what does CarPlay give you?

[OzzieT]

I've noticed that if you've set the phone to connect to the car hotspot, it might result in connection issues with Carplay. Go into settings on the phone and remove the car wifi from the list (not just disable, remove it completely).

That made a complete night and day difference for me, where before it could take several minutes for Carplay to connect, whereas after it relatively consistently connects within a few seconds of touching the Carplay button (or sometimes when you start the car, because you know, Porsche and software ?‍).

For me, I just can't understand how anyone could stand to only rely on the standard PCM. I use the built in navigation for longer trips so that I get preconditioning and HUD support, but otherwise I only use Carplay. It's quicker, presents information much clearer and the apps actually work reliably.

Has anyone ever actually gotten Spotify to work reliably in the PCM? Either way it's absolutely absurd how badly designed the music app is. It's like they deliberately tried to make the worst possible UX as a joke, that then accidentally got pushed to production.

Thank you for the WiFi tip - going to try that this evening - there is definitely something going on at start up which delays car play.

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[OzzieT]

Thanks @snstevens and everybody for your help.

I am an older bloke and feel such a plonker talking to any hardware, even when nobody else is around to hear me! I have never used Siri and tried voice activation in my first car that had it in 2005 but didn't use it often enough to remember the commands (it was crude back then)

I suppose I would have to overcome this massive psycological barrier to talking to my phone before I get much/any use from CarPlay!

Hey old plonker. Problems from another old plonker. I can only get my phone via the PCM connection to transfer email addresses to my car phone book, no numbers! So I've had to move to CarPlay as its the only way to make calls and know who is calling me when an incoming call arrives.

 

[f1eng]

Hey old plonker. Problems from another old plonker. I can only get my phone via the PCM connection to transfer email addresses to my car phone book, no numbers! So I've had to move to CarPlay as its the only way to make calls and know who is calling me when an incoming call arrives.

That is weird, my phone numbers came up from my phone fine, it took a while though.

Anyway I tend to minimise my use of the phone when I'm driving because it diverts my attention too much.

 

[f1eng]

It's quicker, presents information much clearer and the apps actually work reliably.

There isn't much I need to do when driving, other than drive, but I am very rarely on a quiet motorway so taking eyes off road when driving is pretty hazardous almost all the time for me.

I have my own music that I like on a USB stick and usually select what I am going to listen to whilst stationary for safety.

 

[f1eng]

Well, sometimes that happens. I've not heard of the USB connection failing, but shit happens so...

Next time you're at your Dealer you might ask them to check what's going on. There are lots of Pros and very few Cons to using CarPlay, but of course each of us has different needs. At the end of the day this is just a bit of icing on what is a fabulous car to drive. That really is what matters.

I don't know why it didn't find my phone wirelessly the first time but did when I connected it to the USB port.
I don't know why it didn't immediately connect when plugged in the second time, given it had been set up once. I set up CarPlay again a second time, once more no joy wireless but connected with USB.

Next time I tried it still didn't find the plugged in phone.

I am an old grumpy engineer who has already wasted too much of my life de-bugging crap "technology" so only tolerate wasting even more of my time for something actually important

For context I was the first person to use a computer in Formula 1, the first to introduce a CAD system in F1, the first to install a wind tunnel, I even wired the instrumentation up and wrote the programme (it was 1980), I also invented the Williams active suspension system and developed it to win its first (of many) race(s).
That means I have spend a LOT of time de-bugging my own stuff!

I am not anti-technology just disappointed by a lot of it.

 

[kempez]

My Wireless CarPlay connects pretty consistently across the board. Music in particular is useful, as is Audible. I've taken to pretty much solely using the inbuilt nav, but Google maps is obvs also a decent backup. As per Frank, I tend to set up a playlist before I start moving, but it is useful and quality is decent using CarPlay

 

[whitex]

As a general comment on using CarPlay. It works wirelessly with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Sometimes it doesn't connect, but selecting it on the PCM eventually forces the connection. The most annoying thing is Siri getting triggered for no reason at all - it only happens occasionally, but once it starts it lasts for couple of days, the Siti prompt keeps muting the radio and listening for a command every few minutes. A bit annoying, but clears itself out eventually.

