How do you like Apple CarPlay?

[f1eng]

I have never had a car which uses CarPlay before and when we were going to add it when I picked the car up I was asked to initiate Siri on my phone. I wasn’t sure how and was not keen anyway, I don’t like talking to “things” or them listening all the time.

Anyway I haven’t used CarPlay yet my ‘phone works fine in the car, I have DAB radio and can play my chunes from a USB stick so what would CarPlay add?
I am not missing what i have never had so far and my inclination is to not bother.

Can anybody persuade me otherwise?

Sponsored

 

[Hirschaj]

I use CarPlay every time I drive. I keep Waze running to point out road hazards and police who might be waiting to give me a ticket. I also use Spotify and it works more consistently on the phone than through the PCM.

Enabling Siri does not mean it will listen to you all the time. Just make sure you keep “Hey Siri” turned off.

 

[tigerbalm]

Can anybody persuade me otherwise?

After 50,000 km over two years in a Taycan – mainly on longish road-trips – I have mostly stuck to using the PCM only features. For context – I used to be an active iOS software engineer – so am fairly embedded into the Apple ecosystem.

The main things that make me consider using (wired) CarPlay:

• Lossless Apple Music – especially cached music on my iPhone – when either in a poor signal area (rare enough) or the in-built Apple Music player is acting up.
• Handsfree calling that is working through the lightening cable rather then relatively old-fashioned and prone to interference Bluetooth.
• Audible audiobook playback via their CarPlay app.
• Sometimes (rarely) Apple Maps will either show better route or find a location better. I don't use any Google products – so Google Maps not a consideration.

The main reasons I stick with the native PCM interface:

• Fully integrated (dashboard, PCM and passenger displays) navigation, charge planning and battery pre-conditioning. <== The big reason for me and my usage of the Taycan.
• Less jarring UI differences – switching between PCM and CarPlay.
• Less distractions (notifications, etc). Appreciate you can tune these on iPhone but in general PCM distracts less.
• On road-trips, when not using my Leica Q2 camera, I'll unplug my iPhone to take pictures/videos and its annoying/interrupting if this starts/stops CarPlay each time. Using PCM interfaces keeps this nice and smooth.

 

[masmole]

So far during my first 2 weeks of Taycan ownership, wireless CarPlay has been working very reliably, much to my surprise. It seems to connect fairly quickly upon every PCM startup and doesn’t seem to disconnect randomly like it did on my last 3 Audi and BMW cars that also had wireless CarPlay. I haven’t even had to resort to wired CarPlay at any point yet. I had low expectations based on reading many threads on this forum before receiving my Taycan, but I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s at least working better than in past cars so far.

 

[f1eng]

After 50,000 km over two years in a Taycan – mainly on longish road-trips – I have mostly stuck to using the PCM only features. For context – I used to be an active iOS software engineer – so am fairly embedded into the Apple ecosystem.

The main things that make me consider using (wired) CarPlay:

• Lossless Apple Music – especially cached music on my iPhone – when either in a poor signal area (rare enough) or the in-built Apple Music player is acting up.
• Handsfree calling that is working through the lightening cable rather then relatively old-fashioned and prone to interference Bluetooth.
• Audible audiobook playback via their CarPlay app.
• Sometimes (rarely) Apple Maps will either show better route or find a location better. I don't use any Google products – so Google Maps not a consideration.

The main reasons I stick with the native PCM interface:

• Fully integrated (dashboard, PCM and passenger displays) navigation, charge planning and battery pre-conditioning. <== The big reason for me and my usage of the Taycan.
• Less jarring UI differences – switching between PCM and CarPlay.
• Less distractions (notifications, etc). Appreciate you can tune these on iPhone but in general PCM distracts less.

Thanks for this.
Really appreciate specialist advice.

I hardly ever make/receive phone calls in my car but hadn’t realised there was a difference.
I decided to put my lossless files on a USB stick and music wise I was pretty pleased. They are mainly the same ones as on my ‘phone anyway.

I have all notifications other than messages switched off on my phone, I’m a grumpy old bloke.

I think you have persuaded me to leave things as they are, thanks.

 

[tigerbalm]

I hardly ever make/receive phone calls in my car but hadn’t realised there was a difference.

Yeah, when you activate the CarPlay interface (either wired or wireless), it is going to disconnect the Bluetooth connection to the PCM. This is an iPhone/CarPlay thing so that the phone doesn't have two independent but parallel connections to external handsfree interfaces.

I have all notifications other than messages switched off on my phone, I’m a grumpy old bloke.

I'm fairly sure you're ahead of most of us here – this is the way many of us are going!

 

[B61]

I use CarPlay, mainly to listen AppleMusic, just few times, i was using google maps instead of PIRM.
I’m lazy and I do not record music to an USB, so I can select anything, simply saying: Hey Siri, play….
IMO, it works better/faster than AppleMusic via PCM, where using voice command is a joke.

 

[kempez]

I use AirPlay all the time. Google Maps is superb. SQ over wireless CarPlay is still excellent, albeit not lossless, but to me a car is not an ideal environment so it’s more than acceptable. It also means I can continue listening to whatever I’m already listening to (often audible), without faffing with controls in the car.

I often message and call in the car via CarPlay. The fact it’s there and on by default is excellent for me.

I wouldn’t be worried about activating Siri imo. Apples privacy isn’t near as bad as Google and you can turn off data sharing straight away.

But ultimately if the PCM does what you want: then it’s a personal thing. I may use the Porsche nav a few times to see how it is. I found the Mercedes nav absolutely appalling and the Volvo one is poor too, not a spot on Google maps, so I’m hoping it’s a good as my RS3 where they used google maps functionality and therefore was superb.

 

[submatrix]

• Less distractions (notifications, etc). Appreciate you can tune these on iPhone but in general PCM distracts less.

Map update completed
...
Map update completed
...
Map update completed

 

[tigerbalm]

Map update completed
...
Map update completed
...
Map update completed

LOL. That's a fair point!

I do still "get excited though" compared to what my 2019 Panamera offered:

• You can download two "area" updates a year.
• Area being:
  • Republic of Ireland
  • Southern GB (never heard it called that other then in PCM).
  • Northern GB (ditto)
  • Northern France
  • Southern France
  • Portugal
  • Yada, yada

Hello, like, I want all of Europe!

 

[kempez]

Map update completed
...
Map update completed
...
Map update completed

Yes! Can these be disabled??!

 

[B61]

Those messages don;t bother me at all.

 

[tigerbalm]

Yes! Can these be disabled??!

They can:

Settings -> Notification Centre -> Receive vehicle messages -> Updates -> Off.

However, it looks like it might take all update messages out with it – not just maps.

 

[electricsidecar]

I've preferred CarPlay in most other cars I've driven, but the HUD controls being pretty much PCM-only makes it much more compelling to use the PCM on the Taycan. Only been a few days, but I've been gravitating more and more toward just using the PCM because of that and range planning. The Apple Music integration is handy, too.

But, at WWDC this year Apple revealed a plan to expand CarPlay to more of the car's displays: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/pictures/next-generation-apple-carplay-preview-wwdc-2022/

If CarPlay ends up looking like this, then I suspect I'd be pretty inclined to prefer using it over PCM assuming that I can find a good range planning app on the iPhone (or Apple/Google Maps integrates it).

 

[kempez]

They can:

Settings -> Notification Centre -> Receive vehicle messages -> Updates -> Off.

However, it looks like it might take all update messages out with it – not just maps.

thanks that’s great. But yeah doesn’t sound granular enough!