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Comment by thekevan | Hacker News Reader

Title: "...now available in every car"

Last sentence of the article: "Sign up on the Android Auto website to receive an email when the update is available for your phone."

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And the sentence before that explains that Android Auto is only available in 30 countries. I don't get this kind of region/country lock-in.

Likely to avoid legal/regulatory issues...

I'd guess that's probably due to regulations around in-car hardware and user interfaces. Compliance is hell.

EU uses same car software across the board (with same synchronized regulations) and Auto still isn't available in all those countries. Apple CarPlay (as usual) is.

I always hear this same tired out argument... and then see Apple somehow managing to handle it while Google region locks even their free apps like Google+ or podcast feature in Google Play Music.

Maybe Apple dedicates more lawyers to figuring out regulation and compliance. And lawyer time is far, far more expensive than engineering time.

...which, if that is the case, is something Google could certainly afford, but choose not to.

More like Apple don't give a flying damn until poked about it.

Just watch how they ignored the mandatory 2 year warranty on computers in italy, while pushing Applecare.

Frankly when it comes to Apple they basically behave as if the whole world is like USA until told otherwise.

Happens to non-car updates as well I think.

"In every car" but not necessarily "in every phone" :)

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