Ever since consumers started demanding high-tech displays for their infotainment systems, car makers have tried all sorts of interfaces. Some have settled on rotary knobs, some have flipped the screen alignment, and other have combined many of these elements into an integrated media experience.
Polestar 2 aims to revolutionise the infotainment experience once again. Their theme is ‘exploration’, and they’ve developed a Polestar 2 emulator for Android Studio to allow developers to test out their apps as if they’re a Polestar 2 user.
This means that if an app developer is trying to optimise an app for this specific vehicle, they’ll be able to visualise how it all comes together. This also applies to developers looking to make an app specifically for the Polestar 2.
How many developers will actually use it? And will the Polestar 2 Emulator for Android Studio be free? That is not something that was disclosed. We do note that the interface of the Polestar 2 infotainment system seems to resemble a mixture of Ford Sync 2’s quadrant based interface and Volvo’s current vertically aligned display.
Here’s the press release with more.
PRESS RELEASE
Nothing compares with the excitement of exploration. The urge to see what’s out there is what propels mountain climbers to the peaks. It causes scientists to send remote vehicles to Challenger Deep. Whenever a new frontier opens up, physical or virtual, there’s no shortage of curious people eager to explore it to the very edges.
Which is where the infotainment system of the Polestar 2 comes in.
Polestar 2 is the first car in the world to feature a native Android Automotive system, featuring a suite of Google and third-party apps optimized for the in-car experience. From an app development perspective, this is the Wild West: a sprawling, unexplored land ripe with possibilities. A place where ideas can grow. A place of experimentation. A place without limits (almost).
To that end, we’ve built a Polestar 2 emulator for Android Studio that features full implementation of Google Automotive Services: Google Maps for navigation, Google Assistant for voice control, and Google Play Store for downloading and installation. This functionality means that developers can test their apps in the same way as users in the Polestar 2 will, meaning full optimization and usability from the beginning.
The Polestar 2 infotainment system is an entirely new frontier. Time to get excited about exploring it.
