As for my car; until 3 months ago my vehicle has been dealer serviced; all updates to the electronics and navigation have been applied; I have spoken to Honda/Acura and Apple Support, all to no avail. This aspect of the vehicle operation has always been flaky since I purchased the vehicle new. When you consider the price of a vehicle as compared to a phone I feel it is ridiculous to consider that a vehicle is an accessory to a phone and that every time you have a phone update you may need to purchase a new vehicle to take advantage of the new features. That said, aside from the basic hardware connection which enables information to travel between the two devices, CarPlay is software, i.e. computer code with a GUI interface. If there are communication issues between the two devices than software updates should be able to fix it, abet Acura firmware updates or App IOS updates. That has not happened in 4 years. Additionally aside from basic display settings, user information utilized by CarPlay is likely stored in the phone, not in the vehicle so users should be able to utilize this same information when connected to a different vehicle using CarPlay. Frankly I do not expect GM to solve any of my issues aside from the fact I have never owned a GM vehicle or any US manufactured brand vehicle, abet most if not all my vehicles have been made in American plants. As far as being corporate citizens, both seem equally bad to me as the Apple today no longer, in my opinion, has the moral compass, values as did the Apple I worked for around 13 years starting in 1982. That Apple was focused on the customer experience. Todayâs Apple is focused on maximizing profits for its stockholders and executive leadership. If you donât believe me, just try to escalate a support issue to Apple Customer Relations or Executive Offices like you used to be able to do. All this being said the functionality of my Acura is infinitely better than the Lexus RX350 I purchased in 2015 and was so frustrated by its technology and distracted driving resulting from it, that I traded it in in late 2018 for my current Acura as I found it to be totally unsafe to drive given the driver distraction that resulted from attempting to use its technology. It is not that I wish to be picky or unreasonable as I simply want the included functionality of a vehicle to work as advertised, reliably and consistently, and if it fails to do so, that the manufacturer takes the proper steps to fix it in a reasonable amount of time. Is that asking too much?
Any bluetooth source including streaming should work in most systems. Many radio stations have apps which work fine over bluetooth. One that I enjoy is the WIXY 1260 station. Your phone should remember the last source used so itâs easy to access and I use the built-in car system for music using Apple Lossless for the best sound.
My main issue in all of this discussion is distractions. I know many love CarPlay or Android Auto but using some of the features in a moving car is not only distracting but dangerous. I choose to simply listen to music and let it shuffle so as not to be distracted with calls, texts etc. which I check in a parked vehicle. There is too much distracted driving as it is.
CarPlay or Android Auto seem to work well in some vehicles and not so well in others as you implied. There are posts all over the internet and some are wired systems and others are wireless. I use the built-in system in my car so the lack of future CarPlay or similar is not an issue. As long as the system can use my own audio files, Iâm fine with that and having bluetooth for calls as necessary. GM infotainment system are supposedly based on Android anyway so the only new thing here is the Google connection and subscription services which GM already makes money on such as OnStar and data plans that can only work with their apps.
Agree. Thatâs exactly what I do (well, I generally listen to podcasts.) However, these systems (CarPlay and Android Auto) are almost always better for navigation than stock automotive navigation systems when youâre going someplace you havenât been. Though, to be fair, my Toyota stock system will not allow you to enter a destination while the car is moving - even if there is a passenger who can do so. Thatâs not such a bad idea really.
GM wants the money. And itâs not just the US advertising and subscription revenue, they are dumping Apple and Google infotainment across the globe:
â Edward Kummer, GMâs chief digital officer, admitted to the newswire, âWe do believe there are https:/
subscription revenue opportunities for usâ.
âGM CEO Mary Barra has previously stated the automaker is aiming to make between US$20 billion to US$25 billion ($30 billion to $37 billion) per year from digital subscriptions by 2030.â
Interesting. None of the cars Iâve used Bluetooth music on recognized streaming apps, only on-device music. They didnât support arbitrarily relaying all audio, like a Bluetooth speaker, under the âBluetooth musicâ features. (By comparison, the AirFly Pro I use in my '07 Caliber, which has zero Bluetooth or touchscreen features of its own, relays all audio like any other Bluetooth audio device.) I wonder if thatâs something thatâs hidden in a setting somewhere.
Of course, Iâm still annoyed that when Waze added in-app audio controls, they added them only for a few specific streaming apps, not as a general audio control. Those controls, last I checked, didnât even support on-device music. Stupid.
