Well, if there's no reason to redesign the wheel then maybe they should stop claiming that the "rabbit r1 is not an Android app" themselves. I would venture to guess the reason why this is emphasized, other than that, is that multiple reviewers made the point that it really should've just been an app.
“rabbit r1 is not an Android app” is true though. To a different degree, saying the r1 is an android app is like saying a polestar 2 is an android app. Yes, android OS and android software running on that OS is a part of it, but the device as a whole is the combination of all of its software and its hardware.
A more accurate dig at it is that the main functionality rabbit r1 could be offered just as an app instead of bundled on its own hardware, which is not so true of a car.
You're right, and I should've adjusted my reply to be a bit more precise. That said, man, from my perspective, it's barely different than an Android app. It feels like some weird twist on the "just ship your computer" joke with Docker, wherein they just shipped a chunk of Android phone with their app. Honestly, I mostly ignored these devices when the news and fuss came around, but this class of device really does hit me as the least compelling new class of device I've seen in quite some time, personally...
If you turn off Battery Optimization, yes. Apps can even draw over and control other apps. Assuming the LAM is just an app controlling AOSP in a VM server-side, this really should have just been an app with the LAM sending touch events back to the device.
Not sure about nowadays, but a few years ago yes. You could run a foreground(?) service which kept an icon in the righthand corner (can’t remember too well). Anyway, I had an app which kept a http server always running.