 

[f1eng]

The most annoying thing is Siri getting triggered for no reason at all - it only happens occasionally, but once it starts it lasts for couple of days, the Siti prompt keeps muting the radio and listening for a command every few minutes. A bit annoying, but clears itself out eventually.

That is the sort of shite behaviour I am not prepared to put up with unless something is REALLY useful.
So I’m still not persuaded it is worth it for me.

 

[gnop1950]

That is weird, my phone numbers came up from my phone fine, it took a while though.

Anyway I tend to minimise my use of the phone when I'm driving because it diverts my attention too much.

I plug mine into the USB port and put it in the center console. It never leaves there until I'm done driving. I do have wireless charging turned off.

I'm an older fellow as well, mid 70s, but I freely admit I'm a geek. I love using voice commands to answer/make calls when necessary, select music, navigate, etc. With my Taycan's HuD, and Siri, I rarely take my eyes off the road.

I found that the USB connection is the most reliable. The only issue I've had is once, after an OTA update, I had to delete and re-add the Phone for CarPlay to work.

 

[Scandinavian]

That is the sort of shite behaviour I am not prepared to put up with unless something is REALLY useful.
So I’m still not persuaded it is worth it for me.

I can understand this,. It is frustrating if it does not work consistently.

And a lot depends on your use case. If you drive in the same country, along country roads a lot the built in system might work well with radio etc. If however you travel through several countries with different radio systems, a lot of HPC charging, traffic jams, police traps etc. then CarPlay is invaluable . The PCM is not very good at traffic situations. In foreign countries you might be stuck in a long delay, while the PCM shows, No traffic situation along your route??


But once it works there is a lot of functions in CarPlay that is much much better than the PCM navigator. Traffic information, charging stations occupancy, radio stations. Etc.

 

[snstevens]

As a general comment on using CarPlay. It works wirelessly with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Sometimes it doesn't connect, but selecting it on the PCM eventually forces the connection. The most annoying thing is Siri getting triggered for no reason at all - it only happens occasionally, but once it starts it lasts for couple of days, the Siti prompt keeps muting the radio and listening for a command every few minutes. A bit annoying, but clears itself out eventually.

The only time I've seen random Siri prompts is when I left my phone in my pocket, and random motion caused the Siri to wake up for some reason. For this reason I always take my phone out of my pocket when in the car (this improves LTE reception as well).

That said, if Siri starts acting up again let me know and I'll drive up your way - this is something I'd love to see and understand.

 

[snstevens]

That is the sort of shite behaviour I am not prepared to put up with unless something is REALLY useful.
So I’m still not persuaded it is worth it for me.

The wireless connection can be a bit flaky - no doubt about it. For those of us who don't mind going through the reconnection process it isn't a big deal, but I can see that you wouldn't want to deal with that.

So I'd like to encourage that when you go by the dealer, check that plugging the phone in via USB works, and then give Siri and CarPlay a try. From what you've shared about your technology experience, I think you'd love it.

@gnop1950, @Scandinavian, @whitex, @kempez, me and many others can't all be wrong ?

 

[The Riddler]

I don't know why it didn't find my phone wirelessly the first time but did when I connected it to the USB port.
I don't know why it didn't immediately connect when plugged in the second time, given it had been set up once. I set up CarPlay again a second time, once more no joy wireless but connected with USB.

Next time I tried it still didn't find the plugged in phone.

I am an old grumpy engineer who has already wasted too much of my life de-bugging crap "technology" so only tolerate wasting even more of my time for something actually important

For context I was the first person to use a computer in Formula 1, the first to introduce a CAD system in F1, the first to install a wind tunnel, I even wired the instrumentation up and wrote the programme (it was 1980), I also invented the Williams active suspension system and developed it to win its first (of many) race(s).
That means I have spend a LOT of time de-bugging my own stuff!

I am not anti-technