Volkswagen Announce Android, Apple Car Integration At CES 2015

Volkswagen has announced a partnership with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay at CES 2015 earlier this week, in a move to interest both iOS and Android owners wanting to take advantage of software in the car.

It has not been detailed how a user changes from CarPlay to Android Auto and whether this is possible, it seems the user will plug-in or set-up the smartphone and the car will recognise the operating system, and download one of the two platforms available.

Most car manufacturers have either partnered with Apple or Google, but Volkswagen will remain platform agnostic for the time being. Both platforms will be featured on Volkswagen’s second generation system MIB II.

Volkswagen also announced MirrorLink, a new open communication standard between cars and smartphones, developed by the Car Connectivity Consortium, will be available on MIB II. MirrorLink allows car owners to set-up an easy connection between their smartphone and car, allowing them to import music and other services.

Even though Volkswagen did not have any radical self-driving car designs or impressive demos of autonomous cars, it has shown developments on the software side, to appeal to iOS and Android owners. Volkswagen will most likely borrow technology from another provider, if it cannot make its own self-driving technology as good.

MIB II will arrive on the new generation VW Golf and a few other first generation cars, if Volkswagen is able to establish a connection and update the dashboard. Things are still very early in the car software age, meaning some older models will most likely not get a new update.

Audi, BMW, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Hyundai and Nissan have all taken part at CES 2015 in some way, even by announcing a new partnership or feature during the event. This does bode well for the future CES events, considering the growth in the self-driving industry.