Tesla mum on potential CarPlay support, despite meetings with Apple
Silicon Valley carmaker Tesla is conspicuously absent from the consortium of automotive manufacturers that have pledged support for Apple's CarPlay initiative, an omission made more glaring --?and puzzling --?by recent news of high-level talks between the two companies.
Silicon Valley carmaker Tesla is notably absent from Apple's list of CarPlay patners
"Tesla is not commenting on Apple's CarPlay at this time," a spokesman for the electric car producer told AppleInsider late Wednesday. That policy of radio silence is somewhat odd for the marque, which has a history of speaking candidly about its future.
Barrels of digital ink have been spilled pontificating the virtues of a hypothetical Apple-Tesla tie-up. Visionary Tesla CEO Elon Musk could put Apple's virtually bottomless pockets to good use, it's thought, while the iPhone maker could learn a thing or two from Tesla's rocketeering engineer-turned-executive.
The virtual printing presses began churning even faster in the wake of reports that Musk met in secret with Apple mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica last spring. Musk later confirmed the talks, but called a sale "very unlikely."
Many investors and commentators now seem to accept as gospel the idea that it is only a matter of time before some type of deal is announced, with a collaboration on battery technology pegged as the most likely joint venture. Tesla plans to construct what Musk has described as a "gigafactory" for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, crucial components for both companies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk with the company's forthcoming Model X SUV
Apple, for its part, looks to be headed full-steam toward a showdown with Google in the automotive space. Apple CEO Tim Cook called CarPlay "very, very important" and a "key focus" even before Google unveiled its own bid to bring Android to in-car systems with the Open Automotive Alliance, which incidentally counts many of Apple's CarPlay partners as members.
Why, then, are the supposedly-synergistic Apple and Tesla not cooperating in the most obvious arena?
Tesla may have landed in the Google camp, given Musk's recent revelation that he would like to see Google's Chrome browser and an Android application emulator ported to Tesla's custom in-car operating system.
Technical issues could also play a role, as embedded software vendor QNX --?thought to provide middleware for CarPlay -- doesn't have a position in Tesla's software stack. This possibility is bolstered somewhat by the fact that other high-profile marques like Fiat, which has partnered with Microsoft rather than QNX, are also absent.
Or, it could be that despite all the smoke surrounding the potential partnership, there is simply no fire.
Silicon Valley carmaker Tesla is notably absent from Apple's list of CarPlay patners
"Tesla is not commenting on Apple's CarPlay at this time," a spokesman for the electric car producer told AppleInsider late Wednesday. That policy of radio silence is somewhat odd for the marque, which has a history of speaking candidly about its future.
Barrels of digital ink have been spilled pontificating the virtues of a hypothetical Apple-Tesla tie-up. Visionary Tesla CEO Elon Musk could put Apple's virtually bottomless pockets to good use, it's thought, while the iPhone maker could learn a thing or two from Tesla's rocketeering engineer-turned-executive.
The virtual printing presses began churning even faster in the wake of reports that Musk met in secret with Apple mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica last spring. Musk later confirmed the talks, but called a sale "very unlikely."
Many investors and commentators now seem to accept as gospel the idea that it is only a matter of time before some type of deal is announced, with a collaboration on battery technology pegged as the most likely joint venture. Tesla plans to construct what Musk has described as a "gigafactory" for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, crucial components for both companies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk with the company's forthcoming Model X SUV
Apple, for its part, looks to be headed full-steam toward a showdown with Google in the automotive space. Apple CEO Tim Cook called CarPlay "very, very important" and a "key focus" even before Google unveiled its own bid to bring Android to in-car systems with the Open Automotive Alliance, which incidentally counts many of Apple's CarPlay partners as members.
Why, then, are the supposedly-synergistic Apple and Tesla not cooperating in the most obvious arena?
Tesla may have landed in the Google camp, given Musk's recent revelation that he would like to see Google's Chrome browser and an Android application emulator ported to Tesla's custom in-car operating system.
Technical issues could also play a role, as embedded software vendor QNX --?thought to provide middleware for CarPlay -- doesn't have a position in Tesla's software stack. This possibility is bolstered somewhat by the fact that other high-profile marques like Fiat, which has partnered with Microsoft rather than QNX, are also absent.
Or, it could be that despite all the smoke surrounding the potential partnership, there is simply no fire.
Comments
So far Carplay looks hideous. Tesla's interface is much better. No need for Tesla to downgrade.
So far Carplay looks hideous. Tesla's interface is much better. No need for Tesla to downgrade.
That is a very broad stmt to make without any specifics. CarPlay appears to be an API to connect to iPhones. If you look at the three bigees that showed their implementations/usage of CarPlay they demonstrate how much the use can vary. Some were much more refined than others.
A couple showed very nice ways of having them coexist with their "house" system.
I don't think that matters to him. I think he simply doesn't like that it looks like iOS but bigger and simpler. He probably wants animated icons and widgets with small points that require a stylus in which to interact.
