A trio of carmakers have unveiled new vehicles with CarPlay and Android Auto support at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month, including the 2017 Honda Ridgeline, 2017 Kia Forte5 and 2017 Lincoln Continental. All three models will be available in the first half of 2016.
The 2017 Ridgeline will mark Honda's return to the North American pickup truck market, which it exited after discontinuing the mid-size sport utility truck in 2014. Meanwhile, the 2017 Forte5 and 2017 Continental will be among Kia's and Lincoln's first CarPlay models in their vehicle lineups.
Honda's 2016 Accord and 2016 Civic also feature CarPlay and Android Auto, while Kia has indicated later availability in the 2016 Optima.
Lincoln is a luxury vehicle brand under Ford, which earlier this month announced it is adding CarPlay and Android Auto to all 2017 vehicles in North America equipped with its SYNC 3 platform. CarPlay and Android Auto will also be available in 2016 Ford vehicles with SYNC 3 as an upgrade later this year.
CarPlay has finally experienced widespread adoption in 2016, nearly three years after being introduced as "iOS in the Car" at WWDC 2013. Toyota is one of the only major vehicle brands without a future commitment to CarPlay, although the Japanese carmaker remains listed as a CarPlay partner on Apple's website.
The trio of new vehicles have yet to be added to Apple's new CarPlay available models list published on its website last week.
Top Rated Comments
Widespread means it's pervasive and more common than not. But that isn't the case yet. Carplay is making tremendous strides at adoption, and is increasingly common on current models, but lets not delude ourselves into thinking it's widespread yet.
rootfs1upd/jci/gui/apps/system/js/systemApp.js: { appData : { appName : 'carplay', isVisible : false, mmuiEvent : 'SelectCarPlay' }, text1Id : 'CarPlay', disabled : true, itemStyle : 'style01', hasCaret : false },
There is even a directory of CarPlay resources:
rootfs1upd/rootfs/jci/gui/resources/js/carplay
Just get it together please.
And yes, people still need a method to drive. No one 'needs' these extra features. Heck, all I care about is A/C, power steering, power locks, and power windows.
All these seat warmers, motorized seats with memory, TPMS, etc is just more annoyance and drives the cost of the car up. I miss the cars of pre-2000 that didn't have a lot of that crap.
Sure having these features adds safety and comfort, but it isn't selling point of the car itself. If someone wants a Honda Accord they will buy it.
Things that do push a car sale are structural safety, price, performance, mpg, and/or reliability.
Doesn't mean it's more common than not (i.e. a majority), it simply means it's available over a wide range of areas/models. I would argue that this is the case. Especially considering how carplay was announced over 2 years ago and little bits have been trickling out ever since. We've finally started seeing a wide adoption.
A remark. CarPlay over WiFi (whenever that becomes fielded) has a peculiar behavior. Why?
On many autos today (including my Audi), there is a Car Area Network (CAN) using WiFi which provides an iNET connection with an (optional) data-only SIM. I expect all cars to have such a CAN.
CarPlay/WiFi has two planes: data and control. Here is my take on their behavior:
DATA PLANE:
If video/music source streams from the iNET (and not from the iDevice, which is playing as an iPod) the stream has to do a u-turn over WiFi, as follows: iNET -> CAN AP -> iDevice -> CAN AP -> car speakers
CONTROL PLANE:
All control remains on the iDevice under CarPlay, so: iDevice <-> CAN AP <-> car UI
Just a remark. I wonder how well that is going to work.