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Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

theturnsignalblog.com

431–440 of 537 posts

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#431
post #425

Why can't we have a car that only has: (a) a standardized mechanism for attaching and powering your phone on its dashboard (think a "mini VESA mount" with options for USB/wireless charging) (b) bluetooth HID-compatible physical controls on the steering wheel and/or center console so you don't have to reach for your device (c) a minified car "radio" that only offers AM/FM radio and bluetooth audio connectivity All oth…

The same reason why we can't have:

- TV's that only display images without syphoning user data;

- One-time payment app purchase without subscription.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#433
post #34

There's an interesting gap when discussing carplay/aa. Cars from the 90s up until about 2013 can be easily fitted with a $500 head unit upgrade, and support carplay quite well. With the right tools, it can be done in about two hours right in your driveway. Cars from 2018 and up pretty universally support carplay, and it's generally quite well integrated into the car's infotainment system. But, between 2013 and 2017,…

I'm interested in where this data is sourced: "only 21% of people will buy a car without carplay". I find that really hard to believe even if the survey was isolated to SF.

I am in that 21%. Heck, I would MUCH prefer to buy a car with no touch screens at all. All I want is a decent car ala 2004ish but with modern crash safety and headlights that don’t suck. I do not care about Bluetooth even!

I realize I will not be able to buy a car with no screens due to the backup camera rules. But there is actual safety value in that for me so I’m ok with it.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#434

All I want from CarPlay is for it not to start blaring the last thing I was playing on the car speakers as soon as I plug it in, especially given there’s about a 10 second window between the sound playing and the head unit being booted enough to actually show the screen so I can pause it. I have no idea if it’s the car or CarPlay but could I please just have a toggle somewhere ?

A similar thing happens to me. I don't use Apple Music regularly. This means the last song I played is from something like 2-3 years ago. I constantly listen to podcasts and other music streaming services on my phone. Constantly. In the shower, running, in the gym, walking around town...constantly.

Yet when I enter my car and CarPlay starts for some reason maybe 50% of the time (not all of the time even) it randomly decides to play the last song I streamed in Apple Music 2-3 years ago. WTF Apple?

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#435
post #4

CarPlay mostly works, and although it has issues it's definitely user-focused. CarPlay doesn't prevent car makers from tracking vehicle activity. In the end, consumers don't give a shit about the in-vehicle infotainment. It sucks, or it's AA/CarPlay. The first generation of iDrive showed that rich people people will buy cars in spite of the in-car stuff. In fact, most car infotainment sucks, yet people still buy cars…

> why would car makers want to spend millions of dollars a year rolling their own infotainment system?

This is addressed in the article:

> There used to be a big difference in driving characteristics and technology between premium and budget brands. Compared to a Volkswagen, a BMW used to have a more powerful engine, better handling, and comfort features like seat-heating and cruise control. However, a Volkswagen Golf now has similar tech as a BMW and with the transition to EVs, drivetrains and handling won't be the same differentiator as before.

> Now, the focus has moved to the interior. Infotainment systems have become a central part of that, so carmakers are coming up with unusual concepts to set them apart, both in hardware and software. CarPlay 2 is going exactly in the opposite direction, more towards standardizing the in-car software.

But I think a great differentiator for upmarket brands would be to offer as few screens as possible and as many buttons as possible. Electronics are a plague. Some features are very useful: mainly, route planning and the ability to play music in the car. But the rest is a nightmare.

I don't want to talk to my car; certainly not when passengers are sleeping during a trip, and even not when I'm alone. There's a subtle humiliation associated with talking to a machine. More importantly, I don't want to randomly target zones on screens to set up things, and I don't want to look at the screens because I don't want to take my eyes off the road. Give me buttons that have a fixed location, and that I can feel without looking.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#436
post #417

One thing that is ridiculous with CarPlay is that I can't read messages: it only allows to "speak" it and while I use my phone in English I message with my friends in my native language and speaking works terrible. Even my car's shitty infotainment system can display messages. This results in the worst possible outcome: I need to take my phone and read the messages on my phone screen, creating a safety risk.

Is the message so important it justifies creating a safety risk? You could also just wait until you've arrived or stop the car at a safe place...

Well it could be important. CarPlay has no problem displaying a notification of a message with a red dot or a popup from below. If it didn't, then I get it.

But it does show that there's a message but doesn't show the message itself: worst of both worlds.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#437
post #435
post #4

CarPlay mostly works, and although it has issues it's definitely user-focused. CarPlay doesn't prevent car makers from tracking vehicle activity. In the end, consumers don't give a shit about the in-vehicle infotainment. It sucks, or it's AA/CarPlay. The first generation of iDrive showed that rich people people will buy cars in spite of the in-car stuff. In fact, most car infotainment sucks, yet people still buy cars…

> why would car makers want to spend millions of dollars a year rolling their own infotainment system? This is addressed in the article: > There used to be a big difference in driving characteristics and technology between premium and budget brands. Compared to a Volkswagen, a BMW used to have a more powerful engine, better handling, and comfort features like seat-heating and cruise control. However, a Volkswagen Gol…

I’m happy with the way Mazda has integrated CarPlay. No touch while moving, the navigation wheel moves a highlight around the screen to select buttons/links. I find it much less distracting.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need premium data for online maps. Premium data is for sat maps, music and live camera views. Also at $10 per month it's actually quite cheap.

Are you saying you can't listen to music in a Tesla without a subscription?

Bluetooth, radio, usb and using your phones hotspot is still an option (tho unrealistic given how shit iOS hotspot is)

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need premium data for online maps. Premium data is for sat maps, music and live camera views. Also at $10 per month it's actually quite cheap.

Which is $10 per customer per month more than they’d get if everyone was using CarPlay / Android Auto. It’s been proven time and time again that vertical integration is a massive money earner and you can bet that if Tesla were to release a smartphone then support for that in their cars would be a software update that follows immediately after. But since there’s no plans for a phone, the next best thing is a subscript…

Can carplay live stream video from hyundai’s cameras..?

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#440
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a statement about audio playing only though. To first approximation the core job of a car infotainment product is map and navigation display. Everything else is noise.

Offline maps such as Gaia don’t work on Tesla so that is it failing at its job compared to CarPlay

Maybe you can use your phone for when you actually go offline once a year…
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