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Why are new cars still being released with wired-only carplay?

NOITAIDAR

NOITAIDAR

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
40
6
So I'm picking up my new 2017 Civic tomorrow, and the dealer has told me that you need the USB connected to make CarPlay work.

Wireless Carplay came out with iOS 9, didn't it?

So how come manufacturers are only just now releasing new vehicles with wired-only support?

Is this a hardware change, or a software upgrade that they haven't done to the head-units?

I was really excited to get my first car with CarPlay, and now I'm just like WTF!!!
 
I have a new Audi A4 with CarPlay, that is also wired only. In the Audi its because the Audi MMI uses the bluetooth, CarPlay is limited to only being connected to the cable. Its not that big deal anyway, your phone gets charged and you don't need to (and legally shouldn't) use the phone while driving - as everything is on the screen anyway, In a way makes more sense for the cable.
 
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I was thinking more along the lines of not having to get the phone out of my pocket, rather than using it whilst driving. lol
 
I would think it would take manufactures a while to decide then develop then implement car play. I'm not even sure the wireless ability was released by Apple at the same time the plugged in mode was.
Personally I really wouldn't use or want wireless. I don't use car play that often and when I do I want the phone charging also. I wonder what the battery drain is using wireless carplay - I guess we'd have to ask a BMW owner.
 
It's getting so that my car is almost my primary iPhone charging station. I don't mind a wired connection.
 
QzzB said:
I have a new Audi A4 with CarPlay, that is also wired only. In the Audi its because the Audi MMI uses the bluetooth, CarPlay is limited to only being connected to the cable. Its not that big deal anyway, your phone gets charged and you don't need to (and legally shouldn't) use the phone while driving - as everything is on the screen anyway, In a way makes more sense for the cable.
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i am not sure if thaT is the case. carplay works over the wifi protocol. BT is only used for the original handshake to authenticate.

that being said, my m240i came with wireless carplay :)
 
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Because the infotainment systems in cars take *YEARS* to develop. Especially ones that integrate with car-critical systems like a shared dashboard screen, to ensure they don't screw up any car-critical systems.

Plus, the hardware needs to be updated, too, which is something that car makers don't do every year. Even if the car is a brand new body style, it could quite easily still use the older infotainment system.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
Because the infotainment systems in cars take *YEARS* to develop. Especially ones that integrate with car-critical systems like a shared dashboard screen, to ensure they don't screw up any car-critical systems.

Plus, the hardware needs to be updated, too, which is something that car makers don't do every year. Even if the car is a brand new body style, it could quite easily still use the older infotainment system.
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I think this is it.

This is like why the Space Shuttle was using computers from the 1970's and 80's all the way to the end of its working life. Everything was made to work with what they had, and as long as it worked reliably, they were loathe to change it just to have something "new". The priority was mission longevity and crew survival.

The more I'm learning about my new car's infotainment system, the more I'm realizing how OLD it already is, and how deeply everything else in the car is tied into it.

The instrument cluster, door locks, backup camera, side view camera, auto-start, exterior and interior lighting, parking brake... almost everything in the car is connected in some way to the head unit. And I haven't even touched the audio-only functions.

The OS itself is a custom implementation of Android, and I really don't think it's at the bleeding edge, either. When I realize that all the other systems had to work with it, I sympathize with the engineers who had to get it all together.
 
I also wonder with potential wireless charging coming whether car manufacturers are working on a solution to do wireless charging and carplay connectivity and thus have to wait until the charging piece is announced.
I know - wishful thinking
 
Wireless charging is easy to add - it doesn't add any electronics that merge with the car's control system in any way. Wireless CarPlay requires actual hardware changes to the car's electronics.
 
As of right now there's only a single car stereo manufacturer even close to releasing wireless carplay and that's Alpine. And that one isn't even released yet, you can preorder it on some sites but there are no working versions. It's because car audio lags behind everything.
 
