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CarPlay Is Additive

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Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#151

Post by dhosek »

aetch wrote: post #142
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would prefer knobs and buttons over a screen flow in either direction, but no modern car caters to this anymore.

Mazda has knobs and buttons that can even control carplay

Same with Toyota (fun fact—I discovered earlier this year, over three years that I bought my Prius, that there were whole displays in the dashboard I didn’t know existed while trying to adjust the volume from the steering wheel while I was backing out of my garage, but because the wheel was rotated 180°, I hit the wrong button. Turns out the navigation between different info displays is 2-dimensional and the ↑/↓ gives additional views into some of the information that I had no idea existed, as well as revealing some functionality I didn’t know was there for the HVAC).

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#152

Post by al_borland »

october8140 wrote: post #38

CarPlay is bad for the car manufacturer and is far worse than the modern car software. People who complain about loosing CarPlay are not using the new software but reacting in fear thinking the old car software will come back. The author acts like manufacturers get CarPlay for free when it has a high cost, high constraints, and gives over most or all of the dash over to another company.

> gives over most or all of the dash over to another company.

This was covered in the article, that’s just CarPlay Ultra, which is still fairly new and hardly any companies have implemented it. That’s not what’s being asked for.

> fear thinking the old car software will come back.

Why would this not be a concern? Condition forces higher quality. If these car companies are competing against Apple and Google, they need to stop phoning it in. If they block them out, they can ship more junk and drivers are just stuck with it.

If they believe it what they ship, they shouldn’t be afraid to also build in CarPlay/Android Auto support. Have the sales people go over the built in system so people give it a chance. Impress the customers with it. Advertise how good it is. Eliminating the competition and claiming it’s for the best, does not inspire confidence.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#153

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #83
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) is a coin battery powered computer inside each tyre of your car. They’ve been around for a couple of decades now. Even the lowest end cars have TPMS in each wheel. If you change wheels you need to go to a wheel shop and have them re pair (as in re pair wifi) the wheel with your car. I had to do this recently with my 2014 ford focus. Anyway those are just four of hundreds of comp…

Not exactly a great example as it's unnecessary and expensive to replace. Lots of other microprocessors actually make your car easier and safer to drive.

A TPMS doesn't make your car easier and safer to drive???

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#154

Post by MBCook »

cavisne wrote: post #127
3lpsy wrote: post #68

Maybe it’s cause I’ve never actually used it, but I really only care about a stable / well supported Bluetooth connection. I have a holder for my phone for when I use GPS and basically never interact with it directly after it’s set. Only real interactions are media controls via the steering wheel. The only use cases I can see car play helping with are those who take a lot of calls/texts in their car while driving and…

For me it’s about the waste. Engineers have taken the time to build a screen into the car with a good viewing angle, that works well with glare, doesn’t obstruct the drivers view. Then the software side just makes the whole thing useless with a terrible UX that will never be updated. CarPlay is a great solution because the non safety critical stuff (music, navigation) gets offloaded to a competent software company.

Plus it improves every year.

On my previous car it never changed from the day I bought it, other than navigation getting more and more out of date.

On my current car I get software updates occasionally. I’m not sure that function ever changed though.

Meanwhile my iPhone gets better every year. And if I buy a new phone? CarPlay can get faster. My car never will even if I wanted to pay them.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#155

Post by dhosek »

adamcstephens wrote: post #116
SirMaster wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GM has not dropped CarPlay. I just checked out some 2026 GM vehicles (Chevy) and they list CarPlay.

It may be for MY 2027. I know the new Bolt drops it.

