Android goes mobile...automobile, that is.

I've seen a handful of 3rd party car stereo manufacturers dip their feet into producing head units featuring Android, but they were never designed to be more than head units, and sometimes are just ports of Android to a head unit with barely any reskinning.  Tonight, Google announced a push to integrate Android into vehicles, which would imply a much deeper and seamless build within a vehicle's CPU and vehicle services: The Open Automotive Alliance.

The members of the alliance: Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nvidia and of course Google.  No surprise that Toyota is not part of the group -- yet -- considering that they have their own system that makes generous use of Bing Search and Bing Maps.  And I'm sure that others are sitting on the sideline, focused on bringing better Apple integration.  But this points to a major problem which all of these automakers face, which I call Partitioned Choices.

So for instance, there's no way I'll buy a Toyota with its Entune system which uses Bing Search and Bing Maps, or at least I won't choose to upgrade the head unit, and instead I'll just buy an aftermarket head unit; I should have a choice as to whose maps and search I can use.  That's a Partitioned Choice.

The opposite of the Partitioned Choice, is an Integrated Choice.  This is where I'd buy a Honda and either Honda provided for head units with different ecosystems, or the head unit allowed me to select which search engine and maps I could use -- my choice of apps.  This is where an open ecosystem becomes important.  I don't know how much openness and the level of integration the OAA is planning on, but if it is done well, then it doesn't matter what sort of smart phone or tablet you bring with you, as there'll be apps to allow you to use any device with your vehicle -- incumbent of course, on Microsoft, Apple and others building apps.

The press release says that they'll have vehicles ready by the end of 2014 -- that's fast.  It'd be nice to be able to use my smart phone to stream playlists directly to my vehicle, you know, aside from the obvious GPS directional mapping from your phone.