I wished for Android Auto to get released in this form, but this isn't something I thought a multi billion corporation with talented software engineers would come up with.
Here's some real usage info:
Gavin • 4 hours ago I just finished driving to work with this (I navigate to work every day for the traffic information). Having not read the article (just the headline) before heading out, I was somewhat shocked that it didn't respond to "OK Google" commands.
I also found the message overlay extremely annoying. My wife sent me a text message, and instead of the topside "heads-up" notification normally containing the message body, I got a gigantic "NEW MESSAGE" popup that covered my navigation (so if you were about to make a turn in an unfamiliar location, you might miss it). And it didn't even contain the message body - so instead of just reading the message hands-free, I had to tap the screen to "play" the message. And even that didn't actually work. [1]
There are couple car apps way more powerful then that, like Automate[2], Car Dashdroid[3], Drivemode[4].
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitspice.a...
[3] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nezdroid.c...
[4] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.drivemode....