Apple has also gotten into the habit of assuming that everyone wants to develop stuff for their platforms just because they're Apple.
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Where is Apple's Next-Generation CarPlay?
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Apple has also gotten into the habit of assuming that everyone wants to develop stuff for their platforms just because they're Apple.
Retrofit modules don’t have the access to some core functionality that CarPlay 2 needs.
A little bit of CANBUS/gateway hacking could fix that issue...
Yeah, I honestly think a lot of those who are very excited about next gen CarPlay grossly overestimate how much time is spent looking at the instrument cluster while the car is in motion. If they really do look at it that much, I’d love to know when they will be on the road so I can stay home 🤣
On a more serious note, I also think as time goes on, new cars that have display panels for both instrument cluster and center console/entertainment will also have a HUD, further reducing the need to look down as far as the instrument cluster while in motion.
I also agree with you on the present look of CarPlay. I’ve changed settings for backgrounds and such but it still looks garish, cartoony, and very much out of place with the rest of my vehicle when it takes over the screen.
I think EVERYONE looks at their instrument cluster multiple times a minute. New drivers glance at it every few seconds as they're unsure yet of how fast they are going. The instrument cluster is an important tool in helping us drive. Speed, RPMs, gear we are in, are our lights or high beams on, do we need gas, any warning lights on like check engine or tire pressure, to see if our blinkers are on, cruise control is on, etc. etc.
Most new cars come with all sorts of other sensors, like drifting out of lane, too close to other cars (slow down), and a whole host of safety issues. It's becoming more like an aircraft cockpit.
The real question is if you have to have your phone with you at all times.... The way the whole system is integrated into the vehicle its a little ridiculous if you have to. It should be that you just sign into iCloud/Apple ID on the dash one time and you're done. Eliminate the hassle connecting.... They need to compete with Google Built-in which is rapidly being adopted by car companies.....
A lot of current Carplay systems in cheaper vehicles still require a hard wired phone connection to work! Absurd...
A lot of current Carplay systems in cheaper vehicles still require a hard wired phone connection to work! Absurd...
Apple would have to sell automotive hardware to run their OS on. It isn't likely they were ever bother making an OS that can run on non-Apple hardware.
Then to get car makers to use their hardware it would have to be cheaper than what Google is offering.
Typically you're correct in how Apple operates however in this situation it's almost impossible for Apple to require a phone in the car for the system to run. Read the article and look at the screen shots ....It's too deeply integrated into virtually all the vehicle operations. For the majority of car buyers who don't have Apple devices nearly all of the vehicles systems wouldn't operate if they were required to have an Apple device in the car and didn't....
And that may indeed be a core reason for the extended delay in the rollout. Apple may be having trouble in crafting license agreements and hardware requirements with auto companies that is acceptable to both parties....
Yep. The core issue is that automakers want control, rightly or wrongly, over this area of tech. There are also issues they don't want to have to deal with on naming. If I have an iPhone, and my car has whatever Google's "generic" Android Auto function is which works with iPhones, I may avoid the car altogether because I assume it won't work with my phone.
There is also the issue of features and improvement. We know that Google will drop essentially anything at the drop of a hat, and CarPlay hasn't exactly been anyones focus at Apple in the past 5 years. The improvements have been minimal, and why would a car manufactuer want to tie themselves to a tech company who may either drop support or not improve it over time?
I agree the instrument cluster is absolutely THE feedback tool we rely on for all things related to vehicle motion and “system status”. Where I probably see things differently is on the reasons for, and frequency of glances. I’m NOT saying we don’t look at it. When I first drive an unfamiliar car, I do glance at the speed more frequently as you said, but that behavior is short-lived. Much of what you mention is accompanied by additional cues or rarely require checking.
- RPM - sound is a pretty good indicator on its own, and if driving standard transmission, there is also feedback in the way of throttle response. I don’t recall owning a car in recent memory that did not have a rev limiter if you get careless.
- Gear - in automatic, not an issue moving forward. in general, whether driving manual or automatic, you put the car in gear yourself. You know what gear you are in, and you certainly don’t need reminding on a regular basis.
- Lights & high beams - once you turn them on, how often do you ask yourself if they are on? And that’s assuming the car does not have automatic headlights (the last car I owned without this was back in the late 80’s). If you have high beams on accidentally, you’ll catch that the next time you glance at the cluster (or when an oncoming driver flashes you).
- Gas - again, checked very infrequently. I look at this before I get underway and if you are getting low on gas while driving, the car will let you know with multiple cues.
- Tire Pressure - I check that before I get underway. If it goes abnormal while driving, the car lets you know with multiple cues.
- Blinkers and Cruise Control status - You don’t constantly check for that. You just update your own awareness of the status on your next casual glance at the cluster.
- All other ‘warnings’ (driver aids, check engine, etc.) are accompanied by multiple cues, in some cases, including haptic (steering wheel vibrations). You don’t regularly check for those.
I liked my old Saab that had a night driving mode. When you pushed a button everything turn off except for some light on the speedometer around your current speed. If you changed the radio station it temporarily enabled the lights on the radio. Also their red background lighting was cool.
I rent a lot of cars, and it’s always a pain when they don’t have CarPlay - having to work out navigation, media, and hands free, is not what I want to do at the start of a journey.
I’d never buy a car without CarPlay. If this next gen is even better, count me in!
I’d never buy a car without CarPlay. If this next gen is even better, count me in!
As far as I am aware CarPlay 2.0 was going to always require an iPhone to work.
Which brings me back to my original point QNX is getting replaced by Google Builtin (Android Automotive). Apple has no answer for this, as it would require them to deviate from running their OS on their own hardware, or get into automotive grade hardware for sale to third parties (which they also don't want to do).
This would be great for car devs. I could see where you buy a stock EV online and choose Apple as the CarOS.
Automakers can pick and choose which part of the UI can be replaced (see the Aston Martin and Porsche implementations) so it’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. This is just car makers taking 2-3 years to get on board with these things as usual. People seem to forget that first gen CarPlay took many years before becoming main stream too, and the next gen system will likely require a much larger redesign for both software and hardware to get ready.
That sounds like a connected car service though. How is your Bolt supposed to receive a signal telling it to pre-condition?
We pay for wireless service on our phones. Not sure why a car with wireless service would or should be any different.
Not too much really
I think we've pretty much hit a plateau for what the core functionality of CarPlay is
One thing that I'm still surprised by though is that while wireless CarPlay has been around for some time, there are actually still quite a few vehicles that only have the wired implementation
I gave you another example of where a car manufacturer offers subscriptions.
Whether or not we should have to pay for those is entirely different topic
Because I think they've pretty much hit a plateau as to what CarPlay can do
That being said, something that I'd love to see is a built-in weather app so you don't have to ask Siri about that
Sure, pretty much every car has its own built-in temperature readout, but it would be nice just to have access to mostly the same functionality of the built-in Weather app (or 3rd party ones) without having to invoke Siri
If relying on tech / smartphones for vehicle operating systems is so bad, then why shouldn’t we abandon all technology in cars?
If CarPlay fails while driving then the car simply reverts to its native / built-in systems, and the chances of CarPlay even failing are just as low as the built in car systems failing.