The only feature I'd like is for it to NOT automatically start playing music the second I plug into the charger on the car.
I pause playback just before turning off the ignition. The next time I start the car (A4), and plug in my iPhone 7 Plus, the music remains paused. I'm assuming that if I accidentally closed out the music app, the next time I plugged it in, it might automatically start playing like you describe.
3rd party map is good idea but Instead, Apple should keep making it's map better.There is nothing to gain for Apple giving access to other Map Apps. Apple put efforts to create CarPlay and Google map rips the benefit collecting in-car data mining.
Why can't Apple continue to make their Maps app better while still allowing 3rd-party options? It would be saying that Apple should just make Apple Music better but not allow other streaming music services on the App Store. While I use Maps I know plenty of people that prefer Waze and don't think it's fair for me to say Waze shouldn't exist because I don't use it.
I here you. I am consumer like you and want 3rd party map on carplay. We all know car manufacturers kept pushing away supporting carplay and android auto for long as they can until one started and others show competitive disadvantage started supporting including mighty Toyota caved in. Reason was control of wealth of "Data" collected from in-car and use to target Ads. Apple music on android is where Apple benefits. Supporting other map App on carplay, Apple gets nothing. Google makes money not from android auto but there apps data mining and target Adv so Google will put there apps on anything.
3rd Party Maps support is a must. I drive a Chevy Bolt EV and allowing charging locations to be route planned, either in a 3rd party app or, better, to have the data integrated into Apple Maps would be huge. Also the Bolt has WifI, so why the heck can't Car Play connect using Wifi Fi. Plugging in a cable at this point in time seems, well, so last century.
The only feature I'd like is for it to NOT automatically start playing music the second I plug into the charger on the car.
This is actually a feature and one I really like. The phone is supposed to automatically play the audio you last left off on, that way you don't have to go in and start playing it manually. I think I would be really frustrated if everytime I got into the car I'd have to go in and manually select my audio again. Think about your car radio and the fact it is always on and resumes paying whenever you turn your car on.
Like someone else mentioned, to stop this, you simply pause the audio before getting out of your car. Then when you get back in, it stays paused because that is where you were last at.
All good suggestions. A teeny wish from me re interface redesign: In my Volt, the temperature is usually displayed on the screen except when Carplay is up. I'd love to see the temperature displayed in the left sidebar—so perhaps there's some way of getting that data from the car or making a customizable space for various car data.
Without support for Waze, I have to mount my phone to my dashboard and this defeats the main reason for having Apple CarPlay in the first place. Anyone who has used Waze a few times will know that there is no way you can go back to Apple Maps, Google Maps, and definitely not a car navigation system. VW group's nav is terrible! Then, as CarPlay is not wireless in almost all applications, I then have to run a cable up my dashboard into the mounted phone. C'mon guys. Get it together.
I was so close to buying the new version of my car (VW Golf GTI, only difference from my model to the new model is the addition of CarPlay and a slightly different front bumper). But then I spent some time with my friends car with CarPlay and I'm so glad I did not fork out a whole tonne of money for something so broken. Until Apple sorts this out, I'm not buying a new car. Car manufacturers need to understand the importance of wireless and Apple needs to understand the importance of third party apps.
Minor quibble, but I long for a richer interface, especially when playing music. A text-only screen with a barely recognizable, super-dim album art background is terrible.
Something similar to what you see on your iPhone, with hi-res album art. I tend to just use my phone (which has a magnetic mount to the dash) for navigating music.
I patiently await the day that a Tesla-like 17" screen is in every vehicle!
While traveling in Colombia and Chile for the past two months, i noticed that all Uber drivers use Waze to navigate to the destination. Very few locals have iPhones, which is probably due to the cost, which is 1800USD for the iPhone X 256. Cellular watch and HomePod are not yet available in either country. Apple Maps is not very good in these countries, whereas Google Maps and Waze work fine everywhere there is a signal associated with T-Mobile.
How about working out a deal with OEM radio manufacturers and auto companies to allow car owners with recent radios to trade them in for a version with CarPlay.
Another Waze-or-death user here. Every time I rent a car with AirPlay (I don't buy new cars - nothing with AirPlay yet) I end up using Waze for navigation due to the social capabilities (marking stalls/accidents/police with a few buttons). You can ding me for doing it, but it's comparable to hitting Seek on your radio 3 times to find a station. And a whole lot more useful for all involved (i.e., "Car stopped on shoulder in .5 miles" == everyone w/ Waze slows down so they know what the problem is).
Until Apple gets reporting into their maps app, I'm not using it.
Another Waze-or-death user here. Every time I rent a car with AirPlay (I don't buy new cars - nothing with AirPlay yet) I end up using Waze for navigation due to the social capabilities (marking stalls/accidents/police with a few buttons). You can ding me for doing it, but it's comparable to hitting Seek on your radio 3 times to find a station. And a whole lot more useful for all involved (i.e., "Car stopped on shoulder in .5 miles" == everyone w/ Waze slows down so they know what the problem is).
