While the Open Handset Alliance(OHA) has been the source of the Android take over of the Mobile phone and Tablet industry, the Open Automotive Alliance(OAA) will be Google’s source of a take over of one of the biggest industries around – the Car industry.
Google has announced that they are entering into a partnership with some of the top names in the car industry – Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai as well as partnering with NVidia for the electronics side of things to bring the connected car concept into the Open arena, announcing on the OAA website :
There are over 1 billion cars on the road today. We rely on our cars for so many things in our lives, but right now the connection between them and the other mobile technology in our lives isn’t always seamless. The Open Automotive Alliance is a group of leading automakers and technology companies that share a vision for making technology in the car safer, more seamless and more intuitive for everyone.
According to the press release, members of the OAA are committed to bringing the Android Platform to cars starting from 2014.
The car industry has so far been very Apple-centric, with a seemingly endless stream of cars announced with Siri integration, but this appears to be a valid attempt to open source the entertainment and other on-board electronics systems to integrate with the most popular mobile OS on the planet. It’s an interesting attempt and hopefully will see more traction than the Android @ home, Home Automation effort that Google appears to have forgotten about entirely.
Does the on-board entertainment system OS change your choice in vehicle?
