The conclusion the author is deriving from the survey in the headline of the article is misleading! Only owners of CarPlay were surveyed! Of course they want the feature. But whether prospective car buyers really need it or even know of it is not stated!
On a recent 2018 Audi Q7 loaner (which by my best guess was about 6 months old), there were dozens of stored connections from various customers who connected their iPhones to the loaner's CarPlay system. While this information is anecdotal at best, it does suggest that at least Audi is informing their customers of the availability of the feature. And on a side note, I found it infinitely easier to simply plug in my iPhone and use CarPlay rather than temporarily pair my phone via Bluetooth.
I don't get automakers who don't include this in 2018 models. Get with program Honda, Mazda, and Toyota just to name a few.
The last time I checked, unless you only get the LX trim level on the Civic, Accord, CR-V, or Pilot, you're going to get CarPlay/Android Auto standard on all of those. And I believe this has been the case since the '17 models.
Exactly. CarPlay is far from perfect, but it’s also far superior to the other maufacuter solutions I’ve used. The Nav system in my Audi is nice, but the voice recognition is atrocious and I’ve never had an issue with Apple Maps.
I just trade out of a 2011 BMW, and the voice recognition was ok, but you had to disregard the way it wanted you tell it the desired address. Once I learned how to tell it the address properly, it worked almost every time. Similarly, my 2018 Audi has to be told a certain way like, "drive to (say address here)", and it generally works every time. However, I do have to agree that Apple's voice recognition via the CarPlay interface works very well. Sending text messages, in particular, have been surprisingly accurate. Likewise for dictating notes, or requesting a specific playlist or song. I'm very happy with CarPlay, and use it almost exclusively as my goto interface.
Yeah, I just bought a new car in December. Car Play was a must and ruled out a few cars because of it. The dealers were frustrated and promised that a "future update" would get support for it. I told them that I don't buy on promises of a future update. They know they are losing sales for not supporting Car Play. I'm sure that feedback is getting back to the manufacturers.
You can lump me in with those that won’t be purchasing a new car that doesn’t offer Car Play. That and Bluetooth, it’s really nice having your phone show you on Maps where you parked just in case you might have forgotten or like my girlfriend terrible with directions.
Is it even possible to buy a new car today without Bluetooth?
I have found CarPlay to be a mixed bag. I love the very simple predictable UI.
Unfortunately, after buying a new car you may need to buy a new iPhone too. I hate how it brought my old iPhone 6 to it's knees. Would freeze too often and become unresponsive(usually at the least opportune times).
I was recently in the market for a new car and disqualified the RAV4 Hybrid due to lack of CarPlay. The primary selling point of the RAV4 was the AWD + good fuel economy (34 city/30 highway/32 combined). We ended up getting a 2018 Subaru Impreza with CarPlay (28 city/37 highway/31 combined).
i used to think this as well, until i bought a car with apple carplay. they have it locked down to only approved apps, which is very annoying. i would much rather have a mirroring setup like they have in europe. with mirroring, it mirrors (duh) your phone on your car's screen, therefore any application that you can download will be allowed. my major complaint is that if you want a gps app, you must use apple's maps (same with google only allowing google maps). what if someone wants, for example waze, and has a apple phone.
On Google's Android Auto you can use Waze instead of Google Maps
I tell this story just in case others may not have thought of this and have a similar set up.
I don't have CarPlay as my Jeep Grande Cherokee Limited V8 is a 2007 model, I've had her from new and she's in mint condition and ... she has a lifetime factory warranty and <60,000 miles and several new warranty covered AC systems. I will never part with her. But ... I had CarPlay envy I confess so i did a little digging into what I could do. One option was radical, $1000 for a new in dash CarPlay head. Then I remembered the Jeep came with the iPod connector in the glove compartment (remember iPods anyone?) very high tech for 2007 and an option to select it and control the iPod from the radio. I hadn't used this in years. So I wondered if I could somehow utilize this old tech with today's tech. I found a bluetooth transceiver for $50 that has the old iPod connector on Amazon and bought a dashboard mag-mount for my iPhone Plus (the reciprocal magnet is a tape inside the iPhone case), $20. I paired the transceiver to my iPhone. The iPhone works flawlessly using the car's Harman Kardon audio system as soon as I turn the radio selection to iPod and all the dash iPod controls, even the steering wheel controls operate the iPhone's music app reasonably well, like pause, volume and next track etc.. Apple Maps are great on the large iPhone and incoming phone calls come over the speakers. Obviously this lash up has no mic input over Bluetooth so no Siri for Maps etc. but to my relief I found the second I lift the iPhone from the magnet and hold to to my ear iOS auto switches the audio to the iPhone and the mic works for answering phone calls. End the call put it back on the mount and the bluetooth takes over again and the music track start from where it was paused by the call. Frankly I was blown away this all 'just worked'. Plus I do have Siri for Maps etc. it turns out, I just have to lift the iPhone to my ear to toggle the iPhones mic on same as with phone calls. I don't have CarPlay envy anymore.
