Android Auto Updates: Full-Screen View, More AI, In-Car Video
Android Auto Updates: Full-Screen View, More AI, In-Car Video
Publish Date: 2026-05-13 03:00:00
Source Domain: www.caranddriver.com
- Google and Apple continue to improve their smartphone mirroring functions.
- Android Auto is getting several updates this year, including video playback, widgets, and Google Maps updates.
- Cars with Google built-in software will benefit from additional AI capabilities with Google Gemini.
In the lead-up to this year’s Google I/O developer conference, big G has announced some Android updates that will be of particular interest to drivers in its ecosystem. This includes people using Android Auto to project their phone to their in-car touchscreen, as well as anyone with a car that uses Google-based infotainment.
Screenmaxxing, Widgets, In-Car Video
With the updates coming to Android 11.0 and up later this year, full screen will actually mean full screen. Automotive interior designers seemingly invent new shapes for display screens all the time, and non-native systems like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so far haven’t kept up, instead appearing in a rectilinear view within a view. Google’s latest fixes that.
In the case of Mini’s, um, unique circular center screen, firing up Android Auto will no longer display a rectangular peg in a round hole. The Android Auto interface now stretches from the left curved edge to the right, with only the top and bottom cropped to display vehicle-level info and controls.
Likewise, in the Lucid Gravity, the top driver display, with its organic shape and rounded corners, no longer gets letterboxed. Google also specifically called out the BMW Neue Klasse’s infotainment system and its irregular quadrilateral display, all of which are used when you’re navigating with the upgraded Google Maps.
Regardless of the shape of your Android Auto view, these new updates also bring customizable widgets that can show user-selected items, including photos, weather, and contact shortcuts. They’ll even overlay on the Google Maps view to surface things like the current audio without completely obscuring the map and directions. Google Maps is coming…
