“CarPlay is Apple’s driver-friendly interface for Maps, Messages, Music, and more. Through partnership deals with major manufacturers, CarPlay get embedded in automobile infortainment centers and then syncs over Lightning or Wi-Fi with our iPhones. There’s a small licensing fee involved for the technology, but CarPlay is essentially free,” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “So, of course, BMW wants to charge customers $80 a year for it.”
“There have been calls for Apple to yank BMW’s license or otherwise intervene to stop the jackassary being perpetrated under one of its brands,” Ritchie writes. “I’d like to see something simpler and more flexible: I’d like to see Apple make CarPlay available directly in iOS.”
Ritchie writes, “You should be able to take an iPhone — or iPad, if you want something bigger — and mount it on your dashboard, and have it go into CarPlay-style interface mode.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes. This would help prevent vehicle makers from obscenely trying to monetize Apple’s CarPlay.
We’ve been thinking about such things since before iPhone existed. Some blasts from the past:
It’s very simple, really; take a current CD/Cassette/AM/FM car stereo and replace the cassette slot with an iPod slot. With a few changes to the display and some controls, Apple would have a beautiful new ‘iTunes Car Stereo’ just in time to roll it out in Best Buy stores nationwide for the holidays. — SteveJack, MacDailyNews, August 7, 2003
We still want head units that accept iPods like they would an 8-Track tape: stick in the iPod, dock-connector first, and it can be controlled from the head unit and/or the steering wheel while simultaneously charging the iPod’s battery. What’s taking so long?! — MacDailyNews, September 23, 2004
We just want an in-dash unit with a simple slot that accepts the iPod like an 8-Track tape… The in-dash unit’s display and controls would mirror and control the iPod’s functions. That would seem to be the simplest, easiest idea; one that would sell and be explained to the average car buyer easily. Come on, Apple, partner up with some large head unit makers that supply major auto makers and get this thing designed, built, and installed! — MacDailyNews, October 21, 2004
SEE ALSO:
Vehicle makers add Apple CarPlay support – January 16, 2018
Toyota is finally adding Apple CarPlay – January 16, 2018
Wireless Apple CarPlay finally goes on sale – July 5, 2017
CarPlay: The best incarnation of Apple’s ecosystem – October 12, 2016
