Android Auto Triples Number of Countries In Which Its Available

Availability is useful, but the big challenge will be getting automakers to preload it as a marketable feature. Most of the manufacturers are trying to sort through whether to partner with a third party vendor like Google - or make their own.

The issue, as with so much else around tech today, is not so much the technology as who gets overarching rights to the data the system will generate.

Sam Byford reports in The Verge:

The smart car interface now has functionality in 18 new countries plus the territory of Puerto Rico; the list now includes potentially huge markets like India and Russia, along with several countries that mark a major expansion into South America.
Google has nearly tripled the number of countries that can access Android Auto. The smart car interface now has functionality in 18 new countries plus the territory of Puerto Rico; the list now includes potentially huge markets like India and Russia, along with several countries that mark a major expansion into South America.
The full list of new regions is below:

---

• Argentina
• Austria
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Guatemala
• India
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Puerto Rico
• Russia
• Switzerland
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

Google announced the news in an emojified tweet from the official Android account.

Android Auto is also available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the UK, and the US. Getting car manufacturers on board with preloading the system on their vehicles is another matter entirely, although it can now be pretty easy to retrofit your dashboard with an Android Auto (or Apple CarPlay) head unit.