Both Founders of Google Drive a Car Without Android Auto - The Toyota Prius

According to a story this week by CNBC, both Larry Page and Sergey Brin drive Toyota Prius cars. We find that interesting for many reasons.

Before we go too far, we are skeptical that CNBC.com is correct in its reporting that both Google founders, worth a combined $0.1 trillion dollars drive Toyota Prius cars. The story posted on August 21st (yesterday) says they do, so we'll run with that theme. We'd love to find out this isn't true, so feel free to add a link to proof otherwise in the comments below.

We're big Prius fans here at Torque News if you are not familiar with our coverage. We like the car for many reasons. Its Top Safety Pick rating from IIHS, its leadership in global green cars sales (for the entirety of human history) and because for some reason, EVangelists seem to hate the car. That cracks us up the most because it reveals their environmental hypocrisy.

We understand the appeal of the Prius to folks like Page and Brin. The Prius was for many years the top-selling car overall in the State of California. It was the test-bed vehicle for the Google automated driving system (or Alphabet's driving system depending upon how persnickety you are). And it has that geek-chic appeal that says "I could be driving a Bently GT SPort, but I am another type of cool".

What really cracks us up though if the story is true is that the Prius is one of only a handful of modern, top-selling vehicles that cannot come equipped from its manufacturer with Android Auto. Android Auto is the in-vehicle link to Droid phones. Droids run the Google software that we all know and love. Toyota has been nudging closer to having the technology. A handful of its model year 2019 cars now run the competitor's interface, Apple CarPlay. For the approximately 45% of Americans who own Android devices, though, we get to use Scout or Toyota's in-dash nav rather than Google Maps and make due with a BlueTooth connection for the rest of our apps.

These fellas seem like Tesla types to us, but who knows? Some brazillionaires like to keep a low profile when out in public. Maybe they prefer to drive the car that is on every corner to keep the spotlight dim.