Plenty of partners (http://www.openautoalliance.net/#members), but who knows if anything will truly come out of it. Might end up being like the android TV device.

 

might be, but I doubt it.
Currently there are allot of apps geared towards in car use, so the in car android system is a logical next step with all the "hands free" laws.
So there might be some exciting development in that field.
On top of that Parrot is one of the partners. So they might have a new version of Asteroid Smart coming out with androidauto os on it.

 

^ I'd say this is the most likely outcome, as Parrot has actually put out a GOOD android-based headunit of sorts.

Pioneer, Kenwood and other electronics companies have had the ability to build a decent android-based operating system for years and years now, but they don't want their improvements available to other manufacturers - the OPEN part of open-source android OS, so they'll probably be signed on and do some token participation.

The auto manufacturers have been putting a ton of money into their own in-car entertainment options where they can charge $3,000+ for the "premium" audio + navigation system, so they probably will want to keep doing that rather than putting a simple bluetooth dongle that people can attach their $200 tablet to and have the same sort of features. There's a thing called the sunk-cost fallacy that will be in play here, millions of dollars sunk into development will continue to be a reason to dump more millions into things like Ford's Sync, even if less money is require to make something better via the Open Auto Alliance.

 

Good thing that my main focus is aftermerket products.

Ford have been very adaptive lately. Especially after the whole auto bail out.
They might reconsider and shift over to android or build version of sync on top of that just like any phone manufactured doing with Android OS.

 

I think with customer demand we'll see a lot more demand for google's android for cars and probably even apple's car play. But like Wrathernaut was saying I think the manufacturers might do it kicking and screaming. I'd personally like to see a head unit that can run both of the new car os'

 

There's been standards that allow mirroring of display with touchscreen capabilities - MirrorLink in particular - that could be a great supplement to the bluetooth streaming (A2DP + AVRCP) that's becoming fairly prevalent in new cars, and would be a little-cost add-on since all cars are required to have backup cameras in just a few years.

For the (one?) headunit that support Miracast (Eonon M1), it's great for display mirroring and audio, but no remote touchscreen is available through that protocol, so it's not ideal at all.



So I suppose I just look forward to when a (preferably wireless) standard that simply mirrors display and controls of smartphones to a in-dash display in the car to be as ubiquitous as bluetooth audio streaming is now. If it has an external GPS antenna so the phone doesn't need good line-of-sight to the satellites, that'd be great too.