Do you need/want Apple CarPlay in your next vehicle?

jillciminillo

jillciminillo

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Staff member
We had a lot of discussion last night on the Livestream about Apple CarPlay and the fact that General Motors has removed it from the EVs (which could be a harbinger of things to come in gas vehicles). There are studies out there that say 30% of car buyers consider CarPlay a must-have feature. But there's a lot of people who argue that you don't need CarPlay and that the new Google Operating system works just fine with your iPhone without CarPlay. So I did a video. I, personally, don't think this is fine. Would love your feedback: 1) Do you need/want Apple CarPlay in your next vehicle, and 2) Is GM's system workable for you without CarPlay?

 
I have to be honest here. I don't know. My Ranger is before such features. The best it has is an aux port where I plug in my phone to listen to my music. (And to again be honest, I've grown quite fond of driving in silence.)

I did recently set up the phone and text feature to my wife's phone with her Renegade, so there's that.
 
Saddle Tramp said:
I have to be honest here. I don't know. My Ranger is before such features. The best it has is an aux port where I plug in my phone to listen to my music. (And to again be honest, I've grown quite fond of driving in silence.)

I did recently set up the phone and text feature to my wife's phone with her Renegade, so there's that.
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LOL. That's totally fair!! If you've never had it, you probably won't miss it. And I also like to drive in silence. Drives my husband NUTS. But one thing I've become very accustomed to is listening to my voicemails (and deleting them) as well as catching up on my text messaging while I'm driving to and from Indy -- all through Apple CarPlay. To not have that feature feels like it would add work to the rest of my life. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
Apple CarPlay is a game changer and I would skip on a car that does not have it. Being able to easily load my map, and not just apple map, but offline map that I use for hunting with no additional subscription is worth it by itself. The integration with the different music/podcast app so that I can control the tunes from the steering wheel is also very good.

Auto manufacturers should accept that apple Carplay and Android Auto are here to stay. Providing a screen for those services is what they should be focus on, not developing their own custom stuff. Pull functions out of the screen and give us hard buttons for everything else so that when the module or screen dies, it does not brick the car.
 
Sorry, I've always had Android, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Although I don't currently have AA as my truck is too old, I had it in a previous truck as well as a fleet of rentals. All vehicle tech needs some getting used to and once you do that, it's all bearable. Jill did a fantastic job explaining it and it doesn't really seem that bad. At least not as bad as everyone thought. Hell, I still must plug my phone in to the aux jack to get audio as the Bluetooth in my truck does not work well with my newer phone. I deal with it and life goes on.

Maybe GM needs to turn their whole infotainment/cameras/etc. systems over to a company like google. Maybe there wouldn't be so many complaints.
 
Also Android Auto, so I don't care about CarPlay. Other than thinking it doesn't look/work nearly as well and AA. (Significant other is an Apple person so I routinely see and interact with both.)

Without watching the video yet I have to assume these moves are being made to try and get in front of the amount of issues/complaints with the infotainment. It seems like a large part of complaints in new vehicles are really around interfacing with Carplay/AA vs the onboard systems.
 
When I bought my 24 AT4 3.0L I had an iPhone 12. A month or so ago I switched over to Android on a Samsung Galaxy 24+. Carplay disappointed me on two fronts. The first is that the map in Carplay is not full screen. The second reason is tied to cutting the cord with OnStar.

The plan was to cancel OnStar and the associated ATT data plan and use the Hotspot feature of the iPhone to provide data to the truck. This did not work as well as I'd hoped. I lost the speed sign feature, lost the ability to download offline maps to the in built navigation system, and the connection between the truck and the hotspot was hit or miss.

Andriod Auto alows me to use full screen maps in both the Android Auto screen and the inbuilt Nav screen, where Carplay only allowed full screen on the inbuilt nav. The Hotspot connectivity between the Android phone and the truck is far less finiky than it was with the iPhone. So far I haven't lost any of the features, like Google Assistant, the speed limit, or offline maps.

The Google OS in the truck seems to play better with the Android phone than it did witg the iPhone. When moving from the iPhone to the Galaxy I changed carriers from Verizon to ATT. I don't know how much of my success is due to changing the phone OS and how much is due to changing carriers.

While I'm having a much better experience with the Android phone it does bother me that GM is removing options. iOS is a good platform and I completely understand why some want to stick with it. I'm also concerned about why GM really wants to cut Carplay. If its to drive up OnStar subscriptions then it would seem the next step would be to block Android Auto as well, forcing us to use OnStar.
 
Dusdaddy said:
Sorry, I've always had Android, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Although I don't currently have AA as my truck is too old, I had it in a previous truck as well as a fleet of rentals. All vehicle tech needs some getting used to and once you do that, it's all bearable. Jill did a fantastic job explaining it and it doesn't really seem that bad. At least not as bad as everyone thought. Hell, I still must plug my phone in to the aux jack to get audio as the Bluetooth in my truck does not work well with my newer phone. I deal with it and life goes on.

Maybe GM needs to turn their whole infotainment/cameras/etc. systems over to a company like google. Maybe there wouldn't be so many complaints.
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My only thing is I want to be able to answer text messages hands free and listen to voicemails while driving. The new GM system doesn't let you do that easy if you're getting into the car with texts and messages already in play.
 
chaseydog said:
When I bought my 24 AT4 3.0L I had an iPhone 12. A month or so ago I switched over to Android on a Samsung Galaxy 24+. Carplay disappointed me on two fronts. The first is that the map in Carplay is not full screen. The second reason is tied to cutting the cord with OnStar.

The plan was to cancel OnStar and the associated ATT data plan and use the Hotspot feature of the iPhone to provide data to the truck. This did not work as well as I'd hoped. I lost the speed sign feature, lost the ability to download offline maps to the in built navigation system, and the connection between the truck and the hotspot was hit or miss.

Andriod Auto alows me to use full screen maps in both the Android Auto screen and the inbuilt Nav screen, where Carplay only allowed full screen on the inbuilt nav. The Hotspot connectivity between the Android phone and the truck is far less finiky than it was with the iPhone. So far I haven't lost any of the features, like Google Assistant, the speed limit, or offline maps.

The Google OS in the truck seems to play better with the Android phone than it did witg the iPhone. When moving from the iPhone to the Galaxy I changed carriers from Verizon to ATT. I don't know how much of my success is due to changing the phone OS and how much is due to changing carriers.

While I'm having a much better experience with the Android phone it does bother me that GM is removing options. iOS is a good platform and I completely understand why some want to stick with it. I'm also concerned about why GM really wants to cut Carplay. If its to drive up OnStar subscriptions then it would seem the next step would be to block Android Auto as well, forcing us to use OnStar.
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The automaker decides how CarPlay appears in your screen. GM purposely made I look ugly and not allow maps to fill out screens because it wants you to use its native system. I've been in plenty of cars that have full screen iOS. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
jillciminillo said:
The automaker decides how CarPlay appears in your screen. GM purposely made I look ugly and not allow maps to fill out screens because it wants you to use its native system. I've been in plenty of cars that have full screen iOS. 🤷🏻‍♀️
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My experience with CaPlay is with the GF's phone in her 2020 Expedition, it looks like shit compared to AA. (Similar to my Sierra) But I can't tell her that lol, iPhone4life booiiiiii. My AA looks the same in both vehicles, like identical in both minus the ordering of apps and how you interact with going to the infotainment (home) screen.
 
jillciminillo said:
We had a lot of discussion last night on the Livestream about Apple CarPlay and the fact that General Motors has removed it from the EVs (which could be a harbinger of things to come in gas vehicles). There are studies out there that say 30% of car buyers consider CarPlay a must-have feature. But there's a lot of people who argue that you don't need CarPlay and that the new Google Operating system works just fine with your iPhone without CarPlay. So I did a video. I, personally, don't think this is fine. Would love your feedback: 1) Do you need/want Apple CarPlay in your next vehicle, and 2) Is GM's system workable for you without CarPlay?

Click to expand...
My 2003 Silverado 2500 HD doesn’t have an infotainment display but it does have a CD player! My ‘23 GMC SIERRA 1500 of course has the nice integrated into the dashboard infotainment screen. It wasn’t a decision factor in picking the truck. When my wife and I travel we typically get out the good ole Rand McNally paper road atlas. The first time I got a call through the infotainment screen it scared the 💩 out of me. But I grew up in the time where a phone had a long curly line attached to it.
 
jillciminillo said:
My only thing is I want to be able to answer text messages hands free and listen to voicemails while driving. The new GM system doesn't let you do that easy if you're getting into the car with texts and messages already in play.
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Can't you still do that but just through the phone? It's how mine works without AA or CP. I will be listening to a book or music and google interrupts me to tell me I have a text and reads it out. Do iPhones not do that without CP?
 
Dusdaddy said:
Can't you still do that but just through the phone? It's how mine works without AA or CP. I will be listening to a book or music and google interrupts me to tell me I have a text and reads it out. Do iPhones not do that without CP?
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Not as easily. If you watched the video, you'll see what happened when I asked Siri to read my text messages. I want to be able to select which text message to read because I don't need my passengers (and the rest of YouTube) knowing about my broken toilet. :ROFLMAO:
 
I just stumbled upon all these Carplay/Android auto players on Amazon. For $50-60, I can add AA it to my old 2011 without swapping the head unit. And since it stays plugged in, I don't need to plug my phone in all the time. Kinda like the old GPS units from Garmin but a nice add for those who don't even have a screen.

Sample model
 
Dusdaddy said:
I just stumbled upon all these Carplay/Android auto players on Amazon. For $50-60, I can add AA it to my old 2011 without swapping the head unit. And since it stays plugged in, I don't need to plug my phone in all the time. Kinda like the old GPS units from Garmin but a nice add for those who don't even have a screen.

Sample model
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I've gotten some offers to review those things for review over the years. I don't have any vehicle to do it with, so I've passed.
 
Dusdaddy said:
I just stumbled upon all these Carplay/Android auto players on Amazon. For $50-60, I can add AA it to my old 2011 without swapping the head unit. And since it stays plugged in, I don't need to plug my phone in all the time. Kinda like the old GPS units from Garmin but a nice add for those who don't even have a screen.

Sample model
Click to expand...
I thought about one of these for my 2003 SILVERADO but I think I’ll keep it old school.
 
testerdahl said:
I've gotten some offers to review those things for review over the years. I don't have any vehicle to do it with, so I've passed.
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Hey! You can have Carplay in the Swede!! Lol

For $50 I'll probably try one. I know they sell them with cameras and other crap but I just want the integration with the phone so I can just leave it in my pocket around town or plugged into a charger while on a trip. If I have the ability plug in a wireless camera from the back of my trailer, bonus!
 
Dusdaddy said:
Hey! You can have Carplay in the Swede!! Lol

For $50 I'll probably try one. I know they sell them with cameras and other crap but I just want the integration with the phone so I can just leave it in my pocket around town or plugged into a charger while on a trip. If I have the ability plug in a wireless camera from the back of my trailer, bonus!
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I can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind.
 
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