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I'm not sure what they are trying to do with the next-generation CarPlay. I mean will it still require an iPhone to function?
I was just going to bring this up in my post too.

I've been trying to figure out, since it was announced, whether next generation CarPlay actually requires an iPhone. Because, frankly, if it does that is needlessly esoteric and also very artificial. The details about the new apps only further underscore that there is nothing here that has anything to do with a phone. These apps are car-specific and would have no reason to live on your iPhone at all - they should be stored in the vehicle's onboard computer. (Well, I suppose you could have iPhone versions of the apps that communicate remotely with the car like many vehicle manufacturer phone apps already do, but that scenario would not necessarily the best fit for separate apps like this anyway). Contrast this with the majority of today's CarPlay Apps which are really just alternate projections of iPhone apps.

And sure, you would still want the classic CarPlay apps to show up and function as they do today when you have an iPhone paired. But, for example, if you are riding as a passenger in your car and the driver is using Next Generation CarPlay for everything, and you are the only one with an iPhone, and then they drop you off somewhere and leave in your vehicle, it would be very jarring for everything to suddenly revert to the vehicles native infotainment / telmematics. It just seems far less than ideal if that's how this is going to work.

Because most of the above functions for charge/climate/tires and the rest, the car should be able to inform you about without an iPhone. So, a car manufucterer should figure out a way for these functions to work both within carPlay and without?

Well, the functions themselves will no doubt work without an iPhone, just like they do today. It's just that you'd be using the native interface instead of Apple's. And that's fine, but you should still be able to use the Apple interface if you choose, and you shouldn't need an iPhone to do so.
 
I was just going to bring this up in my post too.

I've been trying to figure out, since it was announced, whether next generation CarPlay actually requires an iPhone. Because, frankly, if it does that is needlessly esoteric and also very artificial. The details about the new apps only further underscore that there is nothing here that has anything to do with a phone. These apps are car-specific and would have no reason to live on your iPhone at all - they should be stored in the vehicle's onboard computer. (Well, I suppose you could have iPhone versions of the apps that communicate remotely with the car like many vehicle manufacturer phone apps already do, but that scenario would not necessarily the best fit for separate apps like this anyway). Contrast this with the majority of today's CarPlay Apps which are really just alternate projections of iPhone apps.

And sure, you would still want the classic CarPlay apps to show up and function as they do today when you have an iPhone paired. But, for example, if you are riding as a passenger in your car and the driver is using Next Generation CarPlay for everything, and you are the only one with an iPhone, and then they drop you off somewhere and leave in your vehicle, it would be very jarring for everything to suddenly revert to the vehicles native infotainment / telmematics. It just seems far less than ideal if that's how this is going to work.



Well, the functions themselves will no doubt work without an iPhone, just like they do today. It's just that you'd be using the native interface instead of Apple's. And that's fine, but you should still be able to use the Apple interface if you choose, and you shouldn't need an iPhone to do so.
Yea, I'm pretty sure you're gonna need an iPhone :) Otherwise how is all your data going to be accessed by your car? Also, I don't quite understand what the issue is — do you go places without your phone? I mean we're not talking about a landline here...
 
Yea, I'm pretty sure you're gonna need an iPhone :) Otherwise how is all your data going to be accessed by your car? Also, I don't quite understand what the issue is — do you go places without your phone? I mean we're not talking about a landline here...

Hmm. It looks like you may not have read my whole post before you replied. I addressed both of the questions you asked.
 
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Not to break protocol and follow up on my own post, but I suppose another way to frame this is, just as CarPlay is analogous to Android Auto, what would be ideal here is for Next Generation CarPlay (or, if not, then some other Apple thing not announced yet) to essentially evolve into the analog to Android Automotive:


Ironically, a vehicle running Android Automotive can happily also support CarPlay. So maybe that'd become a stickling point since Apple probably isn't going to want to play nice like that.

All of this, incidentally, reminds me of this (pretty well written, IMHO) article:

 
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Hmm. It looks like you may not have read my whole post before you replied. I addressed both of the questions you asked.
You got me — I didn't. However, now I went back and did, which changed nothing for me)))

There's nothing odd about the experience changing if the person whose phone is 'used' leaves the car. This already happens with the current CarPlay or just music that's playing. If having a passenger's phone be what's on the cars displays isn't odd, I'm honestly not sure why this would be.

I also see no benefit of having these apps stored in the car, there would be a need for designated storage — not saying that this couldn't happen, but it seem a lot easier when everything lives in your phone. imho, of course.
 
I hope a lot of these functions come to classic Carplay. They address a lot of the issues I have with my car’s infotainment Also I hope the update addresses a lot of the issues I have with CarPlay.
 
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1706252216497.jpeg

I wonder why Apple chose to make this illegible to Zoomers.
 
