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After 100 Days with Apple CarPlay, here's 4 things you need to know

By Kenny Yeo - on 22 Sep 2015, 10:35am

100 days with Apple CarPlay

This is the Home screen of Apple CarPlay. Looks familiar?

Apple CarPlay represents the tech giant’s first foray into the automotive world, and according to Apple at least, it’s the safer and smarter way to use iPhones in the car. We recently spent 100 days with it and these are the 4 things you must know about Apple CarPlay. But first, how can you get CarPlay in your car?

Note: My experience with CarPlay was with iOS 8.3, and up to iOS 8.4.1 - the last publicly released version of iOS prior to iOS 9 - and using Pioneer's new AVH-X8750BT in-car multimedia receiver.

 

How do I get CarPlay in my car?

To begin, CarPlay can best be described as an OS for running iOS apps on your car’s infotainment system. It’s built into iOS itself, so as long as you have a compatible iPhone and a compatible in-car receiver, you can enable CarPlay in your vehicle. You need at least an iPhone 5 and also the latest version of iOS. CarPlay functionality for Singapore was implemented only after iOS 8.3, so make sure to upgrade your iPhone.

Given Apple's close ties with Ferrari, is it a surprise that the FF was the first car to officially support CarPlay? (Image source: Ferrari)

Next, there are two ways to get CarPlay. If you are shopping for a new car, make sure it is a model from one of the auto manufacturers that have committed to support CarPlay. To date, these include most major manufactures such as Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Kia, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and even Ferrari. In fact, the first car to official support CarPlay straight out from the factory was Ferrari’s fire-breathing family car, the FF. Depending on the model, these manufacturers would provide the option to equip the car with an infotainment system that will support CarPlay.

The Pioneer AVH-X8750BT was the one of the first in-car multimedia receivers to support Apple CarPlay.

For readers who already have their own car, you can get CarPlay by investing in an aftermarket in-car multimedia receiver. In our case, we were using Pioneer’s new flagship in-car multimedia receiver, the AVH-X8750BT, which was launched earlier this year at the Bangkok Motor Show.

These in-car multimedia receivers are a worthwhile investment, especially if you only have a basic one in your car right now as they offer a lot more functionality besides just CarPlay. These receivers can often play multiple file formats and file types including high resolution audio and even videos. If you are considering installing displays for passengers in the rear seats, or even parking cameras, these high-end receivers can help help you do that too.

 

1. Siri is at the heart of everything

Get used to this screen. It comes on whenever you activate Siri, and trust me, you'll be using Siri a lot, especially if you want to send messages.

Even though the main menu that greets you when you launch CarPlay in your car is highly similar to that of iOS on your iPhone and iPad, an important thing to note is that Siri is at the heart of everything and some functions can only be enabled or executed using Siri. If you hate using Siri or voice recognition software in general, tough luck, because this is Apple’s main idea of making your iPhone safer to use in the car. By using Siri, there’s no need look at the screen or fiddle with buttons and switches.

A good example CarPlay’s reliance on Siri is the Messages app. On first glance, it looks like the Message app on your phone, but you will soon realize that you can neither read or type out messages, instead Siri reads your messages out loud to you, and if you want to reply or send a new message, you will have to rely on Siri to do that as well. If you want to use Apple Music to look up music that is not on your iPhone, you have to use Siri too as the Music app doesn’t seem to have been optimized for Apple Music.

Siri can be frustrating to use. But when it works, it’s feels like magic. Like the time I asked Siri to play me ShiGGa Shay’s new hit Lion City Kia and Siri actually got it. But when Siri doesn’t understand me and doesn’t work the way I expect it to, it makes me want to tear my hair out.

Fortunately, I can input numbers manually when I want to make calls. Or simply select from my contacts list.

Fortunately, some other functions can be used without Siri. For instance, you can input destinations into the Maps app manually. You can also input phone numbers manually when you are trying to make a call. Siri can help you do this too but I much prefer to do it myself.

Finally, and perhaps most crucially for me, you can select artists and tracks from your playlist to play without needing to rely on Siri. Because CarPlay only works in English for Singapore,Siri won’t be able to recognize commands asking it to play music from foreign artists. A workaround to this is to try renaming artists to English, for example fans of 周杰伦 can rename the tracks in their iTunes to his English name - Jay Chou. 

 

2. There are few third-party apps on CarPlay

There are few apps outside of the native Apple maps to use in CarPlay.

A crucial thing thing to note is that not all apps are on CarPlay. For now, there’s only native Apple apps like Maps, Messages, Phone and Music, and a handful of third-party apps like Spotify, Amazon Audible, CBS Radio News, Umano and so on. You can see the list here. The reason is because these apps must be optimized for CarPlay to ensure safe operation. The interface needs to be clear and easy to navigate and it also needs close integration with Siri.

