Making Tech Headlines · Page 5
Android Auto Lets Drivers Personalize the Screen, Not the Traffic
· New York time
Android Auto offers ways to change and customize its display, letting users arrange their in-car software to better fit their routines. The settings give drivers a way to shape the interface they use for the familiar business of navigating, listening and moving between apps. A car screen has an unusually demanding job. It needs to present useful information without making the driver spend the trip hunting for it. A layout that feels convenient to one person may be less useful to another, particularly when the same vehicle serves several people with different habits. Customization gives the owner some control over that arrangement. It also adds another task to the modern ritual of preparing a car: adjust the seat, check the mirrors and decide where the software should put everything. The work is best done while parked, rather than treating a moving vehicle as a design studio. There is something reassuring about an interface that can be made more familiar. There is also something very contemporary about spending time arranging a dashboard to make a drive feel effortless. The icons may end up exactly where their owner wants them, even if the cars ahead remain stubbornly where they are. Android Auto can improve the scenery on the screen, but it has no comparable setting for the freeway.
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