Could not disagree more. I went from a nice large screen on my old '21 Outback with CarPlay. It worked fine and light years then the interface that Subaru had come up with. Moving to a '21 Tesla Y and I would not trade the UI of the Tesla for CarPlay. Butter smooth interface and fits the car itself aesthetically. CarPlay would look so out of place and not sure what is the actual improvement outside of being able to choose the mapping software you want to use.
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Rivian CEO Doubles Down on Decision to Not Offer Apple CarPlay
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Pretty sure on my iPhone I can run:
- Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze
- Music: Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Google Play Music
- Documents: MS Word, Pages, Google Docs
- Mail: Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook
- Messaging: WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, Facebook Messenger (and so many more)
- etc... etc...
Lots of choice. Sure some things are a bit more locked down when securing user data comes into play (e.g.: iMessage, FaceTime, Health -- and how things interact with Apple Watch), but for the most part those are exceptions, not the rule.
Right now these manufacturers are specifically disallowing screen casting from your phone. This requires ZERO access to sensitive data on the driver. It requires ZERO privileged access to the Car's functions (exception: CarPlay Ultra does not want some info), and it does NOT remove the default car infotainment software -- in fact it makes it fully accessible with an app icon to switch back at any time.
This would be like Apple refusing to allow Google Maps on the iPhone because Apple wanted you to use their maps software. If these CEO's prefer their infotainment crapware, then they are free to run it -- but don't force every customer to run it. My solution to that is to NOT be their customer.
Clearly none of these manufacturers are looking at Toyota's lesson. They held out too, with many of the same arguments. They also eventually caved and started offering it on their vehicles because there were customers that wouldn't even consider their cars when all the competitors had it. Toyota was not on our list of brands to consider when we planned to buy newer cars until they added CarPlay. Now one of our cars is a Toyota and we use CarPlay extensively in both our cars.
As the market matures the EVs are going to all be basically the same, just like most of the current gas powered cars. The company that doesn't offer features, primarily because they want to perpetually sell expensive services or their customer's data, will lose sales to those that offer additional capabilities. One or two of these companies will realize that making CarPlay Ultra integration flawless gives them an advantage over their competitors and then the rest will start to fall.
As the market matures the EVs are going to all be basically the same, just like most of the current gas powered cars. The company that doesn't offer features, primarily because they want to perpetually sell expensive services or their customer's data, will lose sales to those that offer additional capabilities. One or two of these companies will realize that making CarPlay Ultra integration flawless gives them an advantage over their competitors and then the rest will start to fall.
Not offering normal CarPlay as a user option makes as much sense as not offering AM/FM or Aux input options.
I have driven the Model X multiple times and drove a Model 3 I rented on Turo once.... I thought it was a big screen full of confusion and hard-to-find functions. The worst part is every time I started the car it would forget my Apple Music login and make me log back in -- granted that was two years ago when the Apple Music integration was new -- but really, how hard is storing the authentication token?
I remember missing multiple exits because of the poor maps interface not indicating the proper lane in a more prominent way. Apple Maps is so great as prominently displaying lane guidance. But hey, I could tell myself "at least this is Elon's favorite interface!". No thanks.
Yeah, I have a cousin with a Model Y -- it does nothing for me.
I actively hate the overly minimalist aesthetic for a car.
She loves how it goes "0 to 60 in some tiny number" ... which just makes me think about burning through tires (she spent $1400 on new tires recently) and how little real world use I have for accelerating that quickly beyond doing it as a gag.
Have you upgraded to iOS 26.... widgets. And it had apps in 2016. And I can customize the widget choices, wallpaper, app screens, etc... What train did they miss?
Updated more often or not, it can't (and never will be able to) compete with the App ecosystem one can bring into use from their iPhone.
Its even safer if you, like, not use messaging while driving.
I don't exactly have a great love of CarPlay.
But the manufacturer systems I've used are abysmal, missing a lot, and have essentially non-existent ecosystems.
I think this is all about backing people into subscription fees and harvesting their data.
I'm going to stick with CarPlay cars.
But the manufacturer systems I've used are abysmal, missing a lot, and have essentially non-existent ecosystems.
I think this is all about backing people into subscription fees and harvesting their data.
I'm going to stick with CarPlay cars.
I remember reading this article about how the Mustang Mach-E GT would throttle the power after so many seconds and so they had the fastest 0 to 60mph and 0 to 100mph times among electric SUV's but lost out in the quarter mile at like 112mph because of the throttling.
All I could think was that if you are driving that way then you probably should not be on the road. Most drivers need a fast 0 to 30mph time for city driving and 0 to 70mph time for freeway/highway merging. I cannot remember the last time I pushed my car to 100mph -- maybe once when it got away from me on a down-hill run on a long trip on an empty road, but 90mph is probably the limit of my cruising speed on some very open highways (which is horrible for electric range btw).
My favorite thing about my electric vehicle is a fast 0 to 30mph so I can go from the front of a red light and still change into the lane I need to make an upcoming right turn.
Or dear. What if Rivian doesn't build a live streaming TikTok client I can use to stream my drive?
I bought a Rivian and thought not having CarPlay would suck.
It's just fine without it. I doubt I'd even bother going back to it if they did add it.
Correct.
I enjoy that my Bolt is "snappy and quick", but it by no means needs to be "0 to whatever" in RECORD FASTEST TIME...
It's honestly becoming really dangerous with these very heavy cars moving VERY quickly.
I also would not buy a vehicle without carplay. The integration with the rest of my technical world is too important
I totally agree. I got rid of a new car after only three years (the shortest time I've ever owned a new car) in part because it didn't have CarPlay. My 2018 GTI had CarPlay and my 2024 GTI has wireless CarPlay, and it's great. I wouldn't even look at a car that doesn't have CarPlay. My girlfriend and I fly from California to the East Coast and do two-week road trips back along difference routes, and we won't accept a rental car that doesn't have CarPlay.
Imagine driving down the road in your $100K Rivian using a future version of CarPlay in which the UI is even worse than liquid glass, and its just popup ad after popup ad telling you about the latest AppleTV+ series, or threatening you with red alert badges to pay for AppleCare.
I just wonder if you can you dictate a WhatsApp message or start a FaceTime Audio call without CarPlay? Or will Bluetooth always use the phone function and default message app (if it can send a message via Bluetooth?) and will this even respect what you have in your iPhone as default?
After having an R1T and selling it, Rivian needs to focus on quality much more than implementing CarPlay. There system was fine but having your truck in the shop for 3 months out of six was not.
Marco Arment (from ATP & developer of Overcast podcast App) would agree.
The repair charges for simple cosmetic fixes were ASTRONOMICAL due to strange design choices.
Physically designing and making cars is something you want to have a lot of long term organizational knowledge in.
But you're paying monthly right now for that? I mean when one of these guys gives the righteous speech about its better and its free for as long as you own the car sure. As someone three years into my car half the features going away with $1000 a year to continue to use them no thanks. Verizon starts charging more I just get service elsewhere. The Rivan cellular package triples in price you can get another car?
Good for him, but I won't buy a new car without CarPlay now that I've used it in a few of my cars.
All this software is so annoying. The average driver is in the vehicle no more than one hour a day. Not all at one time. Broken up over several times a day. Turning up the fan causes a touch screen distraction. The knobs were easy to find by feel and location. The costs are off the charts, all for one hour. Sum it up, a very expensive toy.