Apple CarPlay Contributes to Higher Vehicle Satisfaction in Latest Survey

[dasmb]

Carplay is whatever. If you've ever been in a car with a good infotainment system like a Tesla, or Polestar. Carplay is a luxury. Of course if you drive crap cars you'd want it

Can't agree my man. I drive a car with a good infotainment system -- but that car is now 6 years old. There hasn't been any new apps in 4 years and no functional updates in 2 years. Eventually they will stop supporting the hardware as well. (They've actually replaced the infotainment system in new cars at least twice in this period).

This puts a functional timebomb on the "goodness" of the system. I keep a car for 10-12 years -- in my mind, this is the only way spending $50-60k on a vehicle makes sense -- so having the option of using CarPlay (and AndroidAuto to a lesser extent), even if I loved the infotainment system, is crucial in ensuring the car will weather the inevitable fashion and functional changes required in an evolving data landscape. This keeps the value and usefulness of the car high.

Heck: even when new, I preferred the high quality, realtime directions from Waze over the decent quality built in navigation, even though the built in nav was dual screen. And I prefer the Spotify app on iPhone to the built in as well -- it's faster, has higher quality art and supports a lot of features that were never introduced to the native Spotify app.

I would love to buy an R1T, by all accounts they are great trucks. But buying a truck from a company that might not exist next year and has no pathway to openly extend the infotainment system is a nonstarter -- at least until we start seeing some open source alternatives to these systems (which may already be out there and if so, tell me -- I'll install it)

 

[MacBookPro88]

I don't care about CarPlay. I don't want to be connected everywhere. As long as I can listen to my music I am good. I actually like having my phone separate from my infotainment center.

I know people that have carplay and never use it or even care to use it.

 

[Chuckeee]

For me it comes down to being forced into a subscription service, force to pay for bug fixes & security upadates and privacy.

Yes Apple privacy and security are not perfect but it vastly superior to anything associated with google. You would be crazy to entrust privacy to anything associated with google. Google’s basic business model is based around exploiting your information for profit. Any auto manufacturer system based around Google automotive cannot be trusted.

 

[darngooddesign]

Haha. Keep drinking the kool-aid. I prefer not to be handcuffed to my phone.

Kind of weird thinking that offering CP or AA as option means you have to be handcuffed to your phone. If you don't want to use them, just use the built in infotainment.

 

[Tagbert]

I understand car manufactures as they simply can't hand over Apple all the entire control of the Multimedia system. I love Apple Car, but in a recent interview that The Verge had with Rivian, they explained how difficult is it for a user to get out of Carplay, and enter the native UI just to open the fronk. (As a simple example)
Users need consistency and this only happens if you give everything to Apple which companies can't do and they shouldn't in my opinion. Good modern cars have good infortainment systems. I have a Tesla Model 3 and a Dacia Jogger Hybrid. In My Tesla i really don't miss Carplay as Tesla infortainment is excellent IMHO. Especially when planning long trips, where it automatically plans for the Superchargers stops. On the other Hand my Dacia Jogger infortainement is crap, and luckly it is compatible with Wireless Carplay and I can't drive that car without Carplay which is good too.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves but just as a guess, every time less and less cars will use Carplay as their own system will improve so much that it would be pointless.

Who (other than Apple) is asking that CarPlay take over the whole Multimedia system?

RJ's example in that verge article was, to be generous, an exaggeration. He made it seem like CarPlay had to always use the whole screen. The car maker designated the area where it renders the CarPlay video stream. Unless the car has a really tiny screen like the old Leaf, there is still room for other system navigation controls on the side or bottom of the screen. They could even add a button to return to the native UI.

He also made it sound like it was some onerous take to leave CarPlay, restart the native UI, do something, and then restart CarPlay. That is silly. The car's infotainment system does some degree of multitasking with some functions operating in the foreground and others in the background at the same time. You can switch between Maps and Music and Settings in the native system and you can switch tasks between CarPlan and any of the native apps, the same. CarPlay will continue to stream in the background and be there when you switch back. It's rather like an iPad in that regard.

Why should the car maker need to block phones just to maintain some kind of ill defined consistency for people who are choosing to connect their phones? If the colors and icons don't match, we will not be so confused as to not be able to use the system. Just because some people think that the colors clash is not enough reason to prevent us from integrating our phones!

