“Using your smartphone while behind the wheel is a terrible idea. It’s distracting, it’s clumsy, and it’s just plain unsafe for you, your passengers, and other people on the road,” Dan Seifert writes for The Verge. “But since the smartphone is the epicenter of our digital lives, it’s really hard not to want to use it while driving. After all, it’s a navigation, entertainment, and communication device that slips into our pockets.”
“I’ve had the chance to test out Apple’s [CarPlay] system in a 2016 Corvette Stingray,” Seifert writes. “CarPlay behaves like an app on top of a car’s native infotainment system. Plug in your iPhone, tap the CarPlay icon that appears on the screen in your dashboard, and a familiar grid of iOS-style app icons jumps to the forefront. (In the future, you’ll be able to wirelessly connect, but currently you need a Lightning cable.)”
“The iPhone will charge if it’s plugged in, and I didn’t experience any of the overheating issues I often saw with Android Auto. Also unlike Android Auto, the iPhone is fully functional when CarPlay is running, so a passenger can still use it instead of relying on the car’s interface,” Seifert writes. “Chevrolet is one of the first carmakers to enable CarPlay across its lineup, with many more makers jumping on board in the coming months. Will the terrible first-party infotainment system ever truly go away? Will we ever get everyone to stop using their phones while driving? Probably not, unfortunately — but CarPlay should get us a good bit closer.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Can’t wait! Our next vehicles will be CarPlay-capable, that much is sure.
Nice MDN. Let us know if your wife lets you get the Corvette because it has CarPlay.
Mine already is, since late last year, but I haven’t used CarPlay as much simply because I don’t want to have to plug in my iPhone every time I use it. I’m already using an old iPod Classic in that port. Fortunately iOS9 soon will see Bluetooth CarPlay connection at last and no hardwired connection is then necessary, as it should have been all along. I always thought that a serious omission, despite potential battery life issues. You can charge your iPhone in the car though in different ways without taking up a USB port.
Or you could just get a 3rd party CarPlay enabled system like Pioneer.
I just put a Pioneer AHV-4100NEX in my car last week. I got it specifically for the CarPlay functionality.
I do like it a lot, and I think it’s a move in the right direction, but the interface is a bit slow, and pretty buggy (although I AM running iOS 9b5 on my iPhone 6+). Maps sometimes doesn’t load, or the controls for Maps don’t slide down from the top when I touch the screen on the NEX like they’re supposed to. Apple Music is pretty buggy as well. A reboot of the phone usually fixes the UI anomalies, and I suspect the public release of iOS 9 will address these issues.
Yes, the iPhone is still usable when it’s plugged into the unit, but doing anything on the phone will change the screen on the NEX. That is to say that you have Maps on the NEX and someone hits the Home button on the iPhone, the NEX screen will leave Maps and go to the Home screen as well. Likewise, if you hit the Home button on the NEX, then the iPhone screen will go back to the home screen, too. It would be nice to have the screens work independently of each other.
Having said that, I think CarPlay is a great start. When more third party apps support it, it will be a fantastic platform.
I’m gonna get a CarPlay radio once iOS 9 is released.
Purchased a VW AWD over subaru because of carplay
No Ford/Microsoft Sync for me!
Grrr another journalist who thinks it’s cool to use “epicenter” when “center” is required. Hubris apparently trumps correctness in the pigmy brains of such people, who think the sun shines directly out of their asses, illuminating the dark recesses of those who actually had an education.
Education or not, it seems you still have a lot to learn about interacting with people.
I’m actually considering buying a 2016 Accord and carplay is the major reason why. I was thinking of another Toyota but they don’t have it as far as I can see.