Apple CarPlay Annoyance

[Quis89]

So I just picked up my 2017 Nissan Maxima SL a few days ago and I've been putting it through the paces. It is my first continued experience with CarPlay. My wife has had it for a year on her 2018 Kia Sorento but I've only used it on occasion when I'm in her car for whatever reason.

One thing I've noticed is if my iPhone is connected and CarPlay is running, whenever I get a text, the CarPlay interface takes over whatever I may be doing on the display. For example, I was searching for a channel on SiriusXM and I got a text. When this text came in, my display left the SiriusXM navigation completely and switched over to CarPlay. Is this behavior typical with CarPlay? Or is this unique to my vehicle? I haven't tested this in my wife's car but she's never made mention of this so I don't imagine she's experiencing the same.

 

[Tartarus]

So I just picked up my 2017 Nissan Maxima SL a few days ago and I've been putting it through the paces. It is my first continued experience with CarPlay. My wife has had it for a year on her 2018 Kia Sorento but I've only used it on occasion when I'm in her car for whatever reason.

One thing I've noticed is if my iPhone is connected and CarPlay is running, whenever I get a text, the CarPlay interface takes over whatever I may be doing on the display. For example, I was searching for a channel on SiriusXM and I got a text. When this text came in, my display left the SiriusXM navigation completely and switched over to CarPlay. Is this behavior typical with CarPlay? Or is this unique to my vehicle? I haven't tested this in my wife's car but she's never made mention of this so I don't imagine she's experiencing the same.

CarPlay is there to make the driver use his phone less and pay attention to the road and what comes with driving.
If you keep that in mind, you’ll find CarPlay less annoying and learn to deal with it in that context.

 

[Quis89]

CarPlay is there to make the driver use his phone less and pay attention to the road and what comes with driving.
If you keep that in mind, you’ll find CarPlay less annoying and learn to deal with it in that context.

I don't understand how that context makes what I'm doing any less annoying. Furthermore, it actually makes the driving experience far more "dangerous" if you consider the fact that rather than allowing me to continue navigating to the radio station I'm attempting to locate, it throws me into a completely different screen thus forcing me to get back to the screen I was previously on and continue my search. It therefore increases the amount of time I'm spending interacting with my display.

That actually increases the annoyingness lol.

 

[Tartarus]

I don't understand how that context makes what I'm doing any less annoying. Furthermore, it actually makes the driving experience far more "dangerous" if you consider the fact that rather than allowing me to continue navigating to the radio station I'm attempting to locate, it throws me into a completely different screen thus forcing me to get back to the screen I was previously on and continue my search. It therefore increases the amount of time I'm spending interacting with my display.

That actually increases the annoyingness lol.

Are you sure you haven’t unwittingly touched the notification for the text when navigating? Heck, it even happens when I’m on my phone.

 

[Quis89]

Are you sure you haven’t unwittingly touched the notification for the text when navigating? Heck, it even happens when I’m on my phone.

Nah. I have a few input methods when interacting with the screen, one of which is a controller near my gear shift. That avoids accidentally touching something on the screen I had no intentions on touching. Though it may be a quirk of some sort as I don't recall if I noticed this behavior consistently. I was annoyed so I unplugged my phone and stopped using CarPlay and just went to bluetooth. I also dislike how my entire library isn't accessible in CarPlay so if a passenger is using the screen to locate music it only goes so far. Not sure if that's unique to my car or a typical CarPlay behavior.

 

[Tartarus]

Nah. I have a few input methods when interacting with the screen, one of which is a controller near my gear shift. That avoids accidentally touching something on the screen I had no intentions on touching. Though it may be a quirk of some sort as I don't recall if I noticed this behavior consistently. I was annoyed so I unplugged my phone and stopped using CarPlay and just went to bluetooth. I also dislike how my entire library isn't accessible in CarPlay so if a passenger is using the screen to locate music it only goes so far. Not sure if that's unique to my car or a typical CarPlay behavior.

My knowledge about CarPlay goes only as far as a total of 20 minutes using the CarPlay in bystanders seat in a friends car.
Like with everything else, fiddling around with it for an extensive time period will only make you get used to any quirks that sooner.

 

[Quis89]

My knowledge about CarPlay goes only as far as a total of 20 minutes using the CarPlay in bystanders seat in a friends car.
Like with everything else, fiddling around with it for an extensive time period will only make you get used to any quirks that sooner.

Nah lol. I'm not the type to get "used to quirks" when they disrupt my flow of things. I'll just stop using it lol. No harm, no foul. It's my preferred method of music listening in my car as the audio sounds a bit better than over bluetooth. But it's not anything that I'll feel bummed about not using as it doesn't add a whole lot more in terms of functionality and feature-set over what I have as it relates to what I'll actually use. Just wanted to know if this behavior was the norm.

 

[Just_Me_D]

So I just picked up my 2017 Nissan Maxima SL a few days ago and I've been putting it through the paces. It is my first continued experience with CarPlay. My wife has had it for a year on her 2018 Kia Sorento but I've only used it on occasion when I'm in her car for whatever reason.

One thing I've noticed is if my iPhone is connected and CarPlay is running, whenever I get a text, the CarPlay interface takes over whatever I may be doing on the display. For example, I was searching for a channel on SiriusXM and I got a text. When this text came in, my display left the SiriusXM navigation completely and switched over to CarPlay. Is this behavior typical with CarPlay? Or is this unique to my vehicle? I haven't tested this in my wife's car but she's never made mention of this so I don't imagine she's experiencing the same.

Yes, what you’re describing is normal for CarPlay.

 

[Quis89]

Yes, what you’re describing is normal for CarPlay.

Darn. Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[Lee_Bo]

And while we're on the bandwagon on how annoying CP is, I really dislike that radio, bluetooth/navigation and phone are three different volume levels. I'll be driving with the windows down and the radio on volume 10 and then sound mutes for a few seconds. Discovered BT was on volume 1. I'd like like everything to be the same volume.

 

[Just_Me_D]

And while we're on the bandwagon on how annoying CP is, I really dislike that radio, bluetooth/navigation and phone are three different volume levels. I'll be driving with the windows down and the radio on volume 10 and then sound mutes for a few seconds. Discovered BT was on volume 1. I'd like like everything to be the same volume.

It's not just CarPlay. I typically stream Music through my car's infotainment system while also using the car's built-in navigation. Like you, I could be listening to the Music at one level and then end up having to increase the volume for the navigation. It can be annoying for sure.

 

[Lee_Bo]

I have Apple CarPlay on my 2018 Mazda 3, but the situation you mentioned has never happened to me.
Whenever I got a text, there's message preview notification on top of the screen, but it wont take over the map i am currently using for navigation.
Not sure if it's the updated version, but I have a car maintenance in mid 2019 and that's when I had my carplay installed.

Mines on the bottom of the screen. But mine’s an Alpine aftermarket unit.

 

[EdwinG]

I used a 2019 (2020?) Nissan Sentra for the two last weeks, and I’ve yet to experience an iPhone notification causing the stereo to jump back to CarPlay.

I think it will depend on the way the car stereo is programmed.