Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

theturnsignalblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 537 posts

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#511

Post by netsharc »

Jtsummers wrote: post #76
mannyv wrote: 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…

> Let's turn the question around: why would car makers want to spend millions of dollars a year rolling their own infotainment system? So they can make incremental revenue selling ads and user data? So they have control? Control over what, exactly? There's an interesting (and apparently often misunderstood) article called "IT Doesn't Matter" [0]. In it, Carr is largely arguing that IT, as a business differentiator, w…

It's a bit aggravating that a slice of money I pay when buying a car goes to paying for development of the infotainment, which can be shoddy. It's like paying the Windows tax when buying a laptop with it pre-installed.

Imagine if car manufacturers started offering cars with no infotainment OS, and as users having a choice of open source OS distros to install on them..

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#512

Post by jkestner »

pjerem wrote: post #358
jkestner wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once my Ford's infotainment system (Microsoft CE, I believe) crashed hard, and I had to open and close the door while I was at a stoplight to get it to reset. On the other hand, the voice command system works as badly as it did when I got the car, while Siri has gotten worse.

Happens on mine too. I discovered not later than yesterday that if I plug a Nintendo Switch to one of the USB ports (to recharge it), the interface disappears. And this is still one of the least garbage infotainment I had to endure to this day.

Agreed! Seems like these systems are about 10 years behind in general, so I was pleasantly surprised that the voice system worked after a fashion. Just requires too specific phrasing to make it do stuff, and then I didn't pay to keep the maps up to date... Also appreciate that the main UI follows Fitt's Law and I can jam my finger to the corner to go to audio (though if it would just stay on that screen between drives I wouldn't have to do anything).

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#513

Post by katbyte »

withinboredom wrote: post #490
katbyte wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no it IS more accurate. When i am off-roading i always record my track and have to unplug my phone from the trucks system to get an accurate un-smoothed track. google maps does weird things but gaia just uses the raw GPS data from the phone and doesn't snap, however when you are plugged into carplay the phone seems to always consider the car/trucks data more accurate even when its clearly not. this could very well my…

AFAIK, and I could be wrong (though I did google this first), plugging your phone into CarPlay does not use the car’s gps unit. That’s just your phone trying to find a road because it’s connected to a car. Even if you are getting the car’s gps, it’s not going to give you raw values, but display values to show in an app, which should be smooth, IMHO.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250076351?sortBy=best

> If your vehicle has wireless CarPlay, the iPhone's GPS chip is completely ignored.

> If your vehicle has wired CarPlay, the iPhone's GPS chip may be ignored, depending upon what the head unit tells the phone to do.

this happens when near roads or not. the truck is doing something weird and wrong with the GPS data and forcing the phone to use it

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#514

Post by sunshowers »

internetter wrote: post #156
sunshowers wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes, current cars do. I'm concerned about the situation where Apple provides the onboard infotainment system, which is what's being talked about in the post.

The proposal is not replacing the infotainment with carplay. It's adding a second infotainment system

I see! Okay, I guess I was confused then.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#515

Post by JeremyNT »

whoitwas wrote: post #430
yabones wrote: 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 wonder if that assertion is based on new car sales.

For example, I wouldn't buy a new car without android auto, because cars with it are readily available and hardly cost anything extra.

But if I had say $6k to spend on a used car instead of $20k+ on a new car? Your options are much more limited and the tradeoffs unpalatable. I know I can still put a phone holder in any vehicle and I'm off to the races.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#516

Post by monkeybutter »

anthony_d wrote: post #78
potatolicious wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "So they have control? Control over what, exactly?" I think a key thing to consider is that there are in fact three separate questions at play here: 1 - Does infotainment/software UI differentiation matter in the car market? Is there a significant enough market advantage for having better UI that anyone should care? 2 - If there is an advantage for better UI, is it enough of an edge that would compel you to build y…

For what it’s worth I agree on #1. I really like RR/Jaguar’s current UI. When I’m in a rental or someone else’s car and I’m forced to use CarPlay I hate it. Feels like I’ve been pushed to kindergarten and given crayons… any car manufacturer that just expects me to use CarPlay is probably not on my potential buy list. I might be unusual in my preference but I really expect people to have preferences as strong.

[dead]

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#517

Post by kingrazor »

makeitdouble wrote: post #131
ryandrake wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't Japanese people have smartphones or tablets with navigation on them that they can use? I'd rather cars just have a place I can mount my own device, rather than include any kind of screen whatsoever with crappy un-updated, un-maintained software.

Phone navigation apps are surprisingly bad in Japan (Google ones in particular). Not unusable, but the in-car GPS is more competitive than in other markets IMHO. Also with an aging population a phone screen is just too small for many. BTW, to parent's point VW has been trying different approaches with a top mounted GPS/infotainment unit that can be omitted on cheaper trims.

That definitely does not match my experience. I was in Japan in December of 2022 and used my phone to get everywhere, the directions were extremely accurate, more-so than in my home town in the US.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#518

Post by astrange »

katbyte wrote: post #336
astrange wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars can have better GPS reception, which is important when you're trying to drive in an urban area with a lot of buildings. Phones are bad at accuracy there. (CarPlay can provide car GPS to the phone though.)

My iPhone 12 has much better reception then my 22 Tacoma even when tossed on the passenger seat. Like waaaaaay better and more accurate

That's possible too, but the issue I was thinking of wasn't exactly reception - it's that GPS signals bounce off buildings and so it looks like you're somewhere else. Stronger reception might actually make that worse.

Japan has local satellites to help with this (QZSS) and local cars may handle that better than global phones.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#519

Post by tssva »

wvenable wrote: post #502
tssva wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I replaced my 2014 CX-5 head unit with a 3rd party unit which supports CarPlay/AA, integrates with the steering controls, the factory Bose amplifier and retains the ability to change the car settings through the head unit. Took about 2 1/2 hours to install it.

Which head unit is that? I looked into it years ago but I definitely couldn't find one that still allowed you to change the car settings and I felt that was a bit of non-starter.

It is a Kenwood. The integration is done through an iDatalink Maesteo RR unit. They work with a wide range of cars and head units not just Kenwood. When you get the iDatalink module you connect it to your computer via usb, tell it which model car, head unit and wiring harness you have. It programs it for that combination. If you go to Crutchfield and tell it which car you have it will display a list of head units which will work with your car. Once you select a head unit it will present you with an installation package needed. The packages include the 2-din adapter, trim pieces, wiring harnesses and the iDatalink unit. It will also tell you what functionality the kit will allow. You can add it all to your order with a single click. I also upgraded the head unit in my 2017 Outback this way. You will need to run a new microphone because the one which comes with the car is powered. It took me 10 minutes to replace the factory one and run the cable through the headliner and down the pillar. Super easy. You will also need to replace the factory gps antenna. The factory one is located with the middle front speaker which is directly above where the head unit goes. Your new head unit will come with a microphone and gps antenna.

I believe other car audio sites will similarly present you with installation packages. I’ve been using Crutchfield since I replaced the stereo in my 1st car in 1985 so that is who I went with.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#520

Post by wvenable »

tssva wrote: post #519
wvenable wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which head unit is that? I looked into it years ago but I definitely couldn't find one that still allowed you to change the car settings and I felt that was a bit of non-starter.

It is a Kenwood. The integration is done through an iDatalink Maesteo RR unit. They work with a wide range of cars and head units not just Kenwood. When you get the iDatalink module you connect it to your computer via usb, tell it which model car, head unit and wiring harness you have. It programs it for that combination. If you go to Crutchfield and tell it which car you have it will display a list of head units whi…

Thank you. This is helpful information on how it works; I did a bunch of googling after your last comment (and went to Crutchfield) but not much explanation how it could work.
Post reply on HN