Parrot drops plans to sell RNB6 Android Auto head unit in the aftermarket, says it is too complicated, will now sell only to car makers
Parrot scraps plans to sell their Android Auto head unit to after-market customers, will now sell to car makers — In the flurry of Android Auto announcements …
Context & Ripple Effects
When Parrot showed the RNB6 at CES in January, it was pitched as a retrofit that gives any dumb car Apple CarPlay or Android brains without waiting for an automaker. Six months later the company is pulling the retail plug entirely, telling Ausdroid the aftermarket version is too complicated and the head unit will ship only through car makers.
The retreat fits a pattern in the corpus: automakers were already slow to adopt Android Auto or CarPlay in early 2015, and reviewers found the platform promising but still beta-grade. Rather than fight installation friction alone, Parrot now lines up behind the OEM path Google later formalized with its infotainment partnership with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. It also continues Parrot's documented drift away from consumer sales.
First-order effects
- Aftermarket buyers lose the one CES-promised box that would add Android Auto and CarPlay to cars they already own, leaving them with nothing to purchase from Parrot.
- Parrot's sales effort shifts entirely to design-win negotiations with car makers, where the RNB6 competes against OEM-built systems rather than sitting on retail shelves.
Second-order effects
- The aftermarket gap stays open exactly as long as manufacturers stay slow, which pressures other retrofit vendors to either simplify installation or pursue the same OEM-only route.
- Google's go-to-market gets validated toward factory deals like the Alliance partnership: if third-party hardware can't carry Android Auto to consumers, the OS's reach depends on signing automakers directly.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, in-dash smartphone integration consolidates around factory-installed platforms and long-term software partnerships between OS vendors and car groups, shrinking standalone aftermarket head units to a niche.
- The same dynamic pushes companies like Parrot to exit consumer hardware categories altogether — consistent with its continued shift away from consumer sales — leaving consumer-facing car tech to the platform owners and the OEMs.
The trend: Smartphone-based car infotainment is migrating from aftermarket retrofit boxes to factory-integrated platforms negotiated directly between Google and automakers.