Insert Google software here. (credit: Ron Amadeo)
With every new version of Android comes a new version of the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD). If OEMs want to license the Google Play Store and other Google apps, they must be declared by Google to be "compatible" with Android, and the requirements for this compatibility are laid out in the CDD. The 74-page document details how to implement APIs, parts of the user interface, media codecs, and hardware compatibility. Companies like Samsung and LG use this document to create different hardware that will run the same operating system and apps.
One of the biggest changes is probably the mandatory encryption for any device fast enough to handle it, which we've already covered in a separate article. While combing over the new the document, though, we noticed something: there is an awful lot of car stuff in here.
Requirements for a car operating system have no reason to be in the CDD, because Google doesn't make a car operating system. Right now there are three versions of the Android operating system: vanilla "Android" for phones and tablets, Android TV, and Android Wear. "Android Auto" is a fourth form factor, but it isn't an operating system—Android Auto is an app. It's a "casted" interface, just like Apple's Car Play. The app runs on your phone hardware, which is plugged into the car with a USB cable. The phone takes over the in-dash display and uses it the same way a desktop computer would use an external touchscreen.
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