If someone needs or wants to use the native Maps app that is fine and they should be able to. They should also be able to use the phone Maps or any other phone app that they want to. Why is it up to the car maker to approve that? They certainly aren't going to reimplement all of the apps on my phone so they can't actually match the functionality. They shouldn't try, they should just acknowledge that this is something that their customers want and allow it.

 

[Tagbert]

Haha. Keep drinking the kool-aid. I prefer not to be handcuffed to my phone.

So you opt to be handcuffed to your car? Strange.

This is about giving the customers options to include functions from their phones if they want to. What reason is there not to do it?

 

[Someyoungguy]

I've been a CarPlay-or-Die person for several years now. But in the case of BEVs, I can understand the need to integrate routing with charging stations and remaining range. Unless CarPlay can integrate state of charge, it will be a hard case to make that it should supplant the native system in an electric car.

 

[Tagbert]

A non-hybrid EV isn't ever going to last 15 years. It doesn't surprise me you're looking for something else this soon.

Why shouldn't? There are lots of Tesla's on the road that are older than 10 years old. Newer EVs are using better battery chemistry, too, so 15 years it not unreasonable at all. The average age of all cars on the road is only around 12 years old anyway.

 

[Tagbert]

I've been a CarPlay-or-Die person for several years now. But in the case of BEVs, I can understand the need to integrate routing with charging stations and remaining range. Unless CarPlay can integrate state of charge, it will be a hard case to make that it should supplant the native system in an electric car.

Who is talking about supplanting the native system?

Yes, Apple has been suggesting the next version of CarPlay could be used that way but no almost car maker is taking them up on it and that's fine. I have no interest in CarPlay controlling the whole car. I just to want to integrate some of the functions on my phone into the car like CarPlay does now.

BTW - Yes, CarPlay now can accept the state of charge for the car, but only a couple of manufacturers have bothered to do so. Regardless, just because you might want to use the native maps apps to route to a charger, doesn't mean that the rest of us can't be allowed to stream other things from our phones.

 

[bigheaddoug]

I have to admit, I had no idea that Domino’s had a CarPlay app.

but seriously, my 2019 Toyota Camry has a built-in infotainment system as well as CarPlay functionality. The built-in system works alongside Toyota’s iPhone apps. Last October, Toyota basically said “screw it. We are not supporting our own apps any more.” In other words, they more or less admitted that everyone was using CarPlay and it was not worth their time to support their infotainment system any longer.

 

[Crzyrio]

That's not true, modern cars have phone integration without carplay, even 10 year old vehicles have it.

You do you, but your car doesn't need to have everything your phone has, it's honestly better that it doesn't.

That’s the beauty of it, the car doesn’t need to know anything. My phone knows it all, my car just needs to let me phone show it to me .

Are you talking about sharing my contacts and calendar with the car? 😂

 

[Nekronos]

Absolutely not true. Specifically, the "subpar" part. A great modern vehicle actually makes CarPlay work even better.

How's that exactly? I think you have it backwards, in theory, carplay should make the vehicle work better - not the other way around. The fact of the matter is carplay's current iteration isn't designed around the car very well and isn't considerate of basic vehicular functions. I totally understand it's popularity because people are addicted to their iphones and like the iphone like experience it brings, but from the standpoint of what it needs to do to enhance driving and do everything a vehicle needs, it fails.

Carplay as it stands doesn't do anything a car's infotainment can't already do.

For carplay to really enhance your driving experience, it needs deep integration - something that automakers like Rivian, Tesla, BMW, etc already do with their inhouse designs - and the same reason Rivian/Tesla don't care about carplay.

 

[goobot]

What kind of Lincoln do you have? My wife’s Nautilus has CarPlay and it works great. I would never consider a car without it.

2015 mkc, the software update actually was for allowing the voice button to activate Siri (the precursor to CarPlay)

 

[Chuckeee]

Who is talking about supplanting the native system?

Yes, Apple has been suggesting the next version of CarPlay could be used that way but no almost car maker is taking them up on it and that's fine. I have no interest in CarPlay controlling the whole car. I just to want to integrate some of the functions on my phone into the car like CarPlay does now.

BTW - Yes, CarPlay now can accept the state of charge for the car, but only a couple of manufacturers have bothered to do so. Regardless, just because you might want to use the native maps apps to route to a charger, doesn't mean that the rest of us can't be allowed to stream other things from our phones.

With respect to “native implementation”, sorry that rationale makes no sense. I have an older Jeep Compass and CarPlay is implemented in a window within the built in native system. Functionally it works great, Although cosmetically it leave a lot to be desired (all of the graphics are smaller). But it operates perfectly. CarPlay does not need to take over the vehicle native system to operate.

 

[Nekronos]

Without CarPlay, the best we could do would be to use Bluetooth but that ends up forcing you to use your phone's screen while driving and why do you think that is a good idea? Yes, there are things on the phone that are worth having while driving. You may not see that but many of us do. How good are Tesla or GM's podcast players? Yea.


It's not just about Maps and Spotify.

Why would you need to use your phone's screen while driving? You can access contacts, call logs, navigation, audio, podcasts, etc via the vehicle's infotainment without carplay.

It's been said many times before, carplay can be a big upgrade for vehicles that have absolutely rubbish infotainments, but it's lacking in a lot of ways.

 

[DotCom2]

I don't care about CarPlay. I don't want to be connected everywhere. As long as I can listen to my music I am good. I actually like having my phone separate from my infotainment center.

I know people that have carplay and never use it or even care to use it.

Well that's fine but it's about choice isn't it?

 

[jlc1978]

What constitutes a “crap“ car?

This the internet. Crap is anything you don’t like.

Personally, I retrofitted CarPlay and b/u camera to 2015 Mercedes and love it. So much I’m adding it to a 2011 Chevy and 84 BMW.

 

[Truckondo]

The thing that bothers me about companies shunning CarPlay and Android Auto is that they are optional. If a company can make their infotainment system better, then do it. In the end, it’s the consumer that makes the choice of what’s best for them.

 

[JordanCautious]

Unsurprising to absolutely no one. Apple CarPlay stays on top! My next vehicle is going to have it for sure. The Quality of Life you get with it is absolutely worth it

 

[randian]

Given how poorly designed I’ve found vendor infotainment systems to be I can’t wait to see how badly they’re going to screw up CarPlay 2 with “customizations”.

 

[macfacts]

Without CarPlay, the best we could do would be to use Bluetooth but that ends up forcing you to use your phone's screen while driving and why do you think that is a good idea? Yes, there are things on the phone that are worth having while driving. You may not see that but many of us do. How good are Tesla or GM's podcast players? Yea.


It's not just about Maps and Spotify.

car play is a band aid and needed cause iphones had small screens.

 

[Blackstick]

CarPlay is a must. My directionally challenged wife cares about that first and foremost. She lives and dies by her maps and Spotify.

 

[MallardDuck]

I'll never be dissatisfied with a car without carplay. Because I won't buy one in the first place.

 

[MallardDuck]

The lack of software support is a big deal. I've spent several hours in the past at a dealership so they can update the infotainment software. Even if you download updates yourself, there is still a component that the dealership has to install. It's ridiculous. I will also never buy another vehicle without CarPlay or Android Auto support.

I have yet to find any OEM software that doesn't suck, even if it does support carplay.

If I drove as much as I used to, I'd rip the factory head unit out of my 4Runner and ship it to Toyota HQ with a note 'returning this due to defective software', and replace it with an aftermarket one. But now working remote, it's not worth the cost. Before my next road trip though....

 

[kahwatter]

A new survey released last week by J.D. Power shows that U.S. consumers continue to prefer vehicles with support for Apple CarPlay.

The market research firm's annual U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution, and Layout (APEAL) Study found overall satisfaction with in-vehicle infotainment systems to average 805 on a 1,000-point scale. However, satisfaction was higher among owners who use Android Auto (832), and even higher for those who use CarPlay (840).

The study is based on responses from 99,144 owners of new 2024 model-year vehicles in the U.S. who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership, according to J.D. Power. The study was conducted from July 2023 through May 2024.

CarPlay has routinely fared well in vehicle satisfaction studies since launching in 2014, so this latest one is no surprise. However, it comes after General Motors last year controversially decided to stop offering CarPlay and Android Auto in its new electric vehicles, in favor of its own software system. Electric vehicle maker Rivian also prefers its own software over CarPlay. J.D. Power's study reinforces that these automakers are betting against a consumer preference, and it remains to be seen if they will ever reverse course.

The next-generation version of CarPlay that Apple announced in 2022 has yet to become available in any vehicles, but Apple's website says the rollout will begin this year. Next-generation CarPlay will be more deeply integrated across multiple screens in a vehicle, offer a built-in FM radio app and climate controls, and more. It will also be highly customizable, allowing automakers to tailor the design of the system to uniquely match their vehicles.

Article Link: Apple CarPlay Contributes to Higher Vehicle Satisfaction in Latest Survey

Literally why I cancelled my R2 reservation.