Google continues working on Android Auto integration with your car's radio

Google seems to be preparing to add a nice feature with a future Android Auto update. The folks at 9to5Google have dug into the code of the latest Android Auto update and have found hints that the service is prepping to give you a new form of media control, including a plethora of different radio stations.

The feature relates to local media on your vehicle. The "Car Media" app may be able to access locally stored information, but also seems to be able to tie into radio stations. The first news about this feature was reported in July, so it's been a few months that Google has been working behind the scenes on the feature.

Updates in September and October indicate that Google is continuing to work on the feature; however, it has not officially launched just yet.

The latest update for Android Auto, Android Auto 13.3 beta, still has no release of radio or the previously reported "Car Media" functionality. However, the feature doesn't seem abandoned by Google and is still being worked on, reportedly.

Google has now listed various music genres and radio station categories in direct reference to "radio".

Here's the list of genres and categories listed:

• Adult hits
• Alarm
• Alarm test
• “Children’s programmes”
• Classic rock
• Classical
• College
• Country
• Country music
• Culture
• Current affairs
• Documentary
• Drama
• Easy listening
• Education
• Emergency
• Emergency test
• Finance
• Folk music
• Hip hop
• Information
• Jazz
• Jazz music
• Language
• Leisure
• Light classical
• National music
• News
• Nostalgia
• Oldies
• Oldies music
• Other music
• Personality
• Phone-in
• Pop music
• Public
• Religion
• Religious music
• Religious talk
• Rhythm and blues
• Rock
• Rock music
• Science
• Serious classical
• Social affairs
• Soft music
• Soft rhythm and blues
• Soft rock
• Spanish Music
• Spanish Talk
• Sport
• Sports
• Talk
• Top 40
• Travel
• Varied
• Weather

Right now, it's not entirely clear what these categories are for. At this point, we can speculate that these categories may be within the "Car Media" app Google is working on, and these could probably help users filter radio stations by genre or category. Or, they can be placeholders for radio station data as well, because most infotainment systems in cars will show the genre of a radio station when tuned into it.

Google has not officially disclosed when it plans to launch this feature (and if), and it's not entirely clear how it will work. It seems such a feature would need a deep integration with your car's infotainment system.

It seems Google is interested in getting such deep integration with cars in the future. The company recently debuted new EV features in a partnership with Ford which gives info about the car's battery and Google Maps integration.

I am very curious to see how this new feature will work once it gets released. Right now, we don't know how all of its features will work, but I think it will be pretty useful to just be able to tune in to your car's radio from Android Auto.