Eight new CarPlay experience apps spotted in iOS 17.4 beta code
As Apple continues to work with manufacturers to make CarPlay integral to cars, new apps including EV battery level, a trip counter, and more have been found in the iOS 17.4 beta.
Apple is working with Porsche to customize CarPlay (Source: Apple)
Apple originally gave a quite rare sneak peek at WWDC 2022 of its future plans for an improved CarPlay. Then in December 2023, it showed how adaptable CarPlay will be for different car makers, specifically Porsche and Aston Martin.
Now that the beta of iOS 17 has been released, most of the attention it's had has been focused on all of the App Store changes that are coming for users in the European Union. However, two developers examining the beta's source code have uncovered a total of eight entirely new CarPlay apps.
CarPlay app and alert icons found in the iOS 17.4 beta (Source: Steve Moser)
In alphabetical order, they are:
- Auto Settings -- a System Settings for the car
- Car Camera -- displaying a feed from the car's rear camera (if it has one)
- Charge -- battery level and charging status for EVs
- Climate -- A/C, heating and so on
- Closures -- notification that one or more doors are open
- Media -- radio stations and others including SiriusXM
- Tire Pressure -- including low pressure warnings
- Trips
Calling some of these apps is generous, since the driver is never going to launch the Closures app, for instance. So instead it's practically just a notification, which presumably could be just part of CarPlay instead of a separate app.
The last one, however, is potentially something a driver will use more often. The Trips app works to replace a car's usual display of fuel or battery usage, average speed, plus acting as a trip counter measuring distance travelled.
This data will still be gathered by the car's systems, but this all fits with the aim that CarPlay provides a driver with all of the car's details as well as all of its entertainment and navigation options.
The eight apps were uncovered by Steve Moser and Aaron Perris, of MacRumors.
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Comments
Adding Apple CarPlay as an option on certain manufacturer's automobiles provides a little island of semi-sanity in middle of the automakers garbage dump of infotainment confusion. However, in some cases the CarPlay functionality is fully redundant with native functionality and confusion can arise. Also, there are many aspects of the automobile's infotainment system, e.g., maintenance information and system settings, that are outside the touch of CarPlay. From the above article it seems like Apple is trying to fill some of those gaps. At the very least Apple would put everything in one UI space rather than splitting the automobile's functions and controls across hardware buttons, in-dash displays, any number of steering wheel buttons whose location and function varies between car models, even those from a single manufacturer, and then the automaker's own infotainment system. It's a mess that CarPlay current cannot cover up completely.
I'm sure there are exceptions, perhaps Tesla and the more expensive luxury brands have more cohesiveness and coherent infotainment systems and controls with much better user experiences. Until there is some common model for what information should be provided and how that information should be presented and acted upon it's going to remain a mess as long as the automakers are free to express themselves in so many terrible ways. I'd be happy if they all agreed on the location of the steering wheel, gear shifter, foot pedals, mirrors, starter actuator, gauges, etc. Nope. They couldn't even agree on those simple and fundamental things. Left to their own devices it's hard to imagine that anything will improve. They need Apple to save them us.
Interesting that performance oriented Porsche now build cars that exhibit slower acceleration than some, much cheaper, cars. Perhaps styling and overall quality will help to differentiate the brand. Apple can help with that. (Disclaimer - I'd buy the Macan in a heartbeat were I in the market.)
You know, you're listing to a mix or an audiobook, and it's 3 hours long and there's no way to slide the track position to the 2 hour mark. It's absence is utterly baffling and annoying.
Apple not having a car business of any kind apart from CarPlay means it has no chance of matching some competitors.
It's not producing any smart car sensing technologies. It's not producing any smart car silicon and it's ecosystem pales when compared to others.
I've posted this a few times before and it's now outdated (in technology terms) but it is still ahead of what Apple has yet to release.
https://m.gsmarena.com/aito_m5_harmonyos_system_quick_review-news-54285.php
That was running HarmonyOS 2. Cars like the AITO M9 are running HarmonyOS 4 and ADS 2. 0 with all the latest innovations in sensing and onboard silicon (mini data center, AR-HUD, LiDAR, cameras and projectors, LLM AI...) and all tied into the Huawei cockpit solution.
Perhaps Tesla has a similarly integrated solution but I haven't read about that.