It isn’t only Google that wants to power automobiles with a smartphone OS. BlackBerry, Nokia and Qualcomm are teaming up to push QNX and HERE Maps in cars.
QNX (owned by BlackBerry) is what the new BlackBerry 10 OS is built on, but is a long established and extensively popular name behind software that powers car infotainment and control systems. Nokia is a legendary maps services provider, and Qualcomm provides processors. An excerpt from the press release:
HERE Auto is an embedded in-car navigation application that builds on the HERE automotive-grade-quality map, which includes fresh turn-by-turn data for 95 countries. HERE Auto connects to the HERE Cloud to access connected services, including weather, parking availability, traffic, fuel price and payment services, and more. HERE Auto is scalable and supports a variety of platforms.
As said earlier, the world as we used to know it is history.