Well there’s a good reason for this: In this day and age it’s pretty much the ideal option. In fact I think android makes a horrible phone OS (not because it has no good features) but I’ve never had an android phone that didn’t become a battery sucking and unmanageable nightmare. And are high quality audio APIs available (I gave up caring a few years ago)

AFAIC, Android is best suited as an industrial OS. Before android it was Windows CE, which was even bigger garbage than Android, and of course now it is dead.

Alternatives are things like custom rolled Linux (and really why?) and RTOS/GUI platforms like vxworks, qnx.. they have their place. 90% of shit can just use stock android and whatever mods you need.

I love Android as a mobile OS on my Pixel 2; especially with apps like MiXplorer (fully featured file manager). I can't count the number of times being able to plug in a flash drive and copy files to it has saved me.

Subjectively, running Android 10 on a Pixel 2, battery life has never been better, and apps running in the background sucking up my battery hasn't been a problem.

I've used the ubiquitous cheap Huawei and Xiaomi phones, and while they get the job done, the experience isn't nearly as good, as you have to deal with their UI and clutter. Unfortunate.

Linux serves as the hardware abstraction layer for Android. You’re going to need a “custom rolled” kernel for whatever platform you decide to launch in the car.

Yeah, I was just making the observation.

It does make sense, it's pretty customizable and a lot of the legwork is done for you.

I had trouble updating the console in our 2017 Suzuki[0] and extracted the update file - it was QNX

[0] the update instructions say to put the update file on a FAT32-formatted USB drive and plug in. The update file is 6GB and FAT32 has a 4 GB file size limit. Tried exFAT, UFS, and a few other file systems QNX has support for, no go with those.

Last I knew, most of these stereos supporting CarPlay and Android Auto were running QNX, not Android.

Which manufacturer?

I have a Honda Civic and it's definitely an Android tablet shoved into the dash.

Yes, but that has no bearing on the ability of your car to run Android Auto. You cannot run it on the hardware that's built into the car. If you want Android Auto you must project it from a phone or tablet onto the display.

Yes, but the core system is an Android tablet in my car. That is my point. I would imagine that it's the same across Honda's entire fleet.

I was wondering which manufacturer was going QNX instead.

Yep. Honda has been shipping Android based systems since at least ‘16.

Most of the airplane seat-back media centers I’ve used seem to be running Android. Although I was just on an Air China flight that appeared to be using either Windows CE or QNX or something non-standard.

Last time I was on a flight and the infotainment screens all rebooted I saw the familiar Linux boot screen, Tux and all.

Yeah every time I've seen a IFE screen reboot it's been Linux. Some, like on a Singapore Air A380 even had Star Office available for use