f you purchased a 2015 Hyundai Sonata with a factory-installed navigation system, and have a smartphone with the Android Lollipop 5.0 or higher operating system, you can integrate your car with the new Android Auto software.

Best of all, it’s free. Your local Hyundai dealer will provide a software update to your car’s existing system. It’s the first integration of a smartphone operating system—be it Android Auto or Apple’s CarPlay system—in the U.S. market by a major manufacturer.

We borrowed a 2015 Hyundai Sonata with an early-release version of Android Auto software and a Google Nexus phone to test it out. Generally speaking, the Android Auto system works well, with excellent Google Now voice controls that use natural speech. It’s easy to make and receive calls using your voice, and to compose or listen to text messages. Entering an address is just as easy—Google navigation and traffic info are intuitive. Also, the on-screen buttons and menus are large, easy to read, and straightforward to use.    

One drawback is that Android Auto operates in its own little universe. If you want to switch from listening to music on Spotify over to FM or XM, for example, you have to exit Android Auto. And it takes several steps to back out of the Android environment.

---------------------

http://readwrite.com/2015/05/29/hyundai-and-chevy-roll-out-carplay-and-android-auto-cars

Hyundai's One

Despite GM’s bold, 14-vehicle plan, Hyundai has beaten the American car company to the punch. The Verge reported Tuesday that the first batch of 2015 Sonatas with Android Auto on board have rolled off the assembly line, and that more Hyundai vehicles would come equipped with Android Auto later in 2015. 

Interestingly, where Android Auto is absent from Chevy’s eight-inch MyLink system, so too is CarPlay missing in all of Hyundai’s offerings. 

Back in November, the South Korean auto company issued two different press releases, each claiming that it would offer versions of the 2015 Sonata with Android Auto and CarPlay. As the 2015 model year winds down, Hyundai appears to have only just now pulled off half of its claim, with no whiff of CarPlay at all. I've contacted Hyundai for more information, and will update this post if the company responds. 

Despite the excitement of seeing the software finally accelerating toward the market, the car companies' varying approaches, at least initially, may conjure more questions than answers. 

What happens if a driver buys a car with Android Auto built in, but then switches to an iPhone? If bugs force a navigation application to crash while you're en route, could that pose a safety hazard? Are there other stability or performance issues that come with, say, a Chevy MyLink system that supposedly supports both platforms?

With Hyundai and Chevy both jumping into the smart dashboard game at nearly the same time, there’s at least one question that may have an answer: How long will it take for the rest of the auto industry to follow suit? Probably not long. 

Chevrolet Android Auto and CarPlay photos courtesy of Chevrolet and General Motors; Hyundai Android Auto photo courtesy of Hyundai

---------------------