Hands-On With CarPlay in iOS 13: Everything That's New

[danny842003]

Fun fact: The home screen layout is reversed in Australia - I assume for all right-hand drives.

Does anybody know where to find a nice ‘dock’ that I can install to, er... dock & go...?

Now I’m trying to remember which way my hire car in Maui had it....

I wonder if it’s a feature of the phone or the car?

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

how do I update my CarPlay. I just bought a in dash for my Altima and it has CarPlay but mines doesn't look like this.. I have iOS 13 on my iPhone 8.. how do I update my in dash unit. anybody ?

thanks..

 

[person s]

Now I’m trying to remember which way my hire car in Maui had it....

I wonder if it’s a feature of the phone or the car?

I too live in Australia
a hire car I drove in the USA last December had the controls on the left
clearly it just knows

 

[JoshBoy]

It’s much much better. I have two iPhones, one with ios13 and the other with ios12 and have plugged both in. The upgrades they have made make it much better.
[doublepost=1566030856][/doublepost]

how do I update my CarPlay. I just bought a in dash for my Altima and it has CarPlay but mines doesn't look like this.. I have iOS 13 on my iPhone 8.. how do I update my in dash unit. anybody ?

thanks..

You shouldn’t need to update anything. It’s driven from the phone not the car.

 

[AidenL]

It’s a vast improvement. Love it now, will be perfect for me when Google maps can be used.

 

[Pacman72]

Is the night mode for maps more contrasted? In the video, the camera didn't even pick up on the super thin and light road lines. It's great that you have to stare at it long enough for your eyes to adjust and try to make out the poorly designed map.

Have only tried the iOS 12 version with the Mercedes MBUX. Found it to be much slower and way cheaper looking than the in-car system -- though to be fair, MB really did a good job on the new system.

I use the IOS13 Beta with my Merc MBUX and CarPlay in my car which is only 8 weeks old and has all the bells and whistles I could put on it.

And you are right the MBUX is an impressive UI and CarPlay does look dated when you compare the two. But that being said I rather use the CarPlay Waze app for navigation over my Mercs internal MBUX nav with augmented reality. I found waze to be way more accurate with traffic updates and street closures than MBUX and I get speed trap placements with Waze. Also I hate the voice of the Mercedes Navigation and you cant change it.

And whoever asked the questions about incoming or outgoing calls while using a nav app it still takes over the screen and you need to manual switch back while in the call if you want to see the maps.

The one thing that annoys me with Mercedes is they still make me use my cable to access CarPlay even though I have a wireless charging pad in the centre console and smartphone integration.

It would be nice if I could put CarPlay Nav screen in the instrument cluster display in the user modify section that allows me to select the MBUX nav screen but not CarPlay

 

[jbn858273]

The one thing that annoys me with Mercedes is they still make me use my cable to access CarPlay even though I have a wireless charging pad in the centre console and smartphone integration.

CarPlay needs a WiFi connection to be wireless, and as far as I know neither wireless charging nor smartphone integration work using WiFi..... yet(!)

 

[whsbuss]

Interesting that Dan doesn't use Apple Music

And lots of things annoy him..... annoying

 

[adnbek]

Wish Siri was multilingual. I often get messages in both English and French and Siri can only read and reply in whatever language she is set to. Can’t do both languages at the same time.
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Making a call (using Siri) still takes over the full screen, which is very annoying when using the navigation. I have to always elects maps again. Really had hoped they fixed this.

Just as annoying as when it happens on the phone itself.

 

[Ghost31]

Oddly enough one of my favorite new features is gonna be pulling up an address from calendar and just navigating to it. Boop boop and then there

 

[AppleHaterLover]

I've been running the beta CarPlay. My car (mazda) has physical buttons for music and navigation. A new change in the beta includes that when you click one of those buttons, it takes you to the most recent nav or music app. It's SO much better than how it was before.

At least once a week my iPhone will decide I want to play that U2 album from a while ago (the only music I have on iTunes) instead of resuming Spotify

 

[jdclifford]

****ING FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now you can text at a stop light
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The beauty of CarPlay is that it is essentially a video running on your iPhone being streamed to the stereo. Your car's function is solely to provide input (i.e. the touchscreen says such and such area is being pressed), and everything is rendered on the iPhone. So as long as CarPlay does not require additional funcionality (e.g. Multi Touch), which I believe is highly unlikely for the time being and for a long time coming, since brand new 2020 cars are still using the initial CarPlay protocols, it will still work.

I've always thought of CarPlay as just a 2nd screen of your iPhone. Although my cars have it I prefer using the native GPS, phone and SiriusXM radio functions. Just personal choice.

 

[jbellanca]

I absolutely concede the point that some car manufacturers may not have good smartphone integration, so in those cases, CarPlay is probably fantastic. Having purchased a new BMW a few years ago, I also purchased the CarPlay option (I was curious and I love iPhone), so I was able to compare/contrast them both. CarPlay was total and absolute garbage compared to BMW's smartphone integration and mapping. I was not able to get a refund from BMW, but thank goodness I was able to disable the $400 CarPlay option and exclusively use BMW's smartphone integration.

