The 2017 Porsche 911 will officially support Apple's CarPlay system, but a new report claims that it won't be using the rival Android Auto, reportedly due to Google's data collecting requirements.
According to Motor Trend:
As part of the agreement an automaker would have to enter with Google, certain pieces of data must be collected and mailed back to Mountain View, California. Stuff like vehicle speed, throttle position, coolant and oil temp, engine revs—basically Google wants a complete OBD2 dump whenever someone activates Android Auto. Not kosher, says Porsche. Obviously, this is "off the record," but Porsche feels info like that is the secret sauce that makes its cars special. Moreover, giving such data to a multi-billion dollar corporation that's actively building a car, well, that ain't good, either.
By contrast, Motor Trend claims that CarPlay will only send data about the car's movement back to Apple. We have some doubts over this, primarily because Android Auto is contained on your smartphone and projects itself to the compatible in-car system. Porsche is also owned by the VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group), some of whose other brands have already committed to and started offering Android Auto. So whatever is going on is clearly not coming from the very top.
Update: Google issued the following comment to TechCrunch:
Steering this story straight – we take privacy very seriously and do not collect the data the Motor Trend article claims such as throttle position, oil temp and coolant temp. Users opt in to share information with Android Auto that improves their experience, so the system can be hands-free when in Drive, and provide more accurate navigation through the car's GPS.
They also add:
TechCrunch learned that when Google initially approached automakers concerning Android Auto, it requested a deeper data set than what is currently required. Porsche could have made the decision at that time to stop working with Google and instead focus on CarPlay. It's unclear when this early conversation happened. Google publicly announced Android Auto at Google I/O in June of 2014.
Either way, Porsche remains CarPlay-only for now.
