Auto Weekly Wrap: Warning! The Google in your car is doing more than expected from it

Various technology as well as conventional automobile manufacturers are developing autonomous vehicles or driverless cars. (Image: Reuters)

What if an unrelated third party is collecting data about your driving habits? Details like revving of your car engine, speed and engine oil temperature are sourced and shared without your consent or knowledge. Yes, this is absolutely possible and happening.

Android Auto, a popular feature that lets you mirror apps from a Android-powered smart phones onto the information and entertainment unit in the dash board, has been accused of sourcing details such as vehicle speed, throttle position, coolant, engine temperature and engine revs.

If Android can know the speed of your car it is not impossible to assume that it can know where your are headed, pin point the location your car on the map as well as figure out how far away are you from your destination.

Such crucial information is supplied by Andriod Auto to its developer Google on real time basis, raising several red flags over not just privacy but personal security as well. The vehicle’s infotainment system is considered to be the entry point for hackers as it can connect directly with the outside world through the internet.

But that’s not where the story ends. Google is further empowering Android Auto by adding to it Google Assistant, a voice-operated feature that minimizes physical engagement.

Activated with only two words ‘Ok Google’ this feature on Android Auto can help you navigate to work, while executing a previous command of playing the latest chartbuster using your car’s infotainment system. It won’t be fully wrong to say that Google is partially controlling your car.

Earlier this week, world’s largest auto maker Toyota declined using Android Auto for precisely these concerns. It had highlighted that ‘customer privacy is important to it and it wasn’t sure if everything was ok with Android Auto with regards to that’.

The Japanese car maker has so far used Android Auto-rival Apple CarPlay and that too in just one of its several host of cars. Unlike Google the maker of iPhone and iPod is more reliable as it only wants to know ‘if the car is in motion or not’. Officially Google has stated that it collects data only to improve its navigation systems.

But technology can be hacked into and car makers agree that the threat of car hacking is real. Plus it could get increasingly dangerous when vehicles of the future are programmed to interact with each other.

In India, the trend of filling up cars to the brim with modern technology is fast catching with manufacturers trying to be ahead in the race to make their vehicles as technology friendly as possible. Manufacturers say that buyers are increasingly demanding that their vehicles be an extension of their digital world.

And for this purpose car makers are not disappointing their buyers. Android Auto has been the most preferred choice by buyers in India given the large consumer base of Android-based smart phones. The cheapest car with Android Auto is priced at under Rs 6 lakh.

The Grand-i10 from Hyundai, for instance, has a 7 inch touchscreen system that houses both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Seven cars each from market leader Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai offer Android Auto as an option in some of the variants of their models. Not only these two car makers but the next two - Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra - are not far behind in offering the Google technology.

Should buyers not worry about their personal data being shared so nonchalantly? Or should they continue to put faith in the manufacturer?