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CarPlay Does CarPlay ever become unsupported?

fatTribble

fatTribble

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 21, 2018
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I have an older car without CarPlay. The manufacturer is offering an upgrade that would include new features including CarPlay. I plan to keep the car a long time. Does anyone know as the car ages if the CarPlay wouldn’t be supported by a new iPhoneat some point? Basically, has that already happened?

Also, am I right in saying that if iPhones get rid of Lightning and USB-C completely then all of the wired CarPlay cars are down with. There is no workaround right?

Any thoughts appreciated!
 
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fatTribble said:
I have an older car without CarPlay. The manufacturer is offering an upgrade that would include new features including CarPlay. I plan to keep the car a long time. Does anyone know as the car ages if the CarPlay wouldn’t be supported by a new iPhoneat some point? Basically, has that already happened?

Also, am I right in saying that if iPhones get rid of Lightning and USB-C completely then all of the wired CarPlay cars are down with. There is no workaround right?

Any thoughts appreciated!
Click to expand...
Since not even all of the newer models offer wireless CarPlay, I cannot see Apple removing the connection port for some time to come... but if that happens, there are options to convert wired CarPlay to wireless... some work better than others, and many are problematic with certain head units, but they do exist. I could see Apple even offering a wireless connectivity option should they completely eliminate the lighting or USB-C port... I don't see this as something to be concerned about...
 
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sam_dean said:
Are you driving a Porsche? In recent news that's a car brand that is offering retrofit CarPlay.

I expect the stereo head unit to support it for at least a decade. My 2016 Honda Civic still runs it
Click to expand...
Ford offered a replacement USB connection in some of their cars which would allow wired CarPlay... I recall seeing videos on Youtube of people replacing the USB port in the vehicle with a different Ford stock part to get CarPlay working on their car... so there are possibly other manufacturers besides Porsche.
 
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fatTribble said:
I have an older car without CarPlay. The manufacturer is offering an upgrade that would include new features including CarPlay. I plan to keep the car a long time. Does anyone know as the car ages if the CarPlay wouldn’t be supported by a new iPhoneat some point? Basically, has that already happened?

Also, am I right in saying that if iPhones get rid of Lightning and USB-C completely then all of the wired CarPlay cars are down with. There is no workaround right?

Any thoughts appreciated!
Click to expand...
I think this particular use case is one of many why a port less phone isn’t on the horizon. Absolute worst case, you get an aftermarket head unit installed.

honestly, I’d check into that anyway…most OEM head units suck.
 
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dwfaust said:
Spreading fear for fear's sake is FUD.

We use Waze and Apple Maps on both vehicles... no lag or latency.
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I’ve used both wired and wireless, and they perform exactly the same.

the bigger issue is when I forget to plug in the phone before driving and end up having to juggle it, plug it in, and then unlock it when it denies access to usb devices. Wireless is hands down safer.
 
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I doubt the “original” CarPlay functionality will ever stop working. Apple may introduce CarPlay 2.0 or whatever, but I’m sure all future phones will fall back to the original CarPlay if needed.

If the ports are removed, Apple will likely sell (either themselves or via a licensed partner) an official wireless dongle.

So I would go ahead and update the unit. If you don’t already have a touchscreen/Bluetooth, it’s even more worth it.
 
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They’re not abandoning wired Carplay. If they did make a portless phone, they have got to make a converter. There are 3rd party ones to convert wired to wireless Carplay, they’re kind of janky (I have one) but they work, mostly, Apple could make their own official one and it would work perfectly.

My idea would be to take the Magsafe puck, add 802.11ay wireless, and put ay wireless into the portless iPhone, and it would straight convert the USB signals to wireless and it would work best very close (like say magnetically bolted to the phone) but also work at about 10 feet from the source. Cars could start coming with wireless built into the car and they would work like it was wired (with no latency etc).

I could imagine they could connect to TVs too, either with Magsafe puck or built in, and they would no longer need to be on the same WiFi network for Airplaying. Eventually, this new wireless will overtake wired connections, as it’s Thunderbolt-level speeds (though Thunderbolt 5 will maintain its edge, but 10-20 Gbps is plenty for normal people). Imagine one day having docks that offer charging and Thunderbolt when plugged in, and wireless when not plugged in. We might be using iPhones as work computers in the future, the new Apple XDR Max monitor will have Magsafe on the stand and wirelessly beam video signal from the iPhone and it will run MacOS. Pure bliss.
 
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sam_dean said:
Good for you to ask.

My worry is that when I use a Map the latency due to added wireless overhead would make me miss the turn that I need to get into.

This applies to urban areas with really narrow streets. I've experienced overshooting corners that I was meant to turn into.
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The latency is predictable.

I’d say there is far more unpredictability in CarPlay performance due to regular iPhone tasks. That’s much more difficult to manage I’d expect. And of course, the cellular connection, that will be far more variable. Then there’s the actual GPS signal itself. Those things willl impact performance.

But the local connections on wireless CarPlay are trivial.

I only used wired CarPlay a handful of times so don’t have an established opinion, but I do use wireless CarPlay every day.
 
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Howard2k said:
The latency is predictable.

I’d say there is far more unpredictability in CarPlay performance due to regular iPhone tasks. That’s much more difficult to manage I’d expect. And of course, the cellular connection, that will be far more variable. Then there’s the actual GPS signal itself. Those things willl impact performance.

But the local connections on wireless CarPlay are trivial.

I only used wired CarPlay a handful of times so don’t have an established opinion, but I do use wireless CarPlay every day.
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Wired vs wireless CarPlay is a controllable variable. GPS signal.... is not.

I just want least unstable variables as possible. Could be a different between money going to a future iPhone or car body repair.

Not to mention I wan fast USB PD charging while wired to CarPlay.
 
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sam_dean said:
Good of you to ask.

My worry is that when I use any Map app the latency due to added wireless overhead would make me miss the turn that I need to get to.

This applies to urban areas with really narrow streets. I've experienced overshooting corners that I was meant to turn into.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Apple Maps suffer from some latency even with the wired CarPlay, while Google Maps & Waze - less so. As I still prefer using AM, I have adjusted for it, so it does not really affect my driving much. I am a casual driver, though, so if you cannot afford missing a turn from time to time you may also want to check other mapping solutions.

As for added “wireless latency”, it should be in micro-seconds, so not such a big deal.
 
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