CTHarrryH said:
I would think it would take manufactures a while to decide then develop then implement car play. I'm not even sure the wireless ability was released by Apple at the same time the plugged in mode was.
Personally I really wouldn't use or want wireless. I don't use car play that often and when I do I want the phone charging also. I wonder what the battery drain is using wireless carplay - I guess we'd have to ask a BMW owner.
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Yes, I believe BMW is the only car manufacturer to have wireless CarPlay. My new BMW comes next week and I'll let you know about battery drain. It also has a wireless charging unit that fits an iPhone so hopefully it's a sign iPhones are getting wireless charging soon.
 
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RansZ28 said:
I would guess wired would sound better than Bluetooth?
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  • If you music files on your iPhone are ALAC they will be passed over a wired connection but lossy compressesed to AAC for BT.
  • If your audio files are AAC than they will be passed the same (AAC) over both.
  • However in either case any differences you perceived would be related to your car's infotainment units processing of the inputs differently (usually attenuation).
 
Might be a touch cynical but here's a question.

Why would anyone buy premium options such as satnav if car makers enabled wireless CarPlay?
 
jmfcroxton said:
Might be a touch cynical but here's a question.

Why would anyone buy premium options such as satnav if car makers enabled wireless CarPlay?
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In order to get CarPlay/Android Auto in MOST cars you must buy the top of the line infotainment that has their crappy nav.
 
Julien said:
In order to get CarPlay/Android Auto in MOST cars you must buy the top of the line infotainment that has their crappy nav.
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I can't think of an example of a car that only has CarPlay on premium models. I bought the entry level A4 quattro BECAUSE it had CarPlay and I didn't need to buy Nav
 
AustinIllini said:
I can't think of an example of a car that only has CarPlay on premium models. I bought the entry level A4 quattro BECAUSE it had CarPlay and I didn't need to buy Nav
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I don't think @Julien was saying so much it had to be a premium model so much as it often is part of some premium (add on) package. BMW is really bad about this. If you want CarPlay ($300) it requires a $1,700 navigation option or a $2,700 "premium package". Total gouge.
 
Weaselboy said:
I don't think @Julien was saying so much it had to be a premium model so much as it often is part of some premium (add on) package. BMW is really bad about this. If you want CarPlay ($300) it requires a $1,700 navigation option or a $2,700 "premium package". Total gouge.
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I mean the same thing. BMW is an exception to what is quickly becoming the rule. VW (and Audi), Honda (and Acura), and others are including CarPlay as standard across all new models.
 
AustinIllini said:
I can't think of an example of a car that only has CarPlay on premium models. I bought the entry level A4 quattro BECAUSE it had CarPlay and I didn't need to buy Nav
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I said MOST and not all. Lets look at Audi for example. By far MOST models & configurations require you to buy navigation. Even the A4 requires navagation in 4 of it's 6 configurations. That means that MOST A4's require you to buy navigation.

Sure we are starting to see select models often in select configurations (like the A4) from a few manufactures and I'm sure (and hope) the trend will continue.
 
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Julien said:
I said MOST and not all. Lets look at Audi for example. By far MOST models & configurations require you to buy navigation. Even the A4 requires navagation in 4 of it's 6 configurations. That means that MOST A4's require you to buy navigation.

Sure we are starting to see select models often in select configurations (like the A4) from a few manufactures and I'm sure (and hope) the trend will continue.
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Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Audi A4, Acura TLX all have CarPlay STANDARD. No packages or anything.
 
AustinIllini said:
Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Audi A4, Acura TLX all have CarPlay STANDARD. No packages or anything.
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Again which part of MOST don't you understand. You list 4 models (and the know the A4 is only for the 2 base trims and not the 4 other trims, so MOST A4's have OEM nav) and Apple lists over 200 with CarPlay. Here is a link below and if you want to prove me wrong for saying MOST models have OEM nav then research and list at least 101 models that don't have OEM Nav. If so I will say you are correct and I'm wrong. If not then we stipulate that MOST have OEM nav.:eek::D

https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/available-models/
 
Gee I better go back and see my dealer - on my A4 I had to order navigation separately. dealer said few order it
 
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