What is your personal experience with Apple CarPlay?

gcantrell

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If you have an Apple CarPlay compatible vehicle, what is your experience with it? Do you like it? Dislike it? Find it meh? Does it make using your iPhone while driving easier and/or safe?

I have been using CarPlay in my 2015 Toyota Corolla via a Kenwood DDX-9902S since December of 2015 and while i certainly can't speak for all i will say for me personally this has been a life changer. When i had it installed at a local shop, i specifically asked the installer to route the cables through the glovebox for the reason of me putting my phone in it and locking it up. This requires me to rely solely on the head unit. Prior to having CarPlay i had a big problem looking at my phone while in the car. Lots of people do, not all will admit it. I thought that it wouldn't be a problem until i got a ticket. $200 later and i was ready to make a change.

Yes CarPlay has some quirks and i think many of these are 3rd party app issues. I have yet to see any issues on stock apps, so far so good. I like the fact that now i can simply text my mom or wife whenever i need to or reply with my voice when they are reaching out to me while driving. I like the fact that i can ask Siri to play a particular playlist or even a specific song even if said song isn't in library. Apple Maps isn't my favorite but it functions as it should.

I won't preach to anyone to run out and buy it, but i will say if you are on the fence do what i did and go into a store and plug your phone in to one of these units and see how it works with things you would want to do on your phone. Experience it first hand and then you can make the best decision for you. I think it's excellent.
 

Tae12

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The Alpine H/U also offers support for parking assist (CAN bus integration and climate control/parking sensor radar display on the unit), which I like. I had this before and this was the reason I went for the Alpine over the AppRadio4. I may hook a camera up, but the radar sensor display is great.

Hi, I bought Apline H/U. I wonder how I can use support for parking assistance(CAN bus integration, climate control.. as such.)
Do I need to install something to use this support? My car is BMW e46 year- 2001.
 

muchmaligned

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Hi, I bought Apline H/U. I wonder how I can use support for parking assistance(CAN bus integration, climate control.. as such.)
Do I need to install something to use this support? My car is BMW e46 year- 2001.

Yes there's an adapter to interface to your CAN bus. I used APF-X100VW in my VW California.

I think you need the APX-X100BM version. UK link is here;

http://www.alpine-europe.com/index.php?id=1339&L=2&href=interfaces5030/apf-x100bm&level_num=product


There's also several BMW platform kits for installation (if you've not done that already) depending on whether you have manual/auto a/c etc KIT-7BM1A, KIT-7BM1M and KIT-7BM3A
 

Highrisedrifter

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Hopefully picking up a 2017 Honda Civic with Apple Carplay this coming week. I had a demo in a Jetta the other day whilst I was looking and it was really intuitive and easy to use, so i'm quite looking forward to getting the Civic. I'll post my thought as and when I get it but i'm super excited!
 

Avilocke

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If you have an Apple CarPlay compatible vehicle, what is your experience with it? Do you like it? Dislike it? Find it meh? Does it make using your iPhone while driving easier and/or safe?

Just finished updating my 2015 Hyundai Sonata and I'm very disappointed to find out that enabling CarPlay makes Hyundai Bluetooth connectivity stop working and CarPlay only works while plugged in. I thought my iPhone 6s Plus could use CarPlay wirelessly. I definitely prefer CarPlay to Hyundai's stock infotainment OS, but I do not like having to plug my phone in. First world
Problems. LOL
 

Highrisedrifter

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Hopefully picking up a 2017 Honda Civic with Apple Carplay this coming week. I had a demo in a Jetta the other day whilst I was looking and it was really intuitive and easy to use, so i'm quite looking forward to getting the Civic. I'll post my thought as and when I get it but i'm super excited!

So I've had my Civic for about six weeks now and it just turned 1000 miles. I have to say that I use Carplay daily whenever I am in the car. I connect my iPhone 6 up to one of the USB sockets, sit it in the central well, just in front of the gear stick, and Carplay pops up pretty quickly.

Apple Maps is nicely integrated and is incredibly accurate when it comes to predicting 'time to destination', even through the hellish Los Angeles traffic on the 5, 134 and 101. Route guidance is super easy to turn on and off and my car (well my iphone) has learnt my journeys and times, so it can usually accurately predict where i'm likely to want to go at certain times and on certain days. Guidance is also pretty good at offering me alternative routes should traffic build up badly. Also, i've noticed Maps offering me a different route in the event of an accident, which is pretty cool. The screen is nicely laid out and the touch screen pretty accurate too.

The messages app obviously reads messages out rather than display them on the screen and I love the way Carplay reads out what it thinks the emoji means (smiling pile of poo, for instance). Clicking the button on my steering wheel offers me Siri control of my device and there's nothing that I have noticed over and above what the phone would normally do with Siri, except for searching the internet, which it won't do obviouly.

The Music app always defaults to Radio whenever I connect my phone, regardless of what setting it was last on, which is a real pain as I have about 40gig of music on my phone and I would rather it default to the last setting I had, which is usually to sort by Artist. Other than that, the Music app is OK but changing tracks is slow. Far slower than using my 128Gb USB stick I have plugged into the other USB socket hidden in the centre console. The delay is so annoying that I usually just use the USB stick to play music, rather than my device.

I have a Pandora account and it has a Pandora App installed. I sometimes use that too and it seems to be far quicker than using my iPhone to play music too.

