Android Authority Takes a Closer Look at Android Auto with Hyundai

Hey there everybody and welcome to another video from Android Authority, I'm Josh Vagar and we're here at the Hyundai booth at CES 2015. We're not at Pepcom anymore, but we're actually on the floor here at CES, and we're excited to bring you some hands-on time with Android Auto.

So, let's get started with a quick rundown of what Android Auto is all about. As we all know, there are a lot of people out there who want to use their Android experience in their cars. And that's where Android Auto comes in. We're working closely with Google to bring the Android experience into your car through our Android Auto software.

We've got a brand new display audio system right here, and we're going to take a closer look at what it has to offer. The best part about this unit is that we don't have to be in a car to see how it works. We've got these lovely chamber units right here that are going to give us an easy way of looking at what Android Auto would look like.

So, let's take a closer look at the display audio system itself. As you can see, we've removed the CD player and the built-in navigation, and all we're left with is a screen for Android Auto users. People can easily just plug in their phone, and voilà! Android Auto comes up on the screen.

We're using an older Nexus 5 model here to test out the system, but you'll be able to use any Android phone that supports Android Auto. Once it's plugged in, you can start navigating through the Google Now-like experience we all know and love. You've got your cards, shortcuts, and voice prompts at your fingertips.

But what really sets this system apart is its integration with other Hyundai features like Blue Link and our native navigation systems. We're not choosing one or the other; we want to give our customers freedom of choice. And that's exactly what Android Auto offers. You can use it on top of an iPhone with CarPlay, or you can stick with Android phones and take advantage of our native navigation systems.

We've also got a mid-level system that brings Android Auto to more entry-level models, which is great news for customers who want to upgrade from their current car unit without breaking the bank. This system doesn't come with integrated navigation or CD player, but it still offers a premium audio experience and the flexibility of Android Auto.

Now, let's talk about the top-tier unit that we were discussing earlier. That one comes with integrated navigation through Navtech, which is a huge upgrade over our standard Android Auto system. You'll also get CD player, Infinity audio, and other premium features like these.

But here's the thing: this top-tier unit is only available on our higher-end models, not on most of our cars. And that's because it comes with a bigger price tag. However, we see this being standard on our premium models going forward, and we're excited to bring Android Auto to more customers than ever before.