This can be a real bummer if you have been relying on specific apps prior to CarPlay for getting around. My go to navigation app has always been Waze because I find that it provides the most up-to-date traffic information, and also because traffic information on Apple’s Maps app is still not available in Singapore. Waze has not been optimized for CarPlay, and considering that it has been acquired by Google, it probably never will.


3. Soundproofing is recommended and so are steering wheel control buttons

Remote control buttons on the steering wheel will go a long way in enhancing your CarPlay experience.

Because Siri is so central to CarPlay, it’s best that you have a quiet cabin so that Siri can pick up on your voice commands more clearly. In fact, most installers would recommend soundproofing so that Siri works better. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment as soundproofing would also mean a quieter cabin for you to enjoy your music - lesser road noise, tire noise and wind noise. The only tradeoff is the additional weight, which can work out to be quite a lot as soundproofing material is quite dense and heavy. Since I didn’t want the extra weight and my car is quite noisy to begin with, I found Siri to be extremely unreliable whenever my car is moving.

To also get the best out of CarPlay it is highly recommended that you have steering wheel control buttons which can be mapped to enable Siri. This would make using Siri and CarPlay much more convenient. Otherwise you’ll end up like me, constantly having to reach out to tap and hold on the “Home” button on the receiver’s touchscreen display to activate Siri. You could of course utter “Hey Siri” to activate Siri verbally, but I found this to an undependable way to get Siri to work. It would often reply and tell me that it didn’t catch what I said or that it couldn’t understand me. I have yet to test this on the new iOS 9.

But beyond just being a convenient way to call upon Siri, steering wheel control buttons will also let you quickly skips tracks and adjust the volume without having to take your hands off the steering wheel.


4. CarPlay is an Apple product unlike any other

Apple is relying on these partners to bring CarPlay into the cars of iPhone customers.

Finally, CarPlay is an Apple product that it unlike any other. Allow me to explain. Apple’s secrecy is renown, but so is the company’s attention to detail and desire to control every aspect of manufacturing and user experience. For CarPlay, Apple realized that it is venturing into uncharted waters and is relying on third-party brands to bring CarPlay into the cars of iPhone owners, and for automakers to provide CarPlay-ready cars for existing iPhone customers.

And even though Apple has strict guidelines for its partners to follow, what this means is that the CarPlay experience will inevitable vary. Let’s not forget that every car is different from the other especially in terms of acoustics such as engine noise, road noise, tire noise and so forth. As a result, CarPlay is unlike say an iPhone or Mac, where Apple has a great deal of control and say over the final user experience. Furthermore, voice recognition is already a pretty iffy thing because not everyone pronounces words in the same way. And with Siri being an integral component of CarPlay, this will create even greater variances in how one experiences CarPlay. In the real world, what this all means is while Tom may find CarPlay to be a gift from the Apple gods; Harry, on the other hand, could find CarPlay to be endlessly frustrating to use.

Personally, I found Siri to be quite unreliable and I wish I had more manual control over CarPlay. However, that’s not really Siri’s fault because it is my car that is noisy, which prevents CarPlay from clearing picking up my commands. I’m sure some other readers might encounter the same problems too especially if you are a driving a sporty or modified car.

Additionally, it was also a hassle for me to activate Siri because “Hey Siri” didn’t work well for me and I didn’t have controls on my steering wheel, hence I needed to reach out and tab and hold the Home button on the display every time I needed to convey commands to Siri. For someone else who has steering wheel control buttons, this wouldn’t be a problem at all.


Closing Thoughts

When Siri works, it feels like magic.

Unlike Apple’s other products, CarPlay feels quite unpolished and, dare I say it, a work in progress. The interface is certainly not perfect. I imagine that many users would be using the Music and Maps apps most of the time, and I’m surprised to see how haphazardly Apple Music has been integrated into the Music app. Without Siri, there’s no way for users to search for artists and tracks. And bearing in mind that Siri only works in a single language, how am I going to play my favorite K-Pop or J-Pop songs?

The Maps apps work quite well but I really wish Apple would include traffic information for our part of the world. Right now, Maps in CarPlay only offers traffic information in 26 countries including the U.S., France, China, Belgium and Brazil - Singapore is not one of them.

Still, despite all its foibles, CarPlay is still a good way to use your iPhone on your car. The interface could use some work, but it looks great and you can access most functions quite easily. And when Siri works properly, it feels like pure magic. Just make sure you take note of my points above and remember, opt for soundproofing.

Kenny Yeo

Kenny Yeo / Associate Editor

Specifications are not everything. It's what you do with what you have that matters.

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