My experience is only with GM vehicles so I canât say about other brands. I still use an iPhone 7 Plus and the bluetooth functions work well. I donât recall changing any settings to allow a streaming app to work so I think itâs automatic depending on the vehicleâs capabilities.
Iâm still not clear on what the actual issues are that youâre having with CarPlay, so itâs hard to know whether itâs a bad fit for your use or something not working as intended.
I donât know what this means, because this isnât what Apple expects or whatâs necessary. CarPlay essentially âprojectsâ a UI into your carâs screen. CarPlay gets updated (sometimes in minor ways) with each iOS update. And when that happens, the updated CarPlay just works in existing cars with CarPlay support. I have seen this happen. So Iâm not sure what youâre referring to with the statements about Apple requiring a new car to use a CarPlay upgrade.
As with most others who have posted, Iâm not aware of any incompatibilities between even the most recentest version of CarPlay and any CarPlay-compatible console systems. Basically any CarPlay-capable automobile Iâve ever been in fully supports whatever version of CarPlay my iDevice uses. At the moment, this includes a 2020 Toyota Prius and a 2023 Subaru Forester (most emphatically not a âgas-guzzlerâ).
Re: wanting to view more than one app at a time. This is entirely possible, and is my default! To view both navigation (whether Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze, all of which Iâve experimented with â or, presumably, other nav apps) and âNow playingâ at the same time on even small infotainment displays, your CarPlay display should offer a three-way toggle, with icons much like the following; youâll want the third option:
- ⢠â one app
- ôŽ â list of apps
- ôą§ â one main app (the nav app) and two or three others (including âNow Playingâ)
After years of using the mount-the-iPhone-on-the-dash for navigation and plug-it-in-to-use-USB-for-audio, I will never again go back to that! CarPlay is not flawless (particularly via Bluetooth, when more than one iPhone enters the car), but itâs much easier to use (and view!) than that jury-rigged approach.
And Iâll never go back to an auto-makerâs nav system, thatâs out-of-date before you even buy the car and costs $$$ to update. No matter whether you prefer Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, or something else â itâs always far more up-to-date than whatever the auto-maker provides.
Iâd have loved to have bought another GM car â all our cars when I was growing up were GM. From the â90s through the â10s, Iâve avoided them because theyâve required far more maintenance (time and $$$) than Toyotas, Hondas, and Subarus, and because theyâve generally gotten significantly worse gas mileage. Iâd been hoping that theyâd turn themselves around with their new EV push, but no CarPlay will mean that theyâre a complete non-starter for our household.
When Apple demoed Carplay 2.0, it showed Carplay taking over all the carâs dashboard displays. Obviously, doing so would require Carplay to have more access to the carâs control system than Caplay 1.x has. I think the original poster is worried that when CaPlay 2.0 is introduced, it will require automakers to support this integration level to run. Since I doubt few automakers will cede this level of control, Iâm pretty sure that some version of Carplay would continue to run with the current level of integration.
Ah, thanks that hadnât occurred to me. I donât think we should be criticising Apple for something they havenât introduced or given details of yet. Like you I canât imagine the original CarPlay being dropped when an expanded version is introduced.
With some of latest updates to CarPlay Apple added some new and advanced features to the software. However in order to access these features you will need to purchase a new vehicle as the features are not available to most current vehicles and only less than a handful of some of the latest luxury level vehicles are the new features available.
As to actual issues, only if I connect the phone using a very specific order of steps does CarPlay connect with my Acura RDX. If I miss a step and do it later, redo it, without taking steps to turn off all the technology such as shutting off the engine and temporary leaving the car, will it connect again. Even with using the correcting procedure it sometimes fails to connect. Luckly I have found an undocumented method of resetting the vehicle technology from the console which is only documented for dealer service as it also runs dealer diagnostics.
Still with all of this done properly, most of the time it fails to upload navigation information to the chosen vehicle map on the vehicle display but instead telling me to find a notification on my phone and select it. This notification can appear, often with significant delay at various locations on the phone, such as the phone notification screen, Alexa, or the map app which requires me to search through various screens on my phone till I find it thus leading to severe distracted, and illegal driving. Neither Apple Support or Acura/Honda Support will address these issues and fix them.
Wow. Iâm surprised you bother at all. With problems like that, Iâd just give up and go back to a vent-mount and AUX input for music. I donât have time to jump through all those hoops every time I get in the car to go somewhere.
Not surprising. My 2012 Civic has had problems with iPod support since I bought the car. Although it is mostly reliable with my iPod Touch, my Classic would frequently crash after 30-90 minutes of playback, forcing me to hard-reset it. (This crash only happens when paying audio via USB to a car).
