Barely using carplay doesn't count as using it. The only people who love it are the ones who barely use it.. Getting to and form work on maps..Wow ok.. You send 1 or two texts, ok it works... Thats not special, thats basic. the app is trash, most reviews online agree so.
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CarPlay Apple CarPlay.. Why does it suck so bad?
- Thread starter audirs5
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I had a 2015 Golf R without Carplay and now I have a 2016 Golf R with Carplay. I really love it and don't have too much trouble with it. I listen to Apple Music and Audible quite a bit, no problems at all. I don't use Apple Maps, I prefer Waze, but that will never interface. I should give Apple Maps a try. No problem at all with Text Messages or Calendar reminders. I do wish that I could reorganize the icons, but that is so minor that I feel goofy for mentioning it.
I can see how many people weigh the use of Carplay or the Android equivalent into their car buying decision process. Its a much safer and convenient way to interact with your phone while driving.
Their entire logic is flawed.. They say its for "safety" reasons you can mess with songs and stuff, everything is auto.. Yet, they have menus you can go into.. And so does my cars system.. Its a great concept, just poorly executed.
The problem with CarPlay is non-Apple app functionality. iHeart Radio, for one, gets stuck in its menu screen so doesn't always come up in CarPlay without fiddling on the phone. Slacker may sometimes time out and you don't get a notice in CarPlay but also have to go into the phone to clear the menu.
Still. My biggest gripe is Siri and Artist shuffling. If I say "shuffle artist Foo Fighters" I want EVERY song shuffled. Siri come back instead with "here are some popular Foo Fighters songs, shuffled".
Still. My biggest gripe is Siri and Artist shuffling. If I say "shuffle artist Foo Fighters" I want EVERY song shuffled. Siri come back instead with "here are some popular Foo Fighters songs, shuffled".
So I have tried Apple Maps for a few weeks now to see how I like the interface.
Some Caveats:
I love how accurate Waze is with traffic and ETA's. The very nature of how it works would be hard to beat on these two aspects.
VW Navigation is pretty good in terms of quickness, and the graphics are much better than the 2015 Golf R I had. I also like that it includes the speed limit of the road I am on, very helpful when I am in an unfamiliar part of town. I also like how it projects the basics to my center display next to my speedometer.
Those two things considered, I have been very impressed with Apple Maps. The interface is great, I love how I can pick my routes. The traffic is pretty darn good and the ETA is OK. I love how it pauses my audio books to give me verbal commands. Overall, it is a great compromise and I will continue to use it.
Call me crazy, but I am a fan of CarPlay. Yes, there is room for improvements, but I really like it. I can tell that it is something I am fond of when I drive my wife's car and really miss it.
Some Caveats:
I love how accurate Waze is with traffic and ETA's. The very nature of how it works would be hard to beat on these two aspects.
VW Navigation is pretty good in terms of quickness, and the graphics are much better than the 2015 Golf R I had. I also like that it includes the speed limit of the road I am on, very helpful when I am in an unfamiliar part of town. I also like how it projects the basics to my center display next to my speedometer.
Those two things considered, I have been very impressed with Apple Maps. The interface is great, I love how I can pick my routes. The traffic is pretty darn good and the ETA is OK. I love how it pauses my audio books to give me verbal commands. Overall, it is a great compromise and I will continue to use it.
Call me crazy, but I am a fan of CarPlay. Yes, there is room for improvements, but I really like it. I can tell that it is something I am fond of when I drive my wife's car and really miss it.
It's faded behind the onscreen text. It's pretty tastefully done and an improvement over how it was implemented in the past.
It's faded behind the onscreen text. It's pretty tastefully done and an improvement over how it was implemented in the past.
![98365d1447667295t-what-your-personal-experience-apple-carplay-music_carplay.jpg]()
That actually looks nice. When someone calls, do you see the image you set for the caller and the number or just the number?
It's faded behind the onscreen text. It's pretty tastefully done and an improvement over how it was implemented in the past.
![98365d1447667295t-what-your-personal-experience-apple-carplay-music_carplay.jpg]()
I just installed a Pioneer CarPlay head unit - AVH-4200NEX - and I am not getting the image during Now Playing like you have here. Is there a setting to turn that on? I'm getting a solid black background when playing music. Pretty boring looking.
That and sometimes the Brightness settings on the Pioneer are different in CarPlay than they are for the main unit. Definitely check to make sure you have album art. Easy way to be sure is to play something from Apple Music. If you are still not seeing anything check the brightness on the Pioneer.
You can also take a screenshot from your phone the same way you would take a screenshot of your phone screen by pressing sleep and home.
I have Apple Music as well as Match, so pretty sure I have Album Art. I have Album thumbnails when picking music.
