Play Store for cars, so you can easily access apps like Spotify and other media players.

Hardware: 4 screens, 3 operating systems

A car computer review is a strange proposition because the hardware is always very old. The car takes about five years to develop, and when the car finally hits the market, the computer hardware isn’t all that exciting. The Android Car system hardware (internally called “General Motors Infotainment 3.7” or “gminfo37”) is a five-year-old Intel Atom with an Intel HD Graphics 500 GPU, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of RAM. A3960 SoC. flash storage.

This is not just a GM issue, the same CPU is also present in the Polestar 2, but that system only has 4GB of RAM. Therefore, we classify both cars as “1st generation Android Automotive hardware”. However, the age of the hardware is worth noting. Android Automotive doesn’t allow apps to be sideloaded into production cars, but Atom A3960 Geekbench scores show that the computer in this $78,000 vehicle is slightly faster than his $35 Raspberry Pi 4. I know there is. Both the GMC Yukon and Polestar 2 feature him one of the slowest CPUs in any form factor you can buy today.

The Atom A3960 must have gone through a lengthy certification process to make sure it could withstand the heat and vibration of the harsh automotive environment, but we’ve seen GMC basically ship budget PC parts since 2016. It’s a pity. Hardware lag is inevitable, so the company may have started with his 2016 Intel hardware, which is mid-range or high-end, rather than cheaper Atom parts.