Until Apple gets reporting into their maps app, I'm not using it.
Me as well, for the past 8 years. I do wish Waze had more options for reporting events with voice commands though. Too bad Apple didn't snap up Waze before Google did.
Guess it depends where you drive. Apple Maps in my experience (mostly US East Coast) is getting much better at finding quickest route based on traffic conditions. In unknown areas, a few times I've thought "why the heck are we taking the scenic route. Oh that's why."
BTW, nice article. Good service. In the same vein, maybe another one on how to spend the windfall treasure?? Unprecedented opportunity. I'm sure Cupertino has no shortage of ideas, beyond buybacks and dividends, but I'm sure you on staff and us in the forum can come up with a few potential winners too.
Good list but it is missing my pet peeve which is the lack of route criteria selection from within CarPlay. If one wants to avoid highways [because they are being torn up and rebuilt as in the case of Orlando] or toll roads one is required to access the prefs on their iOS Maps app using their iPhone. This should be a simple option, ideally Siri enabled, from within CarPlay. Yes, the ferries or country borders avoidance options should be included because for some people they are daily considerations but likely not as common as highways and toll roads for most users.
While Waze has its usefulness I am usually frustrated by the fact that on a multilane highway it fails to mention which side of the road a car is stopped or there is debris or an accident. Am I really the only user who feels this is frustrating and seriously impacts the apps usefulness?
Weather radar as an optional overlay on Maps would be extremely useful and for many it would be useful in winter to see the road temperature of a bridge or overpass as they freeze before the roadway. Volvos display a snowflake when the temperature approaches freezing to warn the driver that the road might be icy.
I have not found the integration of CarPlay to be very good in my '17 A4 or '18 XC60 in terms of getting information displayed in the instrument cluster or HUD. The Volvo XC60 has a fabulous screen and interface but the navigation in CarPlay is a fraction of the screen because Volvo wants to have space, I assume, for all the other options. I have called and asked if it isn't possible to toggle CarPlay full screen as it is with Volvo's built-in navigation map. It is frustrating as a consumer to pay for CarPlay and HUD and then have no use of one in the other.
All good suggestions. A teeny wish from me re interface redesign: In my Volt, the temperature is usually displayed on the screen except when Carplay is up. I'd love to see the temperature displayed in the left sidebar—so perhaps there's some way of getting that data from the car or making a customizable space for various car data.
Agreed! This goes with my weather request. They have no weather information displayed at all and there is definitely something they could do. Whether it is full apps, or just including weather in Maps or in the sidebar.
I wrote about this a few months back http://www.cocoaelephant.com/blog/?p=929 on my blog. I liked some of these ideas. My weather idea was to overlay a precipitation map over Apple Maps so you can make real time travel decisions (like peeling off for lunch while a storm blows through).
Another idea is to create an API so that CarPlay information can be displayed through heads up displays that come with luxury cars.
How can you mention a wish list for music controls BUT NOT MENTION BEING ABLE TO SCRUB THROUGH SONGS ON SCREEN?! Am I the only one who wants this??
Edit: Being able to see what Beats 1 show is currently playing on screen would also be welcome.
I guess the BIGGER request is more gesture support. It seems many screens don't support gestures at all. So touches are A-OK, but sliding, pinching, etc is often pretty limited. I'm sure if they figured that out, then we'd see scrubbing support come to the audio tracks.
Another Volt driver here, and I second the temperature and electric car charging requests... With Apple Maps only able to stream data (no pre-downloaded large areas), and with music streaming, LTE strength and temperature can both be critical datapoints - and there is no way to get both on screen at once (Chevy's own interface will show temperature, but not signal, and CarPlay is the opposite).
Chargepoint (largest network of electric car chargers) on iOS actually uses Apple Maps to navigate to chargers, but there is no way to get the chargers to show up in CarPlay.
Another addition that would be useful is the ability to play AUDIO ONLY from YouTube and other sources. A lot of institutions (including Harvard) post lectures on YouTube, and you don't need the video of the professor waving her or his hands to get the point. The same is true of music posted to YouTube - the video is often not the point. I'm guessing 20% of YouTube is really audio presentations (like people say about the news on PBS - the best radio on television) ... Whether or not they enable video in some edge cases (in park, screens in the back seats of vans, etc.), the audio would be useful. I was trying to play a lecture from a course I'm auditing, and, as soon as I plugged the phone in (even with the lecture already running), CarPlay silenced the audio and switched to my music library. It should play ANY RANDOM AUDIO STREAM, even if it can't control it. I finally had to go into the car's settings (I was parked), and switch off CarPlay, and then it handled the audio over USB just fine (since the video played on the phone screen, I turned the phone face down).
