For Android Auto fans, the road to Coolwalk has been a long one. Google’s new car-friendly dashboard first leaked nearly one year ago before officially debuting at I/O in May. At the time, Coolwalk — the codename for Auto’s redesign — was supposedly arriving before the start of summer, just in time for a few months filled with vacations and cross-country road trips. Instead, Google remained silent on when this new look would ever hit cars. Today, we’re one step closer to a full launch, as Android Auto’s redesign is ready for beta testing.
The last six months haven’t been for nothing. According to the company, it’s worked hard to implement feedback from drivers lucky enough to test Coolwalk out prior to launch. We’ve even seen some of these changes leak out into the public, as plenty of dedicated souls worked to get Google’s updated UI up and running on various hardware. Considering the version shown off at UI never actually launched, many of these tweaks are hard to notice, but once the hardware is up and running in your car, this belated testing period should make a huge difference.
Left: Android Auto’s UI redesign, as show off at I/O. Right: Today’s updated beta version of Android Auto.
Comparing renders, some of the modifications are pretty obvious. There’s that new app switching dock we saw in September, which should make swapping between navigation and media a cinch. That wasn’t there back in May, but it’s a much-appreciated design decision that should make a big impact on driving safety. The same goes for the map’s location — it’s on the driver’s side of the screen now, making it much easier to see at a glance while you’re, you know, speeding down the highway in two tons of steel, glass, and rubber.
These aren’t the only changes, of course. The media card in dashboard view is far more colorful than the drab original version and is now capable of dynamic resizing — another recently-leaked change. One of the most exciting changes allows drivers to fill more of the display with the map, perfect for cars with unorthodox display ratios. Google’s also included some smaller changes as well, including additional support for Material You, faster access to Assistant recommendations for your favorite songs, playlists, and podcasts, and an improved notification area that includes status icons and unread messages.
Many of these changes will look familiar to anyone who’s tried out Apple’s CarPlay. From the dashboard to the app switcher, some of the concepts on display here aren’t new to the world of car-friendly phone UIs. Still, it’s great to see Android Auto catching up to CarPlay in some key spaces. Google was already ahead of Apple in several ways, and today’s update helps close the gap on many of our main gripes.
I’ve previously hounded Google for not getting this update out to drivers throughout the summer months, but based on these changes, the wait was worth it. Looking back at the original render from I/O, it’s clear that a lot of work needed to be done before this UI was ready to hit the road. Again, some of this is obvious — navigation should’ve always been on the driver’s side of the display — but it’s great to see Google has taken the time to get this right.
And thankfully, anyone can try out Android Auto’s redesign starting today. Google is distributing it through the Play Store beta program, so anyone already enrolled should have a pending update in the next few hours. Everyone else can sign up for the beta program — although the Play Store currently shows it as full, at least on my end. If you’re unable to join through official means, an APK for the beta should be available on APKMirror within the day. We’ll update this article with a direct download link once it’s live, but for now, keep an eye on the list of Android Auto APKs.
