Google Inc.’s push into cars is meeting growing opposition in Germany, where lawmakers are backing the likes of Audi and Mercedes-Benz as they seek to limit the software company’s access under the hood.
Like in a smartphone, Google’s Android Auto will let drivers interact with their cars’ music and navigation systems. What carmakers don’t want, though, is for Android to control cars just as it does phones and tablets.
That also worries German politicians. They don’t want the country’s flagship industry to have its importance diluted if Google gains access to data on the behavior and whereabouts of cars and their passengers. And if the German manufacturers who dominate the technologically innovative luxury segment aren’t ready to play along, Google may find it more difficult to penetrate the industry as a whole.
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