Apple's risky bet on CarPlay • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#91

Post by arjvik » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #79

51Cards wrote: post #72

>Continuing with the above example, let's imagine I just downloaded a new podcast app on my phone (one that is also available in the automotive Play Store). The next day I have to go on a long drive and I want to listen to a podcast episode I downloaded on my phone. When I enter my car, I have to go to the Play Store, find the app, download it, log in, and then download the episode. When I use CarPlay, I only have to…

>> Continuing with the above example, let's imagine I just downloaded a new podcast app on my phone (one that is also available in the [Android A]utomotive Play Store). They lost a capitalization which makes it a bit ambiguous but their scenario is this: There are two app stores being discussed: iOS (for CarPlay), and Android Automotive (the infotainment system's play store). If you have Android Automotive on an info…

There's a difference between Android Auto (Google's CarPlay equivalent for phone projection to any infotainment system) and Android Automotive (Google's Infotainment OS).

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#92

Post by Angostura » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:53 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #17

I used to be fascinated with Apple but I no longer want anything to do with them. I could care less if my car has Apple or android auto at this point. I would rip it out immediately if it had one. Any always on connectivity would be removed. Car manufacturers are increasingly selling off your private data and leveraging all of these technology upgrades you paid for to do it. As soon as the car is connected to the int…

> used to be fascinated with Apple but I no longer want anything to do with them. > I could care less if my car has Apple or android auto at this point. I would rip it out immediately if it had one. Any always on connectivity would be removed.

And by 'rip out' you mean "disconnect your phone"

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#93

Post by hedgehog » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:54 PM UTC

dap wrote: post #68

StephenSmith wrote: post #12

If you're in the market for a new-to-you car, then I recommend looking at the model years where they switch from wired car-play to wireless car-play and buying the previous model-year. Typically this difference of one model-year can add thousands to the cost of the vehicle, especially because wireless car-play is so coveted. The experience of wireless is fantastic, but is it worth several thousand dollars? Maybe, but…

I am not sure if this would be a problem with wireless as well, but I've had very inconsistent experiences having Carplay start at all using a dongle. I'd say right now it works about 70% of the time, and about 25% of the time when it doesn't, I can get it working by unplugging and re-plugging after the car is on. The rest of the time I have to stop the car and start it for it to work. This all started about a year a…

In my experience it's over cable CarPlay is reliable if the head unit is already booted and the phone is unlocked when plugging in. If either of those things aren't true then no guarantee the phone will connect after the booting / unlocking finishes (I use and recommend the setting to disallow accessories when the phone is locked).

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#94

Post by codexb » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:54 PM UTC

roughly wrote: post #18

Something that stuck out to me 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 w…

What happened is there are no real "budget" cars anymore. Mandatory safety, engine, emission, backup cameras (yes, they're mandatory) has steadily driven the base price of a car so high that the added cost of creature comforts doesn't actually increase the price of a car that much relative to the total price. Why would someone spend spend $40k on a bare bones car when they could get a well-equipped car for $45k? That's basically where we're at. So, basically all cars, "budget" or luxury, need to have all the major creature comforts.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#95

Post by babypuncher » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:55 PM UTC

StephenSmith wrote: post #12

If you're in the market for a new-to-you car, then I recommend looking at the model years where they switch from wired car-play to wireless car-play and buying the previous model-year. Typically this difference of one model-year can add thousands to the cost of the vehicle, especially because wireless car-play is so coveted. The experience of wireless is fantastic, but is it worth several thousand dollars? Maybe, but…

I have an actual wireless carplay head unit from Pioneer in my 2011 RAV 4, but I still use it in wired mode with one of these dongles because Pioneer's implementation is so buggy as to be practically useless and they refuse to issue any firmware updates for the device.

Moral of the story: Don't buy a head unit from Pioneer. They suck ass. This is quite possibly the shittiest tech product I have ever spent money on.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#96

Post by hedgehog » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:57 PM UTC

spike021 wrote: post #59

A huge benefit to CarPlay for me is I can travel someplace like Japan, get a car with a CarPlay-supported head unit, and immediately I have Google or Apple Maps available straight off the bat in English with all my saved locations like hotels or places that are bookmarked. Nothing to set up or anything. The only downside I've experienced with it in Japan is the GPS can be wonky in tunnels whereas the car's built-in G…

The car probably has odometry and inertial sensors to do position updates while GPS is unavailable. That's actually how some of the original car nav systems worked even pre-GPS in the 80s.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#97

Post by dboreham » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 10:57 PM UTC

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…

Regarding "it sucks", if we're talking mapping/directions I disagree. Google maps is really a pretty piss poor application. It hasn't changed in 15 years and it's obvious its maintainers haven't ever driven anywhere using the application, even around the Google campus in MT View, or downtown SF. It's deeply bad. In my experience some car manufacturer mapping applications are quite a bit better. Since they obviously suck at software, who knows how good it could get with the combination of (not Google) AND (competent team)?

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#98

Post by innagadadavida » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 11:00 PM UTC

I use CarPlay but it is very clunky - I need to plug in the device etc. I've been working on using and old iPhone and keep it connected in the car all the time. I plan on using wifi hotspot for connectivity and since the device can sign-in using my ApplID, it can have access to my calendar or Messages as needed. Sharing the routing address from another Apple device can be done easily from Maps.

This seems like a missed opportunity for Apple - they can release a screen less device bundled with a cheap 4g connection and smooth out other integration issues for sharing / setup etc.

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#99

Post by dboreham » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 11:00 PM UTC

StephenSmith wrote: post #12

If you're in the market for a new-to-you car, then I recommend looking at the model years where they switch from wired car-play to wireless car-play and buying the previous model-year. Typically this difference of one model-year can add thousands to the cost of the vehicle, especially because wireless car-play is so coveted. The experience of wireless is fantastic, but is it worth several thousand dollars? Maybe, but…

In my experience wireless car play is a nothingburger -- you end up plugging in your phone to charge it anyway. If it's not plugged in, the wireless interaction draws so much power that you need to plug it in. Stable configuration is therefore: plugged in. (yes you can sometimes have the combination of wireless CP and wireless charging, but wireless charging also sucks).

Re: Apple's risky bet on CarPlay

#100

Post by sokoloff » Tue, Apr 23, 2024, 11:05 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #97

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…

Regarding "it sucks", if we're talking mapping/directions I disagree. Google maps is really a pretty piss poor application. It hasn't changed in 15 years and it's obvious its maintainers haven't ever driven anywhere using the application, even around the Google campus in MT View, or downtown SF. It's deeply bad. In my experience some car manufacturer mapping applications are quite a bit better. Since they obviously s…

Until Apple Maps got offline downloads (in iOS 17), Google Maps was way ahead for offline use, which was enough to have me use it normally as well.