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iOS 26's Biggest CarPlay Feature Was Quietly Hiding on Apple's Website
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From the second paragraph of the post you literally quoted...
"For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to detect when the vehicle is in motion and end playback."
I would love to have audio only playback. Granted I have only used CarPlay in rentals and might have missed it. However my next car will have CarPlay
Because they know darn well that manufacturers will take an eternity to support this feature when/if they get wind of it’s existence.
Sometimes our work lunchroom gets crowded so I will take my lunch to my car and watch some YouTube while I eat. I have a big screen with CarPlay icons and my phone displaying the video. Even if Ford decided to update the infotainment system in my car, YouTube will most likely put it behind a paywall like they did when pip rolled out.
This is concerning, because those are two different things. Vehicle actually parked, at the curb or in a space? Fine, watch whatever you want. Vehicle merely not in motion, because it's sitting at a light, for instance, or in a traffic jam? Then it should absolutely not play. Using the iPhone's accelerometers is not sufficient, it needs information from the vehicle that it is actually in "Park".
CarlJ, chill out! The car will need to be in park. No different than the flip out screens that took over the car audio world 20+ years ago (although you could easily add a switch to trick the system into the car thinking it was in park). There are TONS of aftermarket items on the market today to allow someone to watch whatever is on their device via the screen in the car/truck. It may not be legal but it happens daily.
We went from a society of "don't use your cell phone while you drive" (even talking on it - remember all the laws around pulling people over for even holding a phone to your head? I believe it is still that way in some states... to people driving down the road, recording themselves talking, recording video while driving, etc.). People are gonna do what they do and you nor I will ever stop it.
Some of the people complaining about - who would ever watch a video in their car on a screen must not spend much time in their car. A buddy of mine does Uber/Lyft and does the higher end side of it. He often is at the airport waiting for a client. In some of the new cars, like his Lincoln SUV, the screen is fairly large. To be able to AirPlay a video, clip, movie, etc. to the screen is a no brainer. To me, allowing it while driving would not be such a bad idea either. I know truck drivers who consume content via YouTube like no tomorrow. They don't watch per se but are listening while they drive. I do the same thing.. I pull up YouTube content while I am driving and listen to it which also helps fellow YouTube creators by consuming their content.... if I glanced at the screen once in a while is no different than someone texting and driving, which I don't do but I see people all day doing.... I know it will prob never be legal but it is the world we live in..
With the current version of CarPlay (associated with iOS 18.X), you can listen to the audio of YouTube videos through CarPlay while driving. I presume it works for other video apps but I haven’t tested any. Before road trips, I download a playlist of YouTube videos. There are a lot that work well with sound only.
I am already chill, thanks.
That is not indicated by the "iPhone will be able to detect when the vehicle is in motion" wording - the usual way for iPhone to detect motion is via accelerometers, not receiving info from the car - if you can cite otherwise, please do.
In California, currently, you're not allowed to hold your cellphone at all - it has to be in a mount, and you are limited to single taps or swipes, no typing. I can press one button and ask Siri to play music or give directions, without ever looking at the screen. If people are doing more, they can and should be pulled over and ticketed for it. Saying, "well, a lot of people do it / it's the world we live in", should not equate to it being permissible. People should be getting pulled over and getting increasingly large fines for distracted driving.
I can't think of a single time over the past couple of years that I would have streamed a video whilst parked.