I hope a lot of these functions come to classic Carplay.
Got my fingers crossed for this.

The 'Climate' one is a terrible idea. Apparently Apple still haven't learned what Car Manufacturers learned 10 years ago when introducing touch screens - that tactile buttons are always better in vehicles than touch screens, because you can adjust by feel without having to take your eyes off the road.
Some cars already have on-screen climate controls. The Carplay interface for it might be better if the on-screen buttons or sliders are bigger.

If your car has physical switch gear for HVAC then you should continue to use those.
 
You got me — I didn't. However, now I went back and did, which changed nothing for me)))

There's nothing odd about the experience changing if the person whose phone is 'used' leaves the car. This already happens with the current CarPlay or just music that's playing. If having a passenger's phone be what's on the cars displays isn't odd, I'm honestly not sure why this would be.

It sounds like you might not be totally apprised of exactly what NG CarPlay is. We are talking about literally everything about the way the vehicle communicates its vitals and status to you - including the instrument cluster itself - being handled by Apple's software. If you aren't able to imagine how having all of that suddenly switch over to a completely different interface with it's own (probably subpar) design language and widget-ry, then it seems you are not familiar with a modern all-digital vehicle. It would indeed be confusing for someone not expecting it, especially perhaps elder folks. And just telling the person who is driving, "Okay, now when I get out, everything is going to go bat-**** and look like a f**king Atari 2600 by comparison.", isn't going to cut it in the general case (though would probably be fine in some cases, sure).

I also see no benefit of having these apps stored in the car, there would be a need for designated storage — not saying that this couldn't happen, but it seem a lot easier when everything lives in your phone. imho, of course.

The benefit of having the experience be native without tethering is that now it *is* the car. As I said in my follow-up post, it would be very much the Apple analog to Android Automotive.
 
It sounds like you might not be totally apprised of exactly what NG CarPlay is. We are talking about literally everything about the way the vehicle communicates its vitals and status to you - including the instrument cluster itself - being handled by Apple's software. If you aren't able to imagine how having all of that suddenly switch over to a completely different interface with it's own (probably subpar) design language and widget-ry, then it seems you are not familiar with a modern all-digital vehicle. It would indeed be confusing for someone not expecting it, especially perhaps elder folks. And just telling the person who is driving, "Okay, now when I get out, everything is going to go bat-**** and look like a f**king Atari 2600 by comparison.", isn't going to cut it in the general case (though would probably be fine in some cases, sure).



The benefit of having the experience be native without tethering is that now it *is* the car. As I said in my follow-up post, it would be very much the Apple analog to Android Automotive.
I'm quite familiar with it, thanks. Sometimes the connection breaks during which time everything changes from CarPlay to idrive7, which I'm not a fan of. But it's not the end of the world — if it's your car you should be able to find your way around its controls.

Yes, that would be great, but I doubt that is what's going to happen. Otherwise it's basically apple writing auto software for cars. I don't see that being the case, but I could be wrong!
 
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I'm quite familiar with it, thanks. Sometimes the connection breaks during which time everything changes from CarPlay to idrive7, which I'm not a fan of. But it's not the end of the world — if it's your car you should be able to find your way around its controls.

Well, no, it's not the end of the world. You're right about that. But it is indeed far less than ideal, which is what I said it would be in my initial post. Most germane to the discussion here, though, is that Apple hasn't built their reputation around experiences that are meh, "not the end of the world". They are known for world class UX, and in fact when they get it wrong the user-base lets them know pretty vocally. So I'm simply hoping that's not where this is headed.

Yes, that would be great, but I doubt that is what's going to happen. Otherwise it's basically apple writing auto software for cars. I don't see that being the case, but I could be wrong!

Irrespective of whether this requires you have a phone linked up or not, that's really exactly what this is - auto software for cars. All the apps listed in the OP are just that - car specific software. So, we are already there if you think about it. And, as a point of fact, there is nothing about NG CarPlay that we've seen or learned to now that physically, logistically, genuinely should require a phone to be in the mix. So, why should there be any pretense? Just let it run stand-alone. If they don't do that this year, well, I suspect they will be nudged that way eventually. Because, as the Electrek scribe eloquently described, most of what is out there today is a complete freeway pile-up.
 
The 'Climate' one is a terrible idea. Apparently Apple still haven't learned what Car Manufacturers learned 10 years ago when introducing touch screens - that tactile buttons are always better in vehicles than touch screens, because you can adjust by feel without having to take your eyes off the road.
You're right about climate controls, but I find your suggestion that OEM's at large learned that lesson 10 years ago hilarious. The Tesla Model 3 didn't even come out until 2017 and it doesn't even have an instrument cluster! Let alone physical climate controls! Granted, EV's have been the worst offenders, but MAN have they offended!