We want to thank Rob for the demonstration, and we're excited to have him back on the show again soon. Thanks to everyone watching, and make sure you stay tuned for the rest of our coverage here at CES 2015.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Josh vagar from Android authority what's going on everybody and we're over here at Hyundai once again not at uh what was it show starers or pepcom that we met it was it was at pepcom yeah we're not on pepcom anymore we're actually on the floor here at CES 2015 the huge Hyundai Booth right over here in the North Hall and I'm here with my good buddy Rob great to see you again man and we're going to get a demonstration from him about Android auto so um you can give us a just sort of a quick rundown how Android auto just sort of uh it fits into uh the preliminary uh like driving experience at the very least right so you know there's a lot of people that want to just use their their Android experience in the car so we're providing a way working with Google to project that experience through through Android auto right so we have software on our head units you plug in your USB cable and you get that Android experience in your head unit you can use your steering wheel controls your buttons in the car to move tracks uh raise the volume and lower it you know voice prompts through the steering wheel voice button so uh very seamless integration so we're really proud of our work uh with that all right awesome all right well let's take a look at the actual unit itself what what the the best part is at least for me right now is we don't have to be in a car in order to see it we have these lovely chamber units right here that are going to give us an easy way of looking at what Android auto would look like so let's take a look all right so we're what we're looking at here is our new display audio system we just announced recently and what we've done with this system is remove the CD player remove the built-in navigation and really just give provide a screen for Android auto uh users so people have Android phones can easily just plug in their phone and here we have a Nexus 5 I just plug it into our USB port takes a sec and Android auto comes up you can easily just navigate right into it and now you're you start off in like a very Google Now like experience where you have these cards based on some of the things you do and you have these shortcuts like Google Maps built right in and you you can input things via voice so navigate to the MGM Grand so just you know like on your phone and takes voice prompts you can also use a steering wheel button we've got this here to simulate what a steering wheel button would do got phone call phone menu so while you're in other modes of Android auto it'll still give you the navigation prompts on the top here so here's some of the calls we've made voicemail you use it dial your voicemail speed dial and music is so this is on iHeart radio but let's say you have Google play music you can easily just switch to different apps that are set up for uh Android auto and each app has its own color scheme so this layout's the same for any of the music apps but the color scheme may be different depending on what The Branding is for something like iHeart Radio you'll see it uses more red you know following their branding guidelines but also there'll be different buttons relevant to that app like the you know favorite but on Google Play music you may have a thumb up or thumb down button and then this menu here is reserved for what called car apps so you may see like a blue link app later on um but you currently we use this just go back to our home screen but the nice thing about our integration with Android auto it's actually very seamless and tied deeply in where let's say you're in here and you're you know listening to the radio or you know FM you can still be navigating with Google Maps in the background it'll actually just send you the prompts right through it all runs together so it's not like a separate mode that the head unit's in it's actually operating concurrently and likewise you could be um listening to music out of out of your Android auto experience while navigating or doing something else in the head unit so if we go back to home you can easily just dive right back into Android auto who won the World Series in 2013 the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2013 so just like you normally interact with your Android phone phone through Google Now and some other things this it's just like it's running this is all running off your phone being projected onto the our display audio system quick question we just saw the demonstration of Android auto that question that you used uh about the World Series in 2013 has has that been the question you've been using this whole time actually it has I also have been texting people and um calling people so we have a variety of things that we do just to show that this is the same experience that that you're used to on your phone yeah it's just when you ask that question in my head I thought he's been asking that all the time to this thing all right well Android auto looks like it's going to have a great integration with the uh Hyundai uh cars I almost said Sonata but they're we're going to get into that in a little bit but also the integration with say Blue Link and whatnot really will make this a robust system uh we talked a little bit earlier with one of your colleagues about um sort of the hierarchy of the different types of uh radio units or center console units and Android otter has a very important place in the middle of that can you give us can you kind of elaborate uh for us what it means to have Android auto in that ecosystem yeah so we want to give our customers freedom of choice right they have whether they have an iPhone we have carplay Android auto um through Android phones and also our native navigation systems so we we're not choosing one or the other we're giving all the options to our owners with a system like what we saw Now display audio that doesn't come with integrated navigation or or CD player it brings the price point down so that Android auto is not tied to a premium audio system that typically is bundled with like an Infinity audio system integrated uh navigation on an SD card those add cost by being able to make this a more entry level system we see this being standard on on most premium models but also available on our more entry level models it's like a midgrade system um so we're going to bring Android auto basically to like most of our customers through this way okay just out of curiosity that that top tier uh unit that you were talking about what exactly does that one entail if Android auto is somewhat lower on the hierarchy yeah so that comes with integrated navigation through here or navtech you know previously um so there are some things you know if you don't have cell service unless you're running offline mode on on Google Maps you're going to be out of luck right so there's still that reliability of integrated navigation plus you get CD player some people want CD player still um also Infinity audio that we offer in the Sonata or high-end audio and other systems it's all bumed together so there's still that about 30% of our cars are are premium audio right so we see this being more in the majority of what we sell being the more of a core system our display audio where it's more accessible at a much lower price point than our a bundled premium package well that's great being able to have something as awesome as Android auto or even uh just an upgrade from your let's say crappy car unit um can be just a big game changer for a lot of drivers out there well Rob thank you for the demonstration it's always great to see you man thank you so much this is Android authority reporting to you live from the Hyundai Booth here at CES 2015 make sure you stay tuned for the rest of our coverage a\n"