Honda’s next Accord will be the automaker’s first vehicle to support Google’s built-in integrationenabling native Android apps and over-the-air (OTA) software updates (through Automotive news). It will be included as standard in the top Touring trim of the 2023 Accord, arriving early next year.
If you’ve never heard of “Google built-in,” that’s because it’s just another name for Android Automotive – the software giant’s operating system. Since Google also has an eponymous phone-to-car integration system called Android Car (like Apple’s CarPlay), it makes sense that the less confusing “Google built-in” seems to be the preferred name of the company in the future.
Honda has not yet revealed whether its other vehicles will have Google built-in yet. The automaker had previously used custom (and now obsolete) embedded Android software in some of its cars, but is now taking full advantage of Google’s offerings to handle all the hard infotainment stuff. Navigation in the Accord is provided using Google Maps, voice control can change things like passenger air temperature, and music apps are just a tap away. Honda signed on to Google’s infotainment platform last year, saying at the time it would start rolling out cars in 2022.
In the new Accord, Google works built-in on two screens: a 10.2-inch digital instrument panel and a 12.3-inch center screen. It’s the biggest infotainment screen Honda has ever made, and bigger than Volvo’s 9-inch screen in the XC40 – another car that also has Google built into it.
Honda’s OTA vehicle updates will “add feature two, three or eight years after it’s sold,” says American Honda Motor Co. VP of CASE and Energy Jay Joseph, in a conversation with Automotive news. “[It] can really change the dynamics of the ownership experience and the used vehicle market,” said Joseph.
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