Poor man’s Carplay — i attached a cradle to my dash that holds the ipad mini. AUdio cable from headphone jack to the aux in jack on car sound system. Organized all car oriented apps onto one screen: maps, music, waze, email, text, audio recorder. Works great. Even in my old beater that predates almost everything...not all the functionality, but a generally positive and satisfying solution.
Poor man’s Carplay — i attached a cradle to my dash that holds the ipad mini. AUdio cable from headphone jack to the aux in jack on car sound system. Organized all car oriented apps onto one screen: maps, music, waze, email, text, audio recorder. Works great. Even in my old beater that predates almost everything...not all the functionality, but a generally positive and satisfying solution.
Have you considered Cydia and getting CarPlay on it natively? I'm not sure it's the latest CarPlay UI available, and I know they made some great changes, but it may allow you some some better touch controls for easy access.
Comments
The last time I checked, unless you only get the LX trim level on the Civic, Accord, CR-V, or Pilot, you're going to get CarPlay/Android Auto standard on all of those. And I believe this has been the case since the '17 models.
I just trade out of a 2011 BMW, and the voice recognition was ok, but you had to disregard the way it wanted you tell it the desired address. Once I learned how to tell it the address properly, it worked almost every time. Similarly, my 2018 Audi has to be told a certain way like, "drive to (say address here)", and it generally works every time. However, I do have to agree that Apple's voice recognition via the CarPlay interface works very well. Sending text messages, in particular, have been surprisingly accurate. Likewise for dictating notes, or requesting a specific playlist or song. I'm very happy with CarPlay, and use it almost exclusively as my goto interface.
I love the very simple predictable UI.
Unfortunately, after buying a new car you may need to buy a new iPhone too.
I hate how it brought my old iPhone 6 to it's knees.
Would freeze too often and become unresponsive(usually at the least opportune times).
I was recently in the market for a new car and disqualified the RAV4 Hybrid due to lack of CarPlay.
The primary selling point of the RAV4 was the AWD + good fuel economy (34 city/30 highway/32 combined).
We ended up getting a 2018 Subaru Impreza with CarPlay (28 city/37 highway/31 combined).
I don't have CarPlay as my Jeep Grande Cherokee Limited V8 is a 2007 model, I've had her from new and she's in mint condition and ... she has a lifetime factory warranty and <60,000 miles and several new warranty covered AC systems. I will never part with her. But ... I had CarPlay envy I confess so i did a little digging into what I could do. One option was radical, $1000 for a new in dash CarPlay head. Then I remembered the Jeep came with the iPod connector in the glove compartment (remember iPods anyone?) very high tech for 2007 and an option to select it and control the iPod from the radio. I hadn't used this in years. So I wondered if I could somehow utilize this old tech with today's tech. I found a bluetooth transceiver for $50 that has the old iPod connector on Amazon and bought a dashboard mag-mount for my iPhone Plus (the reciprocal magnet is a tape inside the iPhone case), $20. I paired the transceiver to my iPhone. The iPhone works flawlessly using the car's Harman Kardon audio system as soon as I turn the radio selection to iPod and all the dash iPod controls, even the steering wheel controls operate the iPhone's music app reasonably well, like pause, volume and next track etc.. Apple Maps are great on the large iPhone and incoming phone calls come over the speakers. Obviously this lash up has no mic input over Bluetooth so no Siri for Maps etc. but to my relief I found the second I lift the iPhone from the magnet and hold to to my ear iOS auto switches the audio to the iPhone and the mic works for answering phone calls. End the call put it back on the mount and the bluetooth takes over again and the music track start from where it was paused by the call. Frankly I was blown away this all 'just worked'. Plus I do have Siri for Maps etc. it turns out, I just have to lift the iPhone to my ear to toggle the iPhones mic on same as with phone calls. I don't have CarPlay envy anymore.