Google announced on Wednesday that it’s teaming up with Cisco, Microsoft and Zoom to bring in-vehicle conferencing via Android Auto — a feature that may deter people from trying to drive while holding their phone on their lap with a video conferencing app open .
Yes, we see your drivers.
The new conferencing feature, which will be audio for now, was announced Wednesday at Google’s I/O conference and is part of the company’s push into the automotive market.
Android Auto, which allows drivers to wirelessly project navigation, parking, media and messages from their Android smartphone to their vehicle’s center display, will soon offer conferencing via Cisco’s WebEx, Microsoft Teams and Zoom apps to enable conferencing.
Google is rapidly growing out of the number of vehicles using Android Auto to access apps. By the end of the year, the company expects more than 200 million vehicles to be connected to Android Auto, which should give you an idea of how many people will use Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom to connect on the go.
Despite our post-COVID Zoom-obsessed culture, enabling conferencing in moving vehicles isn’t very mainstream yet. But the phenomenon is growing. Last year, Tesla said drivers would soon be able to access Zoom from its vehicles. In February of this year, Mercedes partnered with Cisco to enable video calling in its 2024 E Class sedans.
