During Apple’s WWDC22 keynote presentation, the company offered a “sneak peek” of the “next generation” of CarPlay, which will allow iPhone users to control and view iPhone-based apps through their car’s dashboard while going even further into the realm of the whole-car interface, controlling climate, customizing instruments, and much more.
Jeff Dunn for Ars Technica:
This takeover will allow you to do things like adjust climate controls, activate a seat heater, or tune the radio directly through CarPlay without having to leave Apple’s UI. Apple says the software will take over a car’s instrument cluster, so you can see your current speed, fuel and battery levels, RPMs, navigation details, and other common bits of information in a more unified, highly Apple-esque design.
The revamp will provide a range of themes and layouts to customize the look of a car’s instrument cluster, too. Apart from various background colors and dial treatments, for instance, one option displayed speed, gear, and fuel details on top of a street-level navigation view from Apple Maps…
Apple didn’t go too deep into the specifics of how the new functionality works during its keynote, merely saying that a connected iPhone will “communicate with your vehicle’s real-time systems in an on-device, privacy-friendly way.” The company noted that it will share more information on the revamped CarPlay “in the future” and that it will start to announce compatible vehicles in late 2023. A slide during Apple’s keynote, however, did list Ford, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche, Land Rover, Audi, Acura, Honda, Lincoln, Jaguar, Volvo, Renault, Polestar, and Infiniti as car manufacturers that plan to support this “new vision of CarPlay.”
MacDailyNews Take: Well, we’ll see how it works in practice, but we remain rather amazed that automobile makers would sign up to hand Apple so much control of the “look and feel” inside their vehicles.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
MDN’s take on this is logical enough that it tells me that the auto manufacturers will have the ability to put their own “skins” on the screens. This also implies that users might be able to select their own, and will hopefully allow for some car environment programming (e.g., “Hey Siri, snapshot” to capture a 15-second snapshot from the dash cam).
Perhaps this the clearest look at what the prime differenciator we would see with an Apple Car. I also can’t imagine any car maker would would let Apple have that significant a role in designing their cars, unless that car maker was Apple.
UI is expensive. VW just spend a few billions to get a barebone UI for its electric cars. Free CarPlay looks suddenly very interesting for car makers with subpar UI and not a ton of investment money available. With cloud settings, Apple could offer you the same experience when you drive a different car no matter the brand. However, some like Tesla won’t byte for fear of Apple using CarPlay as a Trojan horse to eventually grab profit from car makers and turn them into commodity manufacturers.
I prefer a CarPlay dash board scenario for Apple in the car businesses. The idea of making an electric Apple branded motor vehicle brings up a lot of nightmares related to autonomous driving and other things in the liability arena. Right now the big screen auto CarPlay radios are awesome but primitive. Basically your iPhone on your radio screen.
From 2023 forward the new CarPlay dashboard will be incredible.
The key data cited is that 79% of car buyers will only buy if it has CarPlay. That is some serious leverage and justification. Bose used the same type of data to work their way into the auto market many years ago.
Three issues, touched on somewhat: 1. Is Apple willing to give OEMs enough customization options to make their UIs truly unique and fit the interior design vibe of their vehicles? 2. Is Apple willing to give OEMs any user data at all? How they use their cars, where they drive? How fast, how far? How often do they perform maintenance? Etc. This issue is HUGE. Apple is notoriously tightfisted with such info. 3. Will Apple (or the OEMs) give users helpful diagnostic info which should be readily accessible through such an interface? We shouldn’t have to drive to a dealer or maintenance place to diagnose the diagnostics warnings in our cars in 2022. (And pay $$ for the privilege.)
I’m not real hopeful. Car manufacturers took forever to fully embrace CarPlay.
Also, please leave me a volume knob and HVAC knobs.
Agree. I’m not sure how it’s safer to have to touch a screen to make adjustments.
Ever looked inside a Tesla?
Yes, Telsas have horrible interiors with abysmal interfaces.
Touchscreens are a huge step backwards for drivers. All of them. Just because Apple has tried to leverage its iPhone interface everywhere it can doesn’t make it better than tactile interfaces. A real driver in a properly designed car would be able to control all important or often used functions without ever taking his eyes off the road. Some sports or racing cars have it right. Unfortunately bean counters and artists now run the auto industry, and they want to appeal to the dumbed down digital addicted idiots.
In contrast to well designed controls, ALL touchscreen software developers including Apple try to condition people to glue their eyes to the screen all day. Which is why the last two generations all walk with a permanent slouch and have an aversion to making eye contact … and they are all poor drivers.
As digital companies continue to replace human skills with rental electronics, they are clearly pushing autonomous vehicles as their next target industry to screw up. Anyone over 40 years of age with a brain will never want Apple or Google crapware in a car.
Real knobs and buttons are simply better for the basic things you have to do in a car. Adjusting volume, HVAC, windows, seat position, lights, windshield wipers, cruise control, etc., you really need buttons/knobs/dials/rocker switches, so that you can keep your eyes on the road.
That’s why you have Siri
Talking to Siri to decisively control a motor vehicle is like talking with your cat to empty the litter box. Either way it’s you that has to deal with the shit. I’ll vote for physical controls, thanks.
Is this Apple’s automotive placeholder strategy?
Have they decided their own car will skip straight to the autonomous vehicle market a few more years down the road, so to speak?
Apple CarPlay is great…until it isn’t. Then you are finishing the last half of the return trip home from Daytona without it.
Well maybe it wasn’t the phone, maybe it was the Mazda you rented….and then you make it almost all the way to Minnesota when the Ford divorces Apple.
WTF….? Many reboots (and a little therapy….) later they are back in love.
Not sure how many beers you had on your booze cruise, but your post makes little sense. User error?
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Apple Watch Series 8 features the beloved design of Apple Watch, including a large, Always-On Retina display and a strong crack-resistant…
According to court documents filed Friday, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have asked to take part in oral arguments…
Apple’s new iPhone 14 series reserves the best features for the high-end iPhoen 14 Pro and flagship iPhone 14 Pro Max which start at 1,000…
With Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, you can get a new iPhone every year. You’re buying directly from Apple, which means no more…
The first orders for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are set to arrive on Friday, September 16th, the date of the official iPhone 14 launch…
Enter your email address to follow MacDailyNews and receive notifications of new posts by email.