In electric cars, the waiting can be the hardest part – as can the time you spend waiting for your electric car to turn on at a charging station. Google believes that time can be spent watching streaming, especially if you have an electric car with a great big screen on its dashboard.
To that end, as part of the Android updates announced during Google I/O, Google said it plans to bring Google Cast to cars running Android Automotive OS in the coming months. First up will be Rivian, whose offerings include an electric SUV and a pickup truck. Google says more automakers will add support in the future.
I had to sit inside a Rivian R1S parked outside the Shoreline Amphitheater at Google I/O. While Google executives on stage delved deeper into their plans for the Gemini AI prototype, I was sitting in the back seat of the R1S, watching a trailer for “IF” streamed from the YouTube app on an Android phone to the 15.6-inch screen. View the car's infotainment system. The sound from the trailer is played through the car's 22 speakers, and is loud enough to be heard from behind.
During the Google Cast demo, we quickly turned to the NBA app to get a preview of that night's playoff games, but we certainly had no trouble getting options on what to cast. Google says there are 3,000 Cast-enabled apps, so you'll have plenty of things to watch on your infotainment screen while you wait for your car to charge.
And make no mistake – this feature was designed specifically for when your car is parked. If we had tried to rev the Rivian R1S up and away — not an easy thing to do when you're parked in the middle of a crowded developer conference — it would have interrupted the casting. So, ditch the dreams of streaming YouTube on your electric car's infotainment screen as you cruise at 70 mph.
The casting process is as simple as if you were to cast from your phone to a screen at home – simply launch the app, select the casting option, and select the desired screen, which in this case was a Rivian screen. If you need to access other controls on the infotainment panel, simply scroll down.
In my demo, the Android device was connected to a Rivian hotspot, which works over LTE, as is the case with most electric cars. Whether a feature like this will convince automakers to consider 5G technology to improve streaming remains to be seen.
The addition of Google Cast support was just one automotive announcement made at I/O. The number of vehicles with built-in Google is growing to include the Honda Acura ZDX, Ford Explorer and others. Compatible cars can access apps, Google Maps and Google Assistant.
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