I'll have to check the brightness... no idea how to even adjust it on the Pioneer. I assume its in the settings somewhere, but is there a CarPlay brightness in the settings too, or is that set on the iPhone?
THANKS!
I can't find anyway to adjust the brightness on the head unit... looked through all the settings. Anyone know how to do this.
While playing around with things, I did find that I can start playing music in CarPlay Music, then go back to CarPlay home and hit the Pioneer menu option. From there, if I hit the icon for the iPhone media choice (not CarPlay), it gives me a really nice Pioneer screen with artwork and such. It seems to continue playing my CarPlay selected PlayList, but I'm not in CarPlay at that point. Unfortunately if I stay there, then other CarPlay stuff like navigation prompts don't show on the screen, although the audio prompts do. So I definitely have artwork if Pioneer can use it.
While playing around with things, I did find that I can start playing music in CarPlay Music, then go back to CarPlay home and hit the Pioneer menu option. From there, if I hit the icon for the iPhone media choice (not CarPlay), it gives me a really nice Pioneer screen with artwork and such. It seems to continue playing my CarPlay selected PlayList, but I'm not in CarPlay at that point. Unfortunately if I stay there, then other CarPlay stuff like navigation prompts don't show on the screen, although the audio prompts do. So I definitely have artwork if Pioneer can use it.
Through help on another forum (wake up MR Admin... this topic is getting discussed... just not here!), I discovered that the brightness adjustments on my Pioneer deck are greyed out because I don't have the parking brake interlock wire attached. Will be installing a parking brake bypass today and hopefully it will solve my problem. Also planning to install a backup camera as well while I have the dash apart.
iOS 10, can confirm. Carplay is still trash... ALL I want now is for my carplay to NOT mirror what I'm doing on my phone.... I'm now lowering my expectations... DO NOT switch to my text messages and start automatically reading them... That's IT... Let me have maps on the display and have me "passengers" read their own messages on their phone.
Apple needs a Car mode for their phone like what Android introduced at IO. Basically you can switch your phone to car mode to get easier to use buttons while driving. This way you won't even need for the car manufacturers to catch up and can run everything through Bluetooth too.
I have a 2016 Honda Civic Ex-T with carplay through the lightning cable. Most people I have read complaints from have issues with a few things mentioned here and others.
For one:
The phone volume, call volume, Siri volume are so staggered that I can be listening to music and my maps app and when a phone call comes through I get blasted through the roof with an overly loud ringtone. When I turn down the volume and answer the call, to my surprise I can't hear anything on the other end so I have to turn it back up. Once I turn it up and end the call, once I receive a new call I am surprised again to lose an ear drum.
The other complaint is that Siri wants to read everything to me when I switch over to the messages app. I also don't like that when my passenger switches apps to spotify to play a different song on the iPhone it changes my maps navigation app to the spotify app on the display. It's a minor gripe, but still a nagging annoyance none-the-less.
For what it's worth, otherwise my CarPlay experience has been fair. It's not the best system, I like the phone integration I have but it makes no sense to me why in every other app I am allowed to read text on the display, but when it comes to messages I'm completely blocked out and forced to listen to Siri stumble through reading things.
I've been using CarPlay now for several weeks and still liking it. The side effect of this is that I've moved from Google Maps to Apple Maps and so far they have been fine. I had given up on them in the past, but no complaints now. The other one is that I had never really used Siri, and I'm now using Siri a lot more, especially in the car. I'm experimenting a lot now with music by asking Siri to play random things.
It would be wonderful to have CarPlay in my recently purchased BMW, yet I'm finding things ok with the Bluetooth integration; a heads-up mount for the iPhone; and Hey Siri. The Hey Siri call out works about 95% of the time in my car, and then connects to the built-in mic to receive the command, which is much better than using the iPhone mics. Now, I rarely if at all use the built-in Mac system and satellite radio (Spotify & Apple Music and Waze renders all radio and nag useless). We'll see about CarPlay upgradability, but for now, my makeshift CarPlay with Hey Siri and a heads-up mount is working wonders.
Do you have Apple Music? If so, do you find it useful to be able to ask Siri to play anything? I currently have Spotify Premium and hate having to pick up my phone to make a song selection as it's dangerous. Just trying to find a safer option.
I've actually just started using "Hey Siri" while driving and requesting music or playlists. It's been great. Of course I feel a little weird doing it with others in the car, but oh well.
My biggest complaint is still with 3rd Party apps that don't launch, get hung up easily, or the inability to switch between those apps correctly. iHeart Radio is a major culprit. Launch it in CarPlay and it doesn't fully launch unless I open the phone.