Frankly, I expect an announcement from Audi any minute now in support of CarPlay.
I am a BMW driver myself and although BMW always supported iPhone integration, they were not on the original list of CarPlay supporters. This explains why Mercedes is ready to release CarPlay and BMW is not. I think they understand that being late in supporting CarPlay can cost them a lot of customers, not to mention not supporting it at all.
Volkswagen / Audi would have to be insane not to support CarPlay.
One can only hope their people in charge (or perhaps their shareholders) recognize the benefit of CarPlay.
There's so much more to the connected car plans than most here can see. It's not so much about the car itself as it a connection to everything you do in a typical day with your home life probably the biggest target.
Cars will soon be serving as butlers, putting in food orders, checking the weather, telling you what time you need to leave for appointments or work. Last month Volvo demoed "Roam Delivery" to bring your packages to your car from online retailers instead of missing a home delivery. Mercedes in the meantime is working with Nest Labs (Google) to offer complete control of your Nest thermostat and eventually other automated home services from the comfort of your vehicle. Denso, Intel and Sharp all have active programs to integrate home electronics control, TV's, microwaves, refrigerators and such with your car. Automotive is the relatively easy part. Home is the laggard.
There's probably only a couple of ways to connect the two. One would be the way Apple is choosing, at least for the time-being: Using a separate smartphone or tablet. Another would be communicating directly with your home via your car's own systems, no smartphone required. I'm making a guess that's the direction Google is taking with their Open Automotive Alliance.
Suddenly Nest and Google, CarPlay and iBeacons, and cloud services for all start to make some sense. These aren't all disparate services. Apple, Google, Sharp, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Mercedes and dozens of others are trying to define how everything you do and every place you go will be connected. Up until now there hasn't been any group of companies, much less a single one, with the resources and technical expertise, coupled with the necessary parts to start putting it all together. It will take years before the home starts catching up to work and transport, but with the current focus it is coming.
Lots of people here are looking at this the wrong way. Audi hasn't established their reputation by going with second rate parts. Maybe android showed some promise of improvement that will be integrated in Audis? If Audi is going along with this, there just has to be something they know that I don't. Otherwise...
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One can only hope their people in charge (or perhaps their shareholders) recognize the benefit of CarPlay.
Cars will soon be serving as butlers, putting in food orders, checking the weather, telling you what time you need to leave for appointments or work. Last month Volvo demoed "Roam Delivery" to bring your packages to your car from online retailers instead of missing a home delivery. Mercedes in the meantime is working with Nest Labs (Google) to offer complete control of your Nest thermostat and eventually other automated home services from the comfort of your vehicle. Denso, Intel and Sharp all have active programs to integrate home electronics control, TV's, microwaves, refrigerators and such with your car. Automotive is the relatively easy part. Home is the laggard.
There's probably only a couple of ways to connect the two. One would be the way Apple is choosing, at least for the time-being: Using a separate smartphone or tablet. Another would be communicating directly with your home via your car's own systems, no smartphone required. I'm making a guess that's the direction Google is taking with their Open Automotive Alliance.
Suddenly Nest and Google, CarPlay and iBeacons, and cloud services for all start to make some sense. These aren't all disparate services. Apple, Google, Sharp, Ford, Microsoft, Samsung, Mercedes and dozens of others are trying to define how everything you do and every place you go will be connected. Up until now there hasn't been any group of companies, much less a single one, with the resources and technical expertise, coupled with the necessary parts to start putting it all together. It will take years before the home starts catching up to work and transport, but with the current focus it is coming.
Lots of people here are looking at this the wrong way. Audi hasn't established their reputation by going with second rate parts. Maybe android showed some promise of improvement that will be integrated in Audis? If Audi is going along with this, there just has to be something they know that I don't. Otherwise...