Harman International, the car infotainment manufacturer, recently spilled the beans on a "next-gen" infotainment system it is building for General Motors. Automotive News has quotes from the company's CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, who describes an Android-based system with an app store and "instant" boot up. The report says that Harman is "working closely" with Google to make the system a reality.

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Harman won a $900 million contract from GM to build the system, and judging by Harman CEO's description, this is an actual embedded Android system that will power the entire infotainment setup. That typically includes the audio system, air conditioning, navigation, voice recognition, phone calls, reverse cameras, and Internet access.

The most interesting thing is that the report says Harman is "working closely" with Google to make the system ready for cars, which suggests this won't be some cobbled-together AOSP system. Instead, it's likely to be something that will be blessed by Google. Harman's CEO said the system will have "an app store" and that “apps will be developed by General Motors, Harman, and a bunch of other third parties, not just Google and Apple.” (Apple's inclusion is an odd statement, but the company does make one Android app .)

Besides GM, Harman supplies infotainment systems to Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and BMW, and while GM has a bit of an exclusivity deal on the system, other companies can adopt it “one life cycle behind.”

GM has been leading the connected car movement with moves like rolling embedded LTE out to most of its lineup, but on the software side, things are a mess. Automotive News notes that GM's current software lineup is a mix of systems based on Blackberry's QNX, Linux, and "a Microsoft OS." If GM is really serious about this, they'll need to realize the power of a large install base for apps and build a system that works across its many brands.