> infotainment systems are underpowered, because they’re considered an afterthought. Also, cars sell in the millions. Car manufacturers will redesign a circuit board if it will save them cents on each board. So it is always a struggle to put a more powerful CPU in there.
Apple made a computer with a fast, responsive UI in 1984 using a chip that ran at 7.8 mhz and had 128 kb of ram. You don't need a fast chip to eliminate lag. It's just incompetence.
They weren't doing that much either. I doubt an Apple ][ could even stream modern audio codecs via bluetooth, let alone simultaneously run a local search on the GPS database.
As a data point, I buy used cars because they are not a tool I use for work so they are not like my laptop. It's pointless to pay the full price for a car: it is 100% a cost, the car has not ways to give me back some of the money I spend on it. So my cars are always about 5 or 6 years old when I buy them. I optimize for price and costs of running and maintaining them. What's important is that they handle well, brake…
How long do you keep such cars? Also, 5/6 years old depending on mileage & make is usually the time for some expensive part replacements. Eg. water pump, thermostat & related sensors for BMW F30.
Do the expensive part replacements even get close to the price difference of getting a new car? What if you try to account for insurance and maintenance?
I don't read GP as sympathising with Apple/Google at all, they just want a nice experience in their car; say that they think they get it from A/G, and that they didn't for years before that from car manufacturers. i.e. it's not about being a fan of particular brands, it's a self-interested desire for a decent UX/platform.
> I don't read GP as sympathising with Apple/Google at all, they just want a nice experience in their car; Apple/Google are not a nice experience. If you could share your screen would have been ok. But running special apps is out of discussion. I tried Android Auto. It is terrible, it needs a lot of time to set up (permissions, settings on car), the car must be stopped (ignition off) and 95 % of apps installed are no…
Initial setup depends on a car a lot. On my previous car it was connecting through USB, initial setup was complicated but afterwards it mostly worked. On my current car connection is wireless and set up was pretty easy. It takes some time to connect to my car once I turn it on but most of it is loading of infotainment system.
As far as apps - depends on what you need. For me maps, music and calls are enough, but if you want something very specific - it's probably not going to work.
I wonder if CarPlay and Android Auto is not safe on GM cars because they are just bad at implementing it. I had my share of issues with Android Auto on my last car - initial setup was not easy and just for Android they were blocking touch screen unless car was in "parking" mode. All of that was entirely on car manufacturer and it was one of the reasons I got a different car without such issues.
I dunno, I got my first car with Car Play a year ago. I'm not super impressed. It's buggy and slow and the interface is clunky. It's better than using my phone directly, barely, but I still would have bought the car if it didn't have it. All I really want is music and maps anyway, and I can just get a cheap phone mount for my dashboard like I did with my old car so I don't have to look down at it.
Out of curiosity, which manufacturer? I suspect that CarPlay quality varies a lot by manufacturer; e.g. it sounds like GM really never tried very hard to get their CarPlay implementation to work well.
I don't get that either. The rest of Tesla's UX is so good, I don't know how they botched this. Is it a cost optimization? Any PMs over there care of chime in? edit: Locking the glovebox is a great use case, but not the typical one.
In older cars (early 00s and before) you could lock the glove box with your ignition key.
Some had a valet key that wouldn’t open the glovebox
That's really odd. As far as I know carplay just sends video data to the screen and the screen shows it. It's like an hdmi cable in that regard. I would say it's a problem with your car, then. My volkswagen has absolutely no issues with carplay.