Android Automotive remains something of an obscurity, but companies are still happy to tout their latest progress with the platform (or something like it), especially on a stage as large as CES 2018. Before we get to that, it's probably worthwhile to distinguish between Android Automotive and Android Auto: Android Automotive is a standalone, in-vehicle infotainment and control system running Android — basically Android OS for your car. This is a more appealing proposition than the rather laggy experience that is Android Auto, which just projects what's on your phone to an interface that sits in your car.

In case it's not clear from the distinction above, Android Automotive is the more compelling future, one that's not tethered to your phone. Panasonic, Cinemo, and Visteon are among the companies that want you to know they're riding that wave early. Here's what they showed off at CES:

Panasonic Automotive

At last year's CES, Panasonic Automotive announced a partnership with Qualcomm to work on an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system based on Android 7.0 Nougat. Panasonic's main Android Automotive-related announcement at this year's CES was mostly iterative: an Android 8.1 Oreo update for its IVI platform.

The company emphasizes the integration of Google Assistant and drivers' ability to simply say "Hey Google" to control navigation, media, and vehicle functions like climate settings, all without your phone. Panasonic mentions that this "pure Android experience" IVI system runs native on a vehicle's head unit and is built on its "SkipGen" platform, which is a fancy way of saying it will support future Android OS releases even after sale. If realized, that's a boon for consumers.

Panasonic also announced something nice for those who use Amazon's Alexa assistant (about 10% of you): It's working with Amazon on Alexa integration.

PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

Cinemo

Cinemo is a German company that specializes in infotainment solutions for automakers and component suppliers. In addition to standard-fare self-promotion, Cinemo joined with German auto systems manufacturer Robert Bosch Car Multimedia at CES 2018 to present an Android-based head unit outfitted with its Unified Media Player, which features Android Auto.

It's a bit unclear whether Cinemo is distinguishing between Android Auto and Android Automotive, but there you have it.

PRESS RELEASE

Visteon

Visteon is a Michigan-based company specializing in cockpit electronics and connected-car solutions. While most of its CES announcements were hardware-related (including more than 40 displays), it also showed off its infotainment solutions. Among these is a two-display system based on Android Automotive and featuring Google Assistant.

The company also discussed its latest SmartCore cockpit domain controller, which is a high-tech dashboard running on a single chip — Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820Am processor in this case. The second-gen version of the cockpit domain controller implements Android 8.0 Oreo.

PRESS RELEASE

CES is just the start of what's sure to be a year filled with (hopefully clarifying) Android Automotive updates, so keep checking back for those.