Anyone using Apple Car Play?
Discussion
Have I missed the point of this?
As far as I can work out I plug my phone in through a rather inconvenient cable, sometimes it chooses to connect and sometimes it doesn't. When it does eventually connect the screen lights up with limited apps and I can't use any of my cars systems.
It's like the in car thing turns off and then my phone basically shares a version of it's screen on the car and uses it's speakers and controls.
Now I've said it seems a bit pathetic of me and I should just man up.
I just can't help but think it doesn't really do what I thought it would.
As far as I can work out I plug my phone in through a rather inconvenient cable, sometimes it chooses to connect and sometimes it doesn't. When it does eventually connect the screen lights up with limited apps and I can't use any of my cars systems.
It's like the in car thing turns off and then my phone basically shares a version of it's screen on the car and uses it's speakers and controls.
Now I've said it seems a bit pathetic of me and I should just man up.
I just can't help but think it doesn't really do what I thought it would.
Firstly, not entirely sure what you thought it would do.
I use it for the following:
Sat Nav - the Apple Maps system is far better than the in-car navigation IME
Spotify and TuneIn - nice to be able to use these without resorting to stopping and controlling from the phone screen
Messages - Siri isn't great, but in the odd event that I need to send a text message I can do so without stopping
The downsides for me are that you need to plug your phone in (although I have bought a 30cm cable), and that phone use through the steering wheel controls is disabled.
I use it for the following:
Sat Nav - the Apple Maps system is far better than the in-car navigation IME
Spotify and TuneIn - nice to be able to use these without resorting to stopping and controlling from the phone screen
Messages - Siri isn't great, but in the odd event that I need to send a text message I can do so without stopping
The downsides for me are that you need to plug your phone in (although I have bought a 30cm cable), and that phone use through the steering wheel controls is disabled.
Certainly the cars I have handed over with Car Play functionality seem to offer an improved range of features. Admittedly Google Maps if installed doesn't improve on most of the Tom-Tom based systems usually in place, but music access and telephony seem improved. All customers so far seem deeply pleased with it.
Simonium said:
Certainly the cars I have handed over with Car Play functionality seem to offer an improved range of features. Admittedly Google Maps if installed doesn't improve on most of the Tom-Tom based systems usually in place, but music access and telephony seem improved. All customers so far seem deeply pleased with it.
Just to point out, although it is possible to get Google Maps working, it's not an official feature of CarPlay. It' requires a jailbroken phone and additional software.andrewparker said:
Simonium said:
Certainly the cars I have handed over with Car Play functionality seem to offer an improved range of features. Admittedly Google Maps if installed doesn't improve on most of the Tom-Tom based systems usually in place, but music access and telephony seem improved. All customers so far seem deeply pleased with it.
Just to point out, although it is possible to get Google Maps working, it's not an official feature of CarPlay. It' requires a jailbroken phone and additional software.Doubtless some hacker is working on how to enable full phone functionality.
Simonium said:
andrewparker said:
Just to point out, although it is possible to get Google Maps working, it's not an official feature of CarPlay. It' requires a jailbroken phone and additional software.
Well my iPhone 6 isn't jailbroken and works with Google Maps on both Peugeot and Kia systems. babatunde said:
andrewparker said:
Simonium said:
Certainly the cars I have handed over with Car Play functionality seem to offer an improved range of features. Admittedly Google Maps if installed doesn't improve on most of the Tom-Tom based systems usually in place, but music access and telephony seem improved. All customers so far seem deeply pleased with it.
Just to point out, although it is possible to get Google Maps working, it's not an official feature of CarPlay. It' requires a jailbroken phone and additional software.Doubtless some hacker is working on how to enable full phone functionality.
Tried it in a new E-Class recently and was instantly turned off by it. Ended up with a screen full of noddy Apple icons which seemed like a major retrograde step compared to all the finely crafted and displayed Merc nav and phone features. Similar in an XC90 too, seemed to lose functionality compared to the in-car systems. No plans to give it a try in anything else any time soon.
Gives me Nav with traffic alerts, reads out SMS and can make phone calls, and can play all my music.
It's all I needed.
My phone is always plugged into the car anyway to charge / play music etc. The 'live' Nav, phone calls & SMS makes it better.
The newer units also do all this via WiFi, and with wireless charging it'll be even easier.
It's just a shame that Siri is so s
t.
It's all I needed.
My phone is always plugged into the car anyway to charge / play music etc. The 'live' Nav, phone calls & SMS makes it better.
The newer units also do all this via WiFi, and with wireless charging it'll be even easier.
It's just a shame that Siri is so s
t.I find Apple maps worse than useless once you get away from civilisation & a 3g signal.
The music functionality is no better or worse than the car's Bluetooth & Siri never seems to work properly although that's likely to be user error.
It's handy in a hire car though as you can just jump in & go without having to learn your way around unfamiliar controls & menus.
The music functionality is no better or worse than the car's Bluetooth & Siri never seems to work properly although that's likely to be user error.
It's handy in a hire car though as you can just jump in & go without having to learn your way around unfamiliar controls & menus.
It is a case of just pressing a button, but it turns the music off.
In my humble opinion the standard in car system is really well thought out, which is easy to "adjust" on the move, with a lovely clear screen and icons that are clear and simple to understand. If I want to listen to music whilst being presented with a map and directions no problem, if I want to receive a call, no problem everything works.
Maybe I am just being stupid and haven't worked out car play properly yet but it doesn't seem to be as easy.
I think I was expecting to be able to use spotify and the in car navigation at the same time, the in car navigation is much better than apple maps. Possibly even stream now tv/a movie from the apple store (when not driving) to the car screen and speakers.
Someone hit the nail on the head earlier with it's probably great in rental cars or cars you need to retrofit something to. I should just get back in my box, the salesman told me I had it, being a bloke I didn't ask what does it actually do, made up something in my head, didn't read the instructions and then felt a little short changed it didn't do what I had just completely made up.
In my humble opinion the standard in car system is really well thought out, which is easy to "adjust" on the move, with a lovely clear screen and icons that are clear and simple to understand. If I want to listen to music whilst being presented with a map and directions no problem, if I want to receive a call, no problem everything works.
Maybe I am just being stupid and haven't worked out car play properly yet but it doesn't seem to be as easy.
I think I was expecting to be able to use spotify and the in car navigation at the same time, the in car navigation is much better than apple maps. Possibly even stream now tv/a movie from the apple store (when not driving) to the car screen and speakers.
Someone hit the nail on the head earlier with it's probably great in rental cars or cars you need to retrofit something to. I should just get back in my box, the salesman told me I had it, being a bloke I didn't ask what does it actually do, made up something in my head, didn't read the instructions and then felt a little short changed it didn't do what I had just completely made up.
I've got it on 2x of my cars - albeit on an aftermarket headunit (Pioneer SPH-DA-120). I installed the first one literally the same week the head unit came out in the OK. Early days versions were very very flakey - but now, it's really good. Very important to have your phone on the latest OS version - older versions were incredibly buggy. Overall, I think it's very good - so much so I've also now put it in a 2nd car as well.
Yes, you are limited to apple maps - but I still find it better than most in car nav, even if not as good as google or waze.
I've also turned off apple music and only use spotify (the benefit of turning off apple music is that all the icons then fit on 1 screen)
Siri integration is decent for voice activated calling & maps.
Yes, you are limited to apple maps - but I still find it better than most in car nav, even if not as good as google or waze.
I've also turned off apple music and only use spotify (the benefit of turning off apple music is that all the icons then fit on 1 screen)
Siri integration is decent for voice activated calling & maps.
Moonpie21 said:
I think I was expecting to be able to use spotify and the in car navigation at the same time, the in car navigation is much better than apple maps. Possibly even stream now tv/a movie from the apple store (when not driving) to the car screen and speakers.
Not sure why you can't. Certainly in a Golf you just go into CarPlay, do whatever you need to do, then switch back into the cars system. If I'm playing music through Spotify on CarPlay I can go back into the cars own nav system.I've never got it, despite being a bit of an Apple fan.
I get in the car, my phone connects via bluetooth and plays music. If I want to listen to the radio, then I just press the SRC button until FM comes on. I'll use whichever sat nav I want, usually waze on my phone. The voice instructions overlay the music. It just works, no need to jail break anything. It seems to work in pretty much any car with a bluetooth connection, which is most of them these days.
I get in the car, my phone connects via bluetooth and plays music. If I want to listen to the radio, then I just press the SRC button until FM comes on. I'll use whichever sat nav I want, usually waze on my phone. The voice instructions overlay the music. It just works, no need to jail break anything. It seems to work in pretty much any car with a bluetooth connection, which is most of them these days.
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