LOL You must work for BMW. I rent cars every week for work, and have used the in-dash units on every common auto manufacturer there is within the last 6 months. The only 2 I can think of that I haven't used in the last 3 or so years are BMW & Mercedes, since those rarely show up in rental lots. CarPlay is leaps and bounds better than any of the others I've seen. Every other one is frustrating and clunky and difficult to use or just ugly and practically unusable.
[doublepost=1566049652][/doublepost]

how do I update my CarPlay. I just bought a in dash for my Altima and it has CarPlay but mines doesn't look like this.. I have iOS 13 on my iPhone 8.. how do I update my in dash unit. anybody ?

No in-dash updates are needed for carPlay. It just streams from the iPhone.

 

[AZhappyjack]

My only requested two new features of Carplay are:

• I wish the left hand panel (with the app icons, time, cell signal, etc.) would auto hide when in an app. There is not need for this to be displayed all the time. It would make the maps view bigger. And it could automatically unhide with a touch of the screen, just like the rest of the info boxes.
• When apps get new notifications, such as Messages or Whatsapp, they should automatically be placed in the left hand panel. It's easy to miss a text message notification (because I am looking at the road), but if the Message app is not one of my 3 most recent, I will have no idea I received a notification. It should automatically be moved to the panel for access.

I do like the new split view, that will prevent needless back and forth between maps and music.

True, but currently only Apple Maps works in the split-screen mode... neither Waze nor Google Maps work there... I hope it's something that just requires an app update by Waze and Google, as opposed to some arbitrary restriction imposed by Apple. I suspect this is the case, as that's how it works with the audio piece... every audio app I've tried (Spotify, Outcast, iHeartRadio) all work fine in the split-screen mode. Here's to hoping the other maps apps work as well, once they have been updated.

I also use Fantastical2 as my calendar, but since it's using the Apple Calendar feed, it works well, too.

I use Waze almost exclusively for maps in my cars, and usually either Spotify or Outcast for audio... so I still spend a lot of time switching between apps.
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I've always thought of CarPlay as just a 2nd screen of your iPhone. Although my cars have it I prefer using the native GPS, phone and SiriusXM radio functions. Just personal choice.

My wife does the same... but I have an older car (2010 Mazda MX-5), with no navigation, etc... stuck an Alpine ILX-107 in there and never looked back. Now, when I am driving her car (Ford Edge), I fire up CarPlay and I'm a happy guy.

 

[rochow]

At the risk of a dumb question; how exactly am I going to update the car which has no connectivity to iOS13?

Will it run via the phone somehow?

 

[whsbuss]

True, but currently only Apple Maps works in the split-screen mode... neither Waze nor Google Maps work there... I hope it's something that just requires an app update by Waze and Google, as opposed to some arbitrary restriction imposed by Apple. I suspect this is the case, as that's how it works with the audio piece... every audio app I've tried (Spotify, Outcast, iHeartRadio) all work fine in the split-screen mode. Here's to hoping the other maps apps work as well, once they have been updated.

I also use Fantastical2 as my calendar, but since it's using the Apple Calendar feed, it works well, too.

I use Waze almost exclusively for maps in my cars, and usually either Spotify or Outcast for audio... so I still spend a lot of time switching between apps.
[doublepost=1566050653][/doublepost]

My wife does the same... but I have an older car (2010 Mazda MX-5), with no navigation, etc... stuck an Alpine ILX-107 in there and never looked back. Now, when I am driving her car (Ford Edge), I fire up CarPlay and I'm a happy guy.

Maybe someday Apple will have a default audio setting for music/podcasts

 

[NinjaHERO]

My only requested two new features of Carplay are:

• I wish the left hand panel (with the app icons, time, cell signal, etc.) would auto hide when in an app. There is not need for this to be displayed all the time. It would make the maps view bigger. And it could automatically unhide with a touch of the screen, just like the rest of the info boxes.
• When apps get new notifications, such as Messages or Whatsapp, they should automatically be placed in the left hand panel. It's easy to miss a text message notification (because I am looking at the road), but if the Message app is not one of my 3 most recent, I will have no idea I received a notification. It should automatically be moved to the panel for access.

I do like the new split view, that will prevent needless back and forth between maps and music.

Yes, please this. It is so annoying that it randomly keeps the last communication app you "used" instead of the one with notifications.

 

[ramallite]

If the car you are going to purchase has apple car play and a phone running IOS 13 that is all you have to do. No dealership help is needed.

Unless you have a new BMW and they charge you to use apple car play.

The beauty of CarPlay is that it is essentially a video running on your iPhone being streamed to the stereo. Your car's function is solely to provide input (i.e. the touchscreen says such and such area is being pressed), and everything is rendered on the iPhone. So as long as CarPlay does not require additional funcionality (e.g. Multi Touch), which I believe is highly unlikely for the time being and for a long time coming, since brand new 2020 cars are still using the initial CarPlay protocols, it will still work.

CarPlay is ‘driven’ by the phone. There’s no CarPlay update for the actual in car unit.

Also be aware (I don’t know what level of car you plan to buy) that 3rd party head units are generally MUCH cheaper than built in car play and work just fine (including car play support).
If you’re buying a low end car, buy it with no dealer electronics, buy the best 3rd party head unit you can afford, and you’ll be better off all round. The main thing you want to check in ANY unit (built in or 3rd party) is
- quality of the screen in various light conditions (direct sun, sun behind you, shadow, ...)
- speed of the GUI, eg how fast buttons respond to presses, how fluid the screen updates.
(Note, these are independent of Car Play — CarPlay can’t make a lousy screen look good, or a slow button respond fast...)

You’d be amazed how crappy these still are, compared to Apple...

No, CarPlay is just a second screen for your iPhone that shows you CarPlay stuff (if you do a screenshot while on CarPlay, it will take two pictures... one of your phone screen and one of CarPlay screen). So as long as you have CarPlay, you have the newest version.

You can have a CarPlay stereo installed in your old car for $400 or less, and you would be able to use all of the new features.

I've been messing with carplay a lot and I've been following every update. I think CarPlay actually lives in your phone. If you have a phone with iOS13 and plug it into a carplay supporting car then you'll see the new cool looking carplay. If you plug a phone with iOS12 then you'll see the old carplay. I have a 2016 honda civic coupe EXL and I totally love the new carplay in my car. All that I have been asking for a year seems to have been delivered with this new update.

Thanks all for the responses. It's clear now. I drive a Corolla I bought in 2002 and I maintain it so well that it still runs great (170k miles) but lacks more modern technology (still has a tape deck). The standalone CarPlay is an option. I read reviews of new cars that describe CarPlay as 'clunky' which is why I asked my original question - but it's clear now that it's the screen/interface/buttons that are the problem and not the actual software, which is driven from the phone and not the car. Thanks again for the responses!

 

[bobcats9498]

Will other maps besides Apple’s native Maps app be able to be used with the new dashboard view? I would love to be able to use Waze on the left pane instead of Apple Maps.

 

[Altis]

I use the IOS13 Beta with my Merc MBUX and CarPlay in my car which is only 8 weeks old and has all the bells and whistles I could put on it.

And you are right the MBUX is an impressive UI and CarPlay does look dated when you compare the two. But that being said I rather use the CarPlay Waze app for navigation over my Mercs internal MBUX nav with augmented reality. I found waze to be way more accurate with traffic updates and street closures than MBUX and I get speed trap placements with Waze. Also I hate the voice of the Mercedes Navigation and you cant change it.

I don't use the traffic element of the nav really, and we don't have fixed speed traps here. I just find the system looks way better, integrates well between the two displays, and let's me keep using the rest of the in-car stuff without going in and out of CarPlay.

The augmented reality navigation with the directions and street names on the front camera view is also really cool. Though I rarely use nav -- mostly just to get me out of a complicated area of one-way street networks.
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Wish Siri was multilingual. I often get messages in both English and French and Siri can only read and reply in whatever language she is set to. Can’t do both languages at the same time.

They need a 'hinglish' mode for us bilingual Canadians.

 

[twistedpixel8]

I’d like that as well, but why do you think it’ll never happen? And what are your thoughts on high quality turn-by-turn directions like Tesla used to provide on their model S, which was also on the digital dash: https://images.app.goo.gl/zHkWKUMjEp1hB5ri6

I say it will never happen because most car manufacturers are greedy. Specially the German ones. They care only about profit - just look at how VAG are handling their faulty 1.5L TSI engines in Europe because there’s no risk of class-action like there would be in USA.

To upgrade older cars to support these new features would cost development time and therefore money. I reckon BMW might upgrade older cars with their new additional payment model for CarPlay access but I can’t see others doing it.

Not sure what you mean about Tesla. Did they change their nav system in some way?

 

[SteveW928]

I don't have CarPlay.

I just friggin' want Siri to be able to answer a phone call on speaker.
(So, I don't have to pull over, or dangerously try to answer the call and put it on speaker while driving.)

You shouldn't have to buy a new car for some basic safety, and something Siri should have been able to do from v1.

 

[brilliantthings]

Only Apple Maps, for now.

These replies are still quite vague. I know that only Apple Maps is the only navigation app currently offered to end users that uses Dashboard, but has Apple made Dashboard available to third party developers?

 

[Frantisekj]

Please! When posting video next time, put one line under it or something else because in article preview lower part of video is overcast with that white shadow d it hides video control. I thought it is in video but only when I went to write comment I found it is shadow.
Thanks

 

[page3]

If an automaker does not have smartphone integration, then CarPlay is fantastic, but if you happen to own a car with high quality smartphone integration, like BMW, then CarPlay is total junk.

Disagree. I own a new Mercedes with the very highly regarded MBUX interface. Never bother with it, CarPlay is just so much better. Apple Maps, Phone via Siri, Audible, Books, Prologue, Spotify and Prism are all unbeatable.