Better WiFi connectivity would definitely be nice, especially since Apple has embraced wireless charging and more auto makers are including charging pads. What’s the point if you have to plug it in?
i continue to have intermittent connectivity problems with CarPlay in my A4. Most of the time it works perfectly, but not infrequently I’ll plug my phone in and the CarPlay screen will come up, but audio plays over the iPhone speaker rather than the car speaker. Apple blames Audi and Audi blames Apple and I’m just annoyed
I have a Chevy and a KIA and both support CarPlay. Interestingly the KIA has worked flawlessly from day 1. The Chevy was so spotty we had to turn of the functionality. After taking the Chevy to the dealership for another entertainment system problem the dealership ran a software update to fix that issue and the software update also had a CarPlay update. After the update by Chevy CarPlay works great now. The issue you are having is one I have never experienced in either of my vehicles. In my opinion it is most definitely an Audi issue.
The one feature that I would like to see is a split screen function. Similar to the concept where you use your iPhone as a second screen as described in the article, I would like CarPlay to provide a dual information screen where I can see the navigation map while also seeing information about the current song playing even the radio. My KIA has this where you can see a small version of the navigation map while also seeing the current song/radio station. I have always felt that the now playing screen on CarPlay is so plain and could easily display additional information or other helpful information.
Comments
Like someone else mentioned, to stop this, you simply pause the audio before getting out of your car. Then when you get back in, it stays paused because that is where you were last at.
Then, as CarPlay is not wireless in almost all applications, I then have to run a cable up my dashboard into the mounted phone. C'mon guys. Get it together.
I was so close to buying the new version of my car (VW Golf GTI, only difference from my model to the new model is the addition of CarPlay and a slightly different front bumper). But then I spent some time with my friends car with CarPlay and I'm so glad I did not fork out a whole tonne of money for something so broken. Until Apple sorts this out, I'm not buying a new car. Car manufacturers need to understand the importance of wireless and Apple needs to understand the importance of third party apps.
Something similar to what you see on your iPhone, with hi-res album art. I tend to just use my phone (which has a magnetic mount to the dash) for navigating music.
I patiently await the day that a Tesla-like 17" screen is in every vehicle!
Until Apple gets reporting into their maps app, I'm not using it.
Edit: Being able to see what Beats 1 show is currently playing on screen would also be welcome.
While Waze has its usefulness I am usually frustrated by the fact that on a multilane highway it fails to mention which side of the road a car is stopped or there is debris or an accident. Am I really the only user who feels this is frustrating and seriously impacts the apps usefulness?
Weather radar as an optional overlay on Maps would be extremely useful and for many it would be useful in winter to see the road temperature of a bridge or overpass as they freeze before the roadway. Volvos display a snowflake when the temperature approaches freezing to warn the driver that the road might be icy.
I have not found the integration of CarPlay to be very good in my '17 A4 or '18 XC60 in terms of getting information displayed in the instrument cluster or HUD. The Volvo XC60 has a fabulous screen and interface but the navigation in CarPlay is a fraction of the screen because Volvo wants to have space, I assume, for all the other options. I have called and asked if it isn't possible to toggle CarPlay full screen as it is with Volvo's built-in navigation map. It is frustrating as a consumer to pay for CarPlay and HUD and then have no use of one in the other.
Another idea is to create an API so that CarPlay information can be displayed through heads up displays that come with luxury cars.
Chargepoint (largest network of electric car chargers) on iOS actually uses Apple Maps to navigate to chargers, but there is no way to get the chargers to show up in CarPlay.
Another addition that would be useful is the ability to play AUDIO ONLY from YouTube and other sources. A lot of institutions (including Harvard) post lectures on YouTube, and you don't need the video of the professor waving her or his hands to get the point. The same is true of music posted to YouTube - the video is often not the point. I'm guessing 20% of YouTube is really audio presentations (like people say about the news on PBS - the best radio on television) ...
Whether or not they enable video in some edge cases (in park, screens in the back seats of vans, etc.), the audio would be useful. I was trying to play a lecture from a course I'm auditing, and, as soon as I plugged the phone in (even with the lecture already running), CarPlay silenced the audio and switched to my music library. It should play ANY RANDOM AUDIO STREAM, even if it can't control it. I finally had to go into the car's settings (I was parked), and switch off CarPlay, and then it handled the audio over USB just fine (since the video played on the phone screen, I turned the phone face down).
The one feature that I would like to see is a split screen function. Similar to the concept where you use your iPhone as a second screen as described in the article, I would like CarPlay to provide a dual information screen where I can see the navigation map while also seeing information about the current song playing even the radio. My KIA has this where you can see a small version of the navigation map while also seeing the current song/radio station. I have always felt that the now playing screen on CarPlay is so plain and could easily display additional information or other helpful information.