Tesla voice commands are much more basic than Siri, which is probably a good thing, because it cuts down on ambiguity.
Siri needs to get a lot better at complex tasks (or multitasking) before she is ready to assist with driver requests. In my experience she does not understand the word 'and'.
Example: Show me a map of Sam's house and send him a text that I am running late.
Siri brings up the map, but that is it. Even if I separate it into two requests, more than half the time she still doesn't know who 'him' refers to. I get so angry and frustrated sometimes trying to get her to do what I want that it is really unsuitable for use in a car in my opinion. I really need to keep calm while driving, not yelling at Siri telling her how useless she is!
So far Carplay looks hideous. Tesla's interface is much better. No need for Tesla to downgrade.
Whats Tesla?
"Tesla is not commenting on Apple's CarPlay at this time," a spokesman for the electric car producer told AppleInsider late Wednesday. That policy of radio silence is somewhat odd for the marque, which has a history of speaking candidly about its future.
Barrels of digital ink have been spilled pontificating the virtues of a hypothetical Apple-Tesla tie-up.
So instead of having barrels of digital ink spilled pontificating the virtues of a hypothetical Apple-Tesla tie-up, there will be barrels of digital ink spilled pontificating why Tesla chose to say, "Tesla is not commenting on Apple's CarPlay at this time", about the virtues of a hypothetical Apple-Tesla tie-up.
Yes, I could have stopped reading the article and chosen not to comment, but I wanted to add to the barrels of digital ink being spilled.
I don't think that matters to him. I think he simply doesn't like that it looks like iOS but bigger and simpler. He probably wants animated icons and widgets with small points that require a stylus in which to interact.
or probably is an idiot
Maybe he's Scott Forestall with a lot of virtually represented sour grapes.
Don't mean this as a pump for CarPlay. (What I've seen so far doesn't exactly blow me away), but Tesla's system is a clusterF...
It's basically 50% driving a car, and 50% screwing around with a computer (As it is, they might as well just get it over with and install a 27 inch display in there). Just way too much interfacing with a computer screen. Even to do the most simple direct task. Basically a car designed by computer geeks, rather than human interface designers.
If only Apple had bought these guys way back when. The Jonny Ive design sensibility would have brought these vehicles up to all that they really could be.
No idea where they will end up, but as it currently stands, they definitely seem to be much more into the Android aesthetic / philosophy.
So far Carplay looks hideous. Tesla's interface is much better. No need for Tesla to downgrade.
Love those glorious looking Android-like icons in Tesla's UI. Horrid.
Makes sense to me to. CarPlay looks like 1/2 of a product or very unpolished product. It makes me wonder what changed inside Apple to change it's policy to showcase it's product from outside... Steve would never do that.
And it even makes me wonder what Ferrari is thinking about having that UI on it's dashboard. I sure wouldn't like to have those big flat icons stay on my Ferrari's dash... get real.
And then there's usability. Siri and Maps are pretty much unusable outside of US. I tried to used maps sever times in Europe but just doesn't find places. Google Maps are like 10 yearh ahead here... And here's also SIRI. Useless if you are not native American speaker.
I am not exited about this. I would rather see Apple tp focus on OS X and iOS more and make it:
a) more usable (states mostly for iOS)
b) fix broken apps in OS X (Mail, Calendar, etc...)
c) polish the UI. UI in iOS7 is nice but on some places is WTF?!
and at last make the bigger screen iPhone already!
What's Tesla?
A car company.
So what base OS does Tesla use use? So far it seems that Apple has paired with companies that use QNX. What does VW Group use?
Maybe he's Scott Forestall with a lot of virtually represented sour grapes.
Tesla runs some form of Linux (http://www.techworld.com.au/article/433612/tesla_cto_talks_model_batteries_in-car_linux/).
Makes sense to me to. CarPlay looks like 1/2 of a product or very unpolished product. It makes me wonder what changed inside Apple to change it's policy to showcase it's product from outside... Steve would never do that.
And it even makes me wonder what Ferrari is thinking about having that UI on it's dashboard. I sure wouldn't like to have those big flat icons stay on my Ferrari's dash... get real.
And then there's usability. Siri and Maps are pretty much unusable outside of US. I tried to used maps sever times in Europe but just doesn't find places. Google Maps are like 10 yearh ahead here... And here's also SIRI. Useless if you are not native American speaker.
I am not exited about this. I would rather see Apple tp focus on OS X and iOS more and make it:
a) more usable (states mostly for iOS)
b) fix broken apps in OS X (Mail, Calendar, etc...)
c) polish the UI. UI in iOS7 is nice but on some places is WTF?!
and at last make the bigger screen iPhone already!
I live in europe too and i understand and speak spanish perfectly Siri in spanish sounds by far better than the US version..Spanish Siri literally wipes the floor with Google Now and other asistants, and Apple Maps well everybody in europe who uses iPhones knows you're full of crap.
Google Now it's big joke when you compare it with Siri (just like in that movie trailer Her you can have deep conversation make jokes is like talking with a real person) and Google Now es nada mas que una mierda