Get ready for Google to kill off yet another car-focused product

Although Android Auto is probably how you interact with your smartphone while driving — maybe even wirelessly — it’s far from the only car-friendly toolset Google’s built over the past decade. In addition to Android Auto for phone screens (dead), Assistant Driving Mode (dead), and Android Automotive (alive!), the company also tried its hand at accessories that put hands-free Assistant in any vehicle, regardless of its age. Six years after the initial push, though, Google is looking to pull the plug on those voice-activated gadgets for good, and it’s hard to be surprised.

Back at CES 2019, Google unveiled a new initiative to bring Assistant-powered gadgets to your car. Rather than rely on a built-in infotainment system — like Android Auto — these devices plugged into the 12V outlet in any vehicle. In addition to supplying USB ports for charging and a 3.5mm jack for plugging into a car’s aux port, you could sync your phone with these gadgets over Bluetooth, giving you always-available access to a single microphone button able to pick up whatever commands you might have.

In theory, it was a solid idea, offering an Android-centric alternative to Amazon’s Echo Auto, which went on sale in late 2018. In practice, the first couple of entries from Google’s hardware partners simply missed the mark. Anker and JBL were the first two brands — and, as far as I can tell, the only two brands — to ever offer an Assistant-powered car adapter like this, in the Roav Bolt and Link Drive, respectively. Now, as spotted by Android Authority, it looks like support for these products will be officially shuttered in the coming months.

Google’s Assistant initiative was doomed from the start

Drivers just don’t want this

An APK teardown of the latest Google app beta reveals a few new strings of code, including one labeled “assistant_car_accessory_depreciation_notification.” That notification, once activated, will tell current Assistant accessory users that their products will be discontinued in the “coming weeks,” and to rely on their smartphone or Android Auto for future voice commands. While this action isn’t live yet, it’s all but certain that support for these gadgets will be wound down sometime this year.

Looking over both of our contemporary reviews from the time, neither Anker nor JBL’s products worked nearly as well as anyone would’ve liked. Former AP writer Corbin Davenport found Anker’s Roav Bolt pretty buggy, with frequent disconnects or failed responses whenever he turned off his phone’s display. His thoughts on the Link Drive were even more negative, citing the cheaper price and smaller physical size of Anker’s product while noting JBL didn’t manage to bring any significant differentiator to the table.

At the end of the day, these Assistant accessories were always destined to hit the landfill, especially considering Assistant’s own murky future. I can’t imagine they sold particularly well, and it doesn’t appear either have been officially sold on Amazon for ages. At the end of the day, a phone mount is almost certainly a better solution for those drivers without a dedicated infotainment system. If you’re still interested in finding something like Google’s Assistant hubs, Amazon still sells its second-gen Echo Auto from 2022, but unlike with the death of Spotify’s Car Thing, I can’t imagine most drivers are going to miss out on these sorts of accessories.