Is Google working on an in-car version of Android?

Google is planning a version of Android that will run on cars on-board computers, according to reports.

According to Reuters the new system would be different from the previously announced Android Auto, because rather than simply acting as an in-car display for your phone (with the phone doing all of the clever stuff), it would be the computing power in the car being put to work.

According to Reuters, the next version of Android – known as “Android M” for the time being – will have a car-specific variant produced for this purpose.

Such a move would have a number of upsides for both Google as a company and the consumer in terms of functionality. For Google, it would give the company another foothold into your life – and provide Google with lots of tasty data (imagine if it fed real time data from millions of cars into Google Maps), and for the consumer it could mean that you don’t need to worry about your phone battery running out to when accessing the smart features in your car.

We’d dare speculate though that any operating system would end up working best when used in combination with a paired Android phone – so you can still access your apps and settings. Perhaps the baked in OS could work as a “deeper” OS on top of which Android Auto will be used – a bit like how Apple’s CarPlay works on top of Pioneer’s own custom operating system.

We’ll let you know when we hear more.