Android Auto is quite useful while driving, minimizing distractions and allowing safer use of certain key apps. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved, and Google is preparing three major Android Auto updates.

The updates are hinted at in the latest build of the Android Auto beta (via Auto Evolution), with changes to the app's UI being the most notable new feature. And with one of Android's best features, customization, also set to be included, the new version of the app appears to offer some major improvements overall.

The biggest change coming to Android Auto appears to be a new UI, codenamed Coolwalk. Specifically, a button placed in Android Auto's navigation bar launches a car-oriented version of Android's Notification Center.

Once the menu is activated, the latest notifications and a number of quick options for dealing with them are displayed. In the screenshot, you can see the option to play Telegram messages (presumably Google Assistant will read the message out loud) or mute the conversation.

There is also a music playback interface, and no doubt other app-specific options will appear in later versions of this feature.

The update also seems to indicate that big things are coming for Android Auto's wallpaper feature.

Changing the Android Auto home screen background is already possible with many options built into the service itself. However, this update could increase the number of available wallpapers and provide support for retrieving backgrounds from an external server. In addition to making it easier to add wallpapers, it is also possible that wallpapers will change automatically, as they do in Windows, although it is unclear what this would mean.

We do not know if users will be able to upload their own wallpapers, but if Android Auto can access Google servers to add backgrounds, we would expect to see integration with Google Photos.

The last feature would give users more control over how Android Auto is activated when the engine is turned on.

Currently, Android Auto starts automatically when your phone is connected to the car, but it seems there is also a new option to default to whatever Android Auto's previous state was when you last turned off the engine. In other words, if it wasn't activated, it won't activate the next time you start your car. This is set from a new app on the Android Auto interface accessible from the car's screen.

These features are currently still in beta and it is unclear when they will be rolled out to the stable version of Android Auto. However, Google appears to have big plans to continue improving this app and give users a better choice of how the app works.