Google to partner with Audi for Android-based dashboards, will compete with iOS in the Car
Google, Apple Forge Auto Ties — Consumer Electronics Show to Spotlight In-Car Digital Race … Technology giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc. are about to expand their battle for digital supremacy to a new front: the automobile.
Context & Ripple Effects
Ahead of CES, the Wall Street Journal reports that Google will partner with Audi to bring Android-based dashboards to cars — the first concrete move in what both companies treat as an extension of their smartphone platform war. The relationship is confirmed on the record, and Apple's parallel push into automotive ties is also confirmed, making the car the newest contested surface between the two ecosystems.
The story's footprint signals how much weight the industry puts on this front: eight major tech outlets picked up the same reporting on or about December 29, 2013 — The Verge, Gigaom, Engadget, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, The Next Web, App Advice, and 9to5Google — all framing CES as the stage where the in-car digital race goes public.
First-order effects
- Audi becomes the first named automaker anchor for Android in the dashboard, giving Google a showroom presence for its OS beyond the phone.
- Apple, whose own automotive ties are confirmed in the same reporting, faces direct competitive pressure to match Google's dashboard-level integration rather than settle for phone connectivity.
Second-order effects
- Other automakers are pushed toward picking sides or negotiating dual-platform support, turning infotainment contracts into a two-horse negotiation between Google and Apple.
- CES's role hardens from a gadget show into a venue where automotive-software alliances are unveiled, raising the cost for any automaker absent from the in-car conversation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the car's center stack follows the smartphone path: value migrates from hardware makers toward whoever controls the operating system and its services, with automakers risking commoditization of their own infotainment stacks.
- Regulators and standards bodies eventually gain a stake, since dashboard software tied to consumer platforms raises questions about driver distraction and data flows that neither company controls alone.
The trend: The Google-Apple platform rivalry is extending from phones into vehicle dashboards, with automaker partnerships announced at CES marking the opening moves.