Is Android Auto a Rip Off of Apple’s CarPlay?

At yesterday’s annual Google I/O developer conference, Google announced its anticipated vehicle dashboard system, ‘Android Auto’.

It works as soon as you open the car door. ‘Android Auto’ will sync up your Android smartphone’s music, navigation devices and messaging features to the car’s dashboard and audio system. Essentially, your car will be a receiver that’s powered by your phone for things like dictating messages, using Google Maps, and making phone calls. Other interesting features are that you can get Android Auto to read out messages to you, and allows you to dictate a reply, which it will check with you before sending.

To me, this all sounds a bit too distracting for the car, but Google stressed the ease of use of all its features and have said the feature will be compatible with steering wheel based buttons so you wont have to take your hands off the wheel.

However, this all sounds a little bit familar, right? Apple’s CarPlay, which focuses on hands free Siri-based voice commands to make calls, send messages, and play music, is pretty much the same. Apple's CarPlay, which was announced in March at the Geneva Motor Show, works with the same premise of using your smartphone to power the dashboard display and look after all of the other things Android proposes to do. I guess, much to Google developers' chagrin, Apple just got there first

You don't have to pick sides however. Both systems have deals with auto manufacturers, and some of them overlap, which means you will have the option of choosing either option.