Phonecalls are also as easy as pressing the Siri button on my steering wheel and saying "Call <person's name>." It has no issues with connecting the calls and the stereo system in my car (which is upgraded from the base model) makes communication clear for both parties on the call.

I haven't really used any of the other apps installed in the car at all, so can't really comment on those.

I wish there was a way to integrate other third party apps, without the 'specially selected' few that Apple has allowed. I would add Waze and possibly Skype (voice calls only, of course) if I could.

Overall, I love Carplay and I am glad that I got a car with it although honestly, I wasn't really in the market for a car that didn't have it. With the advent of the new iPhone 7 being rumoured not to have a headphone jack, I wanted to get as much car integration as I could, although I am strongly considering not upgrading my 6 at all until next year as I reckon the tenth anniversary iphone will be more of a radical design, and i'm happy with my iPhone 6 anyway.
 

Ron7624

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I just bought a new Chevy pickup, and it came with CarPlay. I've only had it 2 weeks, but so far I love it. I'm vacationing in California right now so when I went to rent a car, I got a Chevy Malibu with CarPlay. It's so convenient to have my info, contacts...everything already. So cool.
So new to me, but since it's Apple it is all so familiar.
Did I say I loved it?
 

Just_Me_D

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I just bought a new Chevy pickup, and it came with CarPlay. I've only had it 2 weeks, but so far I love it. I'm vacationing in California right now so when I went to rent a car, I got a Chevy Malibu with CarPlay. It's so convenient to have my info, contacts...everything already. So cool.
So new to me, but since it's Apple it is all so familiar.
Did I say I loved it?
{laughing}...Yes, you did...Twice!...&#55357;&#56846;...Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the CarPlay feature, my friend.
 

taeisme

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I've had CarPlay for a while now and I love it! I love how easy it is to listen to my audible while driving and still use Apple maps. My only issue right now is that I'm on the iOS 10 beta and my option to play downloaded music isn't there but rearranging my icons is a plus
 

P_Devil

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I updated my 2016 Kia Soul a couple weeks ago and now it has CarPlay. So far, it's a lot better than the stock firmware. I like that every vocal command now uses Siri and I can use CarPlay wired or in wireless mode. I prefer wired mode as it doesn't chew through my iPhone's battery, using CarPlay wirelessly (it goes through wi-fi on my system) will eat through 15% of my iPhone's battery during my morning commute.

The biggest upgrade I can think of is the integration of Siri. Before, when I wanted to find an address in my car's stock navigation software, I had to push the speak button and specifically say the address and state I was searching in. I couldn't use natural language and simply say "find the closest Red Robin." I had to say "find address in Kentucky" and then manually enter the address. Either that or I could search for it in the car's maps but I had to be parked in order to do that.

I also like seeing album art up on my car's display and the Music app pretty much looks like the same thing on my iPhone which is nice. I don't have to lose my place in my playlists or albums like I did when previously plugging my iPhone in and using Kia's iPod app.
 

Tersanyus

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I've got a 2016 Chevrolet Spark 1LT automatic that has carplay. I'm still certain this is the cheapest car in the US with carplay built in. Even the base model with manual transmission has carplay built in. Has android auto as well and though I do have an Android phone I've only tried it once. Kind of liked that interface better.

Works great and I use it often. No real complaints. I just wish there was a little more on the display like battery charge level and speed limit display.
 

camaroz1985

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Had it on a loaner car while my Volt was being serviced. I liked it a lot an wish my Volt had it. When buying a new car I think it would be something that would be on my "wants" list. I may also look into Kenwood units with it for my truck.
 

SparkyBC

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Don't look at Kenwood. I have their "flagship" DNX893S, nothing but audio problems. I use apple music and the bluetooth will for whatever reason drop "pause" the song and you have to go back into the bluetooth mode on the headunit and click play again. Carplay the exact same thing.

Was hoping the 10.1 iOS would fix the glitch nope. I think the issue clearly falls on Kenwood and they're dragging their feet and don't know how to fix it. I am ready to through this $1400 boat anchor into the trash.

I can use a bluetooth speaker at home and stream all day so clearly an issue with Kenwood. Starting to regret buying it as it was delayed almost FIVE months!

IMG_1139.jpg
 

camaroz1985

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Hmm I use a Kenwood DNX691HD in my truck and have no bluetooth issues at all (obviously no CarPlay). I will probably wait until next year's models anyway, but my wife refuses to use here phone's nav, and will only use Garmin, and I refuse to have an extra thing stuck on the windshield so we kind of limit ourselves to Kenwood. Hopefully they can fix that issue.

Before you decide to trash it let me know, I could take it off of your hands :)
 

knoxDavid

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CarPlay has worked without any problems with both my iPhone 6 and now my new iPhone 7 Plus. My wife's iPhone 5S also worked but now she upgraded to the iPhone SE and the car (2016 Buick Regal) doesn't see he SE when we plug it in. Is anyone else having issues with the SE and CarPlay?
 

muchmaligned

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CarPlay has worked without any problems with both my iPhone 6 and now my new iPhone 7 Plus. My wife's iPhone 5S also worked but now she upgraded to the iPhone SE and the car (2016 Buick Regal) doesn't see he SE when we plug it in. Is anyone else having issues with the SE and CarPlay?

Should work - check whether restrictions are on/off for carplay.. Disable restrictions and see if carplay works?
 

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