I am a firm believer that car HVAC controls should be precisely three knobs (fan speed, vent configuration, temperature), and two buttons (A/C, Recirculation). And the fan speed and vent knobs should have positive detent that is both tactile and audible and all three must have hard rotation stops at about 8 and 4 o'clock. THAT'S IT! I DON'T NEED ANYTHING ELSE! EVER! WE LITERALLY PERFECTED THIS ACROSS THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY FIFTY YEARS AGO, GUYS! STOP IT!
 
I really hope there will be a way to use CarPlay without having it completely take over your car's displays and clusters.

Seems pretty clear to me that Apple won't - and can't - force all of the car's displays to be taken over by CarPlay because several car manufacturers simply won't give Apple total control and that would be bad news for Apple's customers.

Personally, I am looking to get a car that supports this full new CarPlay but I don't imagine all cars - even most - to adopt this, as ceding control of the customer experience to a potential future competitor just seems naive and shortsighted.
 
Love CarPlay. Automakers are dreaming if they think they can create a better UI than Apple.

True and I feel the same way, but ceding total control of the in-car electronics experience to a potential future competitor seems like a bad deal for most car manufacturers.

I expect some car manufacturers to enable it in select models, but I highly doubt this will become nearly as ubiquitous as the current gen CarPlay.
 
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Will be rolling out very slowly. Not expecting many vehicles to have this in 2024
 
I wonder why there is an app dedicated to your rear view camera?
what would be useful is to have the iphone record footage, like a dash cam does. Be great if I could access all car camera footage after a crash etc from my iphone/icloud.
 
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I wonder why there is an app dedicated to your rear view camera?
because in most cars you cannot view it if you want. you have to put your car in reverse or activate automatic parking.
then there's the other thing: if the car's UI kicks in, it disrupts CarPlay, and you usually need several touches to get back to the CarPlay UI.
this gonna be pretty useful, especially if this also applies to front camera and/or bird's eye view
 
The 'Climate' one is a terrible idea. Apparently Apple still haven't learned what Car Manufacturers learned 10 years ago when introducing touch screens - that tactile buttons are always better in vehicles than touch screens, because you can adjust by feel without having to take your eyes off the road.
i partially agree. touch screens are a big burden for the driver.
but this doesn't stop stupid car manufacturers to add it to each and every new car and move certain essential controls over there just to save on manufacturing costs.
my EV has a dedicated climate button, and all it does is to bring up the climate screen on the center touchscreen, where i can adjust settings. i hate it.
yes, there are a few "direct" touch buttons on the main car UI, just like adjusting temperature and activating recirculation, but it sucks. so are the seat heating touch UI buttons: they react slowly, there's no firm confirmation that the action has been taken, so you end up cycling through the levels.

the common thing in these is the badly designed UI, that requires almost precise aiming and very steady hands while your arm is halfway stretched out and the car is moving. terrible.
and of course it looks and feels different on every single car, sometimes not even uniform across the different models of the same manufacturer.

i think apple's take on that would be to build a better, more intuitive, standardised UI, with settings activation tuned to the driver's iPhone, and proper speech recognition and voice activation.

unless these don't work perfectly, almost the same handicaps will apply as with the original manufacturer's stuff. i hope they get it right. then all you need is a single button on your steering wheel to activate the (hopefully much improved) voice assistant in iOS.

still i think this is a big burden for everyone, because you could just use your hands and grab the physical knob or push the physical button to get stuff done - and don't want to argue with a digital assistant about my feet being cold while having a phone call. this concept served us well, and i don't really see how anyone without the ability of tactile feedback is gonna fix this. let's see how apple intends to make car UI at least to suck less.
 
The 'Climate' one is a terrible idea. Apparently Apple still haven't learned what Car Manufacturers learned 10 years ago when introducing touch screens - that tactile buttons are always better in vehicles than touch screens, because you can adjust by feel without having to take your eyes off the road.

I think you're misunderstanding something. Existing physical controls fitted to the vehicle will still work when CarPlay is in use, so if your vehicle has physical controls for climate control or whatever, you can still use those. However, if your manufacturer has only implemented touchscreen controls then this means you can effectively access these from within the CarPlay interface or invoke them with Siri. Apple's not taking any of your car's functionality away here.
 
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I am looking forward to yearly carplay updates and paying for "rear view mirror" subscription all year round, touch screen controls for climate, volume and radio. Oh, and I really want to have "critical security update for your car" every month to feel truly safe.
Even bluetooth is broken in ios 17, the phone dial pad is a joke, can we trust this company?. Me, not. this will be a factor for NOT buying a car.

So, you're not buying a car based partially on the fact it supports an entirely optional UI which you're dismissive of based on things that have only happened in your head?
 
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