Right now it’s only dropped in GM’s EVs. Of course when this causes a drop in EV sales, they’ll use that as an excuse to kill off their EV lines.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#156

Post by mynameisvlad »

appden wrote: post #128
mynameisvlad wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The final major downside is having to switch apps out of navigation to control music then switch back, But... you don't. Tapping on the home button once more or swiping to the right on the app page reveals the home screen which has navigation and music together: https://devimages-cdn.apple.com/wwdc-services/images/D35E0E8... https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/wgH6RZrtKkuAQkJUjfWW8V.jpg It even adapts to vertical scr…

Our CarPlay car has a small screen, so I prefer to keep navigation full screen most of the time. In split mode, it’s way too tiny for me, but I occasionally leave it there if I know my way around anyways. It’s definitely not a well designed experience.

I mean, you choosing not to use the feature doesn't mean the feature doesn't exist and fulfill your needs.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#157

Post by stego-tech »

I’m with OP, here: CarPlay is additive to the experience, but also is something that provides me a degree of consistency across my automotive experiences - when vendors bother to implement it properly.

I have an old Honda Fit that I installed one of Pioneer’s “app radio” units into, which included replacing the dash facia. I use CarPlay on it almost exclusively, but if I want Pioneer’s incredibly mediocre UI/UX, it’s a single button-tap away - either on the left side of the radio via a capacitance button, or on the first page of CarPlay’s app icons.

When I rented a car to drive to visit family, it had CarPlay. The infotainment experience was familiar, so I could focus more on the road ahead instead of fussing with some newfangled vendor-specific infotainment shitshow.

When I rented Nissan in Canada, it too had CarPlay - but with a nasty bug where using voice commands or making a call would crash the whole unit. I figured out very quickly not to do that, and the rest of CarPlay worked a treat for the trip - a far cry better from Nissan’s UI/UX.

This is why I didn’t hop on board infotainment systems until CarPlay and Android Auto were mature options, opting to stick with my phone over USB for audio/iPod controls instead: none of the major manufacturers except maybe Panasonic actually give a shit about the UI/UX. They don’t build intuitive systems that can be operated without looking, and they scoop up far too much superfluous data to enable simple features. I refuse to buy the vehicle maker excuse of “superior experience” anymore when time after time, the reality is these car companies think the infotainment data is some sort of goldmine of revenue and letting Apple or Google have any say over the experience is tantamount to leaving money on the table.

If I cannot have CarPlay, and your EV or vehicle won’t let me swap the infotainment unit for an aftermarket one that does, then I am not buying your fucking spyware on wheels. I don’t think anyone else should tolerate that bullshit either, especially on what averages to be a $70k+ purchase nowadays.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#158

Post by al_borland »

monkpit wrote: post #149
al_borland wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you made your dissatisfaction known. Otherwise I’m sure they see your purchase as a success, validating your decision. Make sure they know you’ll never by another GM car.

What makes you think they would care? If they cared they wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

They will care of sales slump and the feedback they are getting is all asking for CarPlay/Android Auto.

Even Tesla said they started working on CarPlay support when their sales started to suffer for unrelated reasons.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#159

Post by PlasmaPower »

arikrahman wrote: post #135
faitswulff wrote: post #104

Surprised no one's mentioned it so far, but CarPlay / Android Auto aren't just features, they're consistency . Across makes, models, years. I know what I'm getting when I connect my phone - and if anyone uses my car with their own device, they get their own dashboard, as well. One interesting use case I saw was a couple where one used a left-to-right interface and the other a right-to-left UI. CarPlay makes this easy…

[flagged]

I'm not sure if the parent comment was written by AI or not (you're probably right) but consistency is indeed one of the main things I think about with Android Auto. Not just consistency between cars, but also consistency with the rest of my phone. The principle seems worth considering.

Re: CarPlay Is Additive

#160

Post by alex_suzuki »

symfoniq wrote: post #10
cebert wrote: post #6

They want to hold you captive to subscription plans. If they allow CarPlay, it gives consumers more options for cellular connectivity, music, navigation, and other apps.

That's one of the reasons CarPlay is non-negotiable for me: It limits the automaker's ability to enshittify the ownership experience.

Nothing prevents them from removing CarPlay in an update, though? Unless you make sure to never connect the car to the internet. Some garages will update FW for you unasked I hear.
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