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New Car Buyers Increasingly Interested in Apple CarPlay

69Mustang said:
This. 100% this. Android Auto already did this and it makes total sense for Apple to simply implement a Car Play mode on the iPhone. No worries about whether or not a brand supports CP/AA. Win/Win for everyone except the dealers who only offer CP/AA on higher trim levels.

Personally, I don't care for either since they give some users a false sense of being safer than standard car systems.
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While it might bump the ratio of plus sales, and lets automakers off the hook, it doesn’t fit into Apple’s long term plans to be front and center in the car with a sticky ecosystem element and using this as a springboard for autonomous driving and vehicle control systems.
 
tfigs said:
I have CarPlay installed aftermarket with an Alpine 007 in my Mazda CX-5. Cost about $800 with install and money well worth it. Works flawlessly. Plug in and go. Charges while plays. Maps app connects to Apple Watch and vibrates when turns are coming. My Apple Music is all there. It simply works. A must have on any future car for me or my wife. Siri integration with Messages and Phone. Makes driving safer than trying to fiddle with controls on phone or built in info system
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I'm having the Alpine installed into my Hyundai Tucson (2011) on Monday morning. I'll figure out how to put in a Qi charging pad in the little cubby in the console sometime after I get my iPhone X.

Want to do something similar to these guys:
http://www.brandmotion.com/freedom-...forte-qi-wireless-charging-kit-fdmc-1280.html

Figure I can source a compatible pad cheap enough and splice it into the wiring harness under the shifter as they did.
 
dmylrea said:
I read many people comparing it to the lousy manufacturer's entertainment system. People desperate for something better will take anything. What the article doesn't really come out and say is that Android Auto surpasses CarPlay in the US (and barely in Europe), if I counted the percentages correctly.

CarPlay is just OK. It's not great. I wish it was graphically richer. I still use Google Maps from my phone while connected and the voice navigation comes across the system just fine. Something like PLEX, but for cars, would be awesome!
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Well...guess what just came out today? PLEX for Android Auto! And, in hooking up my Moto X Pure phone, and firing up Android Auto, I tried out Google Play Music, Amazon Music and Spotify, and they have updated it since January, so now the album art is much more visible, compared to the barely visible album art (almost invisible) in CarPlay.

The only thing about Android Auto I don't like so far is it seems (maybe I'm doing it wrong) the phone is locked to Android Auto and you have to use the car screen. To use any other apps on the phone, you have to quit Android Auto.
 
Blackstick said:
Oh sure, give the automakers permission to arbitrarily charge $2500 extra for something they damn well should be including.

Also, CarPlay is quite sluggish and unremarkable on the three cars I’ve seen it on, using an iPhone 7.
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Not even slightly sluggish on my 2016 Golf R with the MIB II system from VW.
 
convergent said:
I used CarPlay for about 2 years and only had a couple of cases that the map was completely wrong because of new construction. One of them ironically was my doctor's office, and its been over a year and its still not on the map. So in general, for me, AppleMaps was OK. But I prefer Google Maps, or Waze if there is traffic.
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You can submit corrections or additions to Apple Maps and any that I have submitted usually get added or resolved within 48 hours. They even send you a notification when they fix it.
 
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CarPlay/Android Auto was a must have feature for me when I bought my new car last year (on top of other things) and I’m glad to have it. There’s no way I would purchase any new car without it now.

Now while I don’t use it every single day, when I do plug my phone in it’s just awesome to have, it makes my car feel truly connected and modern. It’s especially useful for maps and phone (though my car’s GPS is Garmin based and has Bluetooth).
 
dmylrea said:
Well...guess what just came out today? PLEX for Android Auto! And, in hooking up my Moto X Pure phone, and firing up Android Auto, I tried out Google Play Music, Amazon Music and Spotify, and they have updated it since January, so now the album art is much more visible, compared to the barely visible album art (almost invisible) in CarPlay.

The only thing about Android Auto I don't like so far is it seems (maybe I'm doing it wrong) the phone is locked to Android Auto and you have to use the car screen. To use any other apps on the phone, you have to quit Android Auto.
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I discovered that you can run other apps while in Android Auto, but they have to be already running when you start Android Auto. You just go to recent apps and you can switch to other apps. It does block you from getting to the home screen.
 
LincolnsiPod said:
It really needs an offline mode to truly replace the dash though, sort of like what Google Maps is able to offer now. Since I live out west any road trip I take will have regions of no signal, forcing me to switch to the car's GPS when Apple Maps starts to gag. :eek:
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Maps seems to preload the route itself, so when you lose connectivity it still shows the turns etc, but if you go even a little off the route, like to eat or get gas, it is totally lost and you are on your own getting back to the route. In such situations it is a showstopper and Google offline maps wins big.

Apple maps has steadily improved, though they don't tout it very much. At this point the offline maps thing is the only flaw I find in it.
 
Lepton said:
Maps seems to preload the route itself, so when you lose connectivity it still shows the turns etc, but if you go even a little off the route, like to eat or get gas, it is totally lost and you are on your own getting back to the route. In such situations it is a showstopper and Google offline maps wins big.

Apple maps has steadily improved, though they don't tout it very much. At this point the offline maps thing is the only flaw I find in it.
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Most can find their way back to the route if they veer off. I have never driven so far off the route that I can’t find my way back even before I had nav in the car or are you saying that if you drive 5 minutes off the route to get gas it completely loses the original route if you are out of cell range? I didn’t run across that issue, but I can’t say I was in a lot of areas to get gas or food that didn’t get at least 4g.

As a side note, I will probably get a map before my next trip and just keep it in the vehicle just in case. I took the stand alone Garmin, that I bought years ago ( one of the best tech purchases I have made with lifetime updates), but never needed it. However, I was using maps long before nav units were customary in our vehicles, so no matter what comes up, I won’t be SOL like some have implied. You never know when “tech” might fail or be lost when it is tied to your phone, so anyone using their phones for Nav might want to consider getting an old school map and just leave it in the trunk or glove compartment for unusual emergencies.
 
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Jonathancava said:
Same here!
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We just bought a new 2018 CRV. The comparable Maxda SUV was in the running until I learned they didn't have CarPlay/Android Auto. So we went with the CRV. I felt bad making that an go/no go, but we intend to keep this vehicle for at least 5 years and it seems ridiculous for a car maker to not have this function in their entertainment system at this point. My only dissatisfaction with the CRV on this is that only one of the many USB ports will work for it... which is in the bottom of the console storage bin. So if I get in the car after my wife drove, I have to dig down there and swap the cable. Who designs this stuff? Do think that no family might be divided on their phone OS? The Pioneer head unit I put in my F150 has two ports... one does CarPlay and the other does Android Auto. I thought that was kind of dumb at first, but now I think its brilliant. Both cables are there all the time and if my wife or I get in, we just plug into the right cable. I will just have to add a short extension to get the jack up out of the storage bin and avoid wear and tear on that jack.
 
SMGreenfield said:
Count me as another Toyota / Lexus fan that is seriously interested in CarPlay. It MIGHT be enough to make me jump ship as someone that has owned at least 5 Toyotas and 6 Lexus vehicles.
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I have a Toyota and I just put a CarPlay compatible deck in my car. Works great.
 
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