Apple didnât care - said it was Hondaâs problem, even though it was the iPod that crashes. (This was even before they stopped selling the iPod Classic). Honda didnât care - said they just install the software Apple gives them and have no ability to change anything. So the problem never got fixed, and never will.
Same problem (but even worse crashing) on my fatherâs car (a recent generation Chevrolet Impala).
Ironically, my wifeâs Kia Sedona (both the 2018 weâre driving now and the 2012 it replaced) have great iPhone/iPod integration. But the USB port itself is physically flaky, so devices randomly disconnect, making it useless - so weâre back to USB audio and AUX input there too. (Kia canât find anything wrong with the port, of course, and they want an insane amount of money to replace it.)
Re:David C. At this time I rarely use CarPlay around town but only for longer distance driving or driving during commute hours so I can be aware of congestion and find detours. When I works it works great. The issue is getting it to initially work. That said when I first purchased the car Acura support was outstanding. Now it is essentially garbage.
I hadnât heard about these new features, but presumably they require hardware thatâs not present in existing cars. I donât blame Apple for this â at some point theyâll want to add features that arenât possible with existing hardware. CarPlay is almost a decade old, and the current version runs on the first car that ever supported it. It doesnât feel to me that Apple considers the car an accessory they expect you to upgrade every time thereâs a new version of CarPlay.
(As a side note, do you know what these new and advanced features are that require a new vehicle?)
As far as the issues with your car, they do sound like a real pain, and would severely dent the attractiveness of CarPlay for me if I had them. From the description it sounds more like a problem with the car rather than CarPlay, but thatâs not much comfort (and disappointing that Honda support arenât taking it seriously). All I can say is whenever I use a car itâs a car club or rental, so Iâve used dozens of makes and models with CarPlay, and itâs worked reliably in all of them. Not to diminish how real the issue is for you, but to suggest that it might not be widespread amongst cars generally.
The OP might be referring to the 2.0 version of CarPlay which would more or less take over the whole dash:
I would think that GM as well as some other brands are not going to let that happen but maybe some will still provide the current CarPlay functions.
Thank you for your understanding. I feel you are partially correct. I believe it is a combination of issues. One is most certainly the vehicle when I comes to connectivity as demonstrated that when I reset the vehicle technology CarPlay reconnects. But the other issue is CarPlay itself on the phone as the lack of consistent operation when setting destinations with CarPlay and transmitting that information to the vehicle display via the chosen map app. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. When it does not, notifications are supposed to be present on the phone. Some times they are and sometimes they are not or are significantly delayed when they finally do. Additionally the location of the notification varies as sometimes they appear in the phone notification screen and sometimes in the map app. This seems to be totally inconsistent. When I add Alex Car Echo to the mix which involves the Alexa app, they sometimes appear in the Alexa app and nowhere else. So when the information is not properly transmitted to the vehicle display it becomes the game of hide and seek as to where the notification is so you can click on it to migrate the information to the vehicle display - i.e. severe distracted driving.
You are correct about Car Play 2.0. this is the upgrade that requires you to purchase a new luxury level vehicle to use it of which less than a handful of vehicles currently support it.
First of all I do not believe it is âan evil plotâ but a strategy to maximize profits and income for senior executives and dividends for shareholders of which I am one of them. I have not heard of such profit gains being shared among the run of the mill employees. As for a warning I was an Apple employee starting in 1982 and still have an employee number assigned to me under 5000. I owned my first Apple computer, an Apple //e, starting around 1980 where I received it as a prize at the IEEE trade show, WESCON, for being the 1 millionth visitor. This was before Lisa, and Macintosh and Windows. At that time the only competitor OS for individual users was DOS and the Microsoft infant was making hardware, a Z80 card that plugged into the Apple // to run DOS. I purchased that card for my machine directly from Bill Gates himself at an AppleFest convention. As such the contention that âI was warnedâ I feel is totally incorrect. Additionally what seems to be often forgotten is that Apple only currently exists due to Bill Gates generosity. In those days Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was Bill Gates that gave Steve Jobs the loan that allowed Apple to continue to exist.
This is not correct - nothing is ârequiredâ. As has been stated earlier, it is highly unlikely Apple would stop support of CarPlay 1 - in the same way it doesnât halt support for older machines when it updates MacOS. They continue to run happily on the older systems. This is the same as phones, cameras, fridges or any other tech - no-one is âforcedâ to buy anything new.
Your opinion on GMâs move is valued but you seem to be fabricating arguments about Apple with little foundation.