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Pros and Cons of CarPlay?


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They’re offering to install CarPlay in my 2016 Mazda 3. It would be great for navigation, but but I worry about the audio side. I would be playing mainly lossless music stored on my iPhone through the music app, not Apple Music. 

 

1) Do I understand correctly that the phone must be plugged in physically, and that the screen on the phone no longer operates while CarPlay is active? My wife sometimes likes to “drive” the music selection from my phone while I’m driving. 

 

2) Is it as easy to navigate to music in CarPlay as it is in the Music app? The Mazda does have a touchscreen, but does it work while the car’s in motion, over 5 miles per hour?

 

3) Do all steering wheel controls (next track, volume, etc) work as before?

 

4) Is it correct that album art isn’t shown? Any other changes in how track metadata is displayed?

 

5) Does CarPlay employ Sound Check, to equalize track volume? Does is carry through any equalization applied to a track?

 

i have no interest in reading or responding to texts, etc. while I’m driving. But are any other CarPlay apps useful? 

 

Thanks! Don’t want to make a $500 mistake here. 

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I will answer what I can based on my experience with CarPlay in a Mercedes GLC 300.
 

1) I believe that some cars support CarPlay over Bluetooth, but most require the phone to be plugged in. However, you can still navigate the phone normally including choosing music.


2) The Mercedes has a scroll wheel, and you can very quickly scroll through artists and albums to get to what you want, even when the car is in motion. If you scroll quickly, it starts going through letters of the alphabet as opposed to individual albums and artists. Much easier to use than the iPod interface in my previous car.


3) The steering wheel controls work intuitively as expected.


4) The album art is displayed as an icon when scrolling through selections, and a faded, blurred version is the background when the music is playing. Track/album/artist are displayed when the music is playing.


5) I have not experimented with SoundCheck or equalization, 
 

6) CarPlay will read your texts to you out loud, and you can respond verbally. TIDAL, Spotify, and iHeart Radio are easy to navigate. The only other apps I use are Navigation, mostly Google Maps, and Apple's Podcast app.

 
Overall I am very happy with the CarPlay interface; much better than my experience with an older iPod interface, which was basically impossible to navigate while driving.

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10 hours ago, new_media said:

I will answer what I can based on my experience with CarPlay in a Mercedes GLC 300.
 

1) I believe that some cars support CarPlay over Bluetooth, but most require the phone to be plugged in. However, you can still navigate the phone normally including choosing music.


2) The Mercedes has a scroll wheel, and you can very quickly scroll through artists and albums to get to what you want, even when the car is in motion. If you scroll quickly, it starts going through letters of the alphabet as opposed to individual albums and artists. Much easier to use than the iPod interface in my previous car.


3) The steering wheel controls work intuitively as expected.


4) The album art is displayed as an icon when scrolling through selections, and a faded, blurred version is the background when the music is playing. Track/album/artist are displayed when the music is playing.


5) I have not experimented with SoundCheck or equalization, 
 

6) CarPlay will read your texts to you out loud, and you can respond verbally. TIDAL, Spotify, and iHeart Radio are easy to navigate. The only other apps I use are Navigation, mostly Google Maps, and Apple's Podcast app.

 
Overall I am very happy with the CarPlay interface; much better than my experience with an older iPod interface, which was basically impossible to navigate while driving.

Thanks new_media, that was very helpful and answered a lot of my questions. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve had CarPlay for over 3 years and I can’t imagine not having CarPlay. It’s amazing. Waze support is huge. My 2016 Honda Accord Touring was one of the first that got Carplay. 

 

I choose the Accord over the Maxima because of this feature. 

 

Your phone is fully functional with CarPlay. It’s nothing like Airplay. 

 

Album art is great on my car. 

 

Siri control 

 

it’s amazing. 

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On 11/23/2018 at 10:02 AM, cambridgehank said:

I have CarPlay in my Mercedes, it is built into the media system.  I also have a Mazda CX5 and got the same offer you did.  I am going to install it into the Mazda.  I use both CarPlay navigation with WAZE and my music from the phone.  I think you might like to read this article.  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/one-week-with-apples-carplay/3/

 

 

 

 

This article is old and doesn’t apply. You can put apps in any order you desire. It’s also super snappy a tons of apps are allowed now. 

 

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I just got my new car (Toyota Aygo) with CarPlay. It's quite a clever system. Siri sucks, as it does elsewhere, and Apple Maps is the worst maps app (at least in the UK), but being able to use Google Maps or Waze is a big plus. The music/podcast/audiobook integration is nice. And, as above, you can remove or re-order apps as you wish; you do that on the iPhone, in Settings >  General > CarPlay. 

I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville.

Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Co-host of The Next Track podcast.

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12 minutes ago, cambridgehank said:

Congratulations on your new car and I think you will love having Apple CarPlay.  toyota at least here in USA was one of the last companies to install it.  That is why I went with Mazda and Mercedes and traded in my RAV4 and Prius.  

 

Same here. They've only just started offering it, and only on the Aygo, which is their smallest car. I'd have expected it to be available on the Prius, or even the Yaris, which is the next size up from the Aygo and which is available in a hybrid version, but for some reason they waited. 

I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville.

Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Co-host of The Next Track podcast.

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21 minutes ago, kirkmc said:

 

Same here. They've only just started offering it, and only on the Aygo, which is their smallest car. I'd have expected it to be available on the Prius, or even the Yaris, which is the next size up from the Aygo and which is available in a hybrid version, but for some reason they waited. 

My Toyota salesman said that Toyota and the Japanese car companies did not like Apple's demands about software in their cars.

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CarPlay is standard with my employer's supplied VW (petrol/gas) Passat. CarPlay requires Siri to work, so the car informs, well, that was the end of using CarPlay, simple choice. For listening to music is Onkyo Hires Player for iOs since it can accept anything (DSD, FLAC), other than to PCM & Bluetooth to connect to the car's audio system.

 

Keeping your eyes on the road is far more important than pi$$ing about with apps on a phone, which if you touch and are caught in our state is AUD320 (USD250) fine + 3 demerit points. You only get 12 points and still get to drive, legally. Plans are underway to photograph drivers who operate their phones while driving, and present them with a fine in the mail, coming soon.

AS Profile Equipment List        Say NO to MQA

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15 hours ago, cambridgehank said:

My Toyota salesman said that Toyota and the Japanese car companies did not like Apple's demands about software in their cars.

 

I doubt that is the case. I was told that Toyota just likes to wait and not jump into something like that too soon. Bear in mind that their offering CarPlay also means they offer the Android equivalent on the car, and they waited on that too. I would think it's really just a question of wanting to ensure that these technologies are not going away, which would be problematic if people choose them rather than an in-car GPS. 

I write about Macs, music, and more at Kirkville.

Author of Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Co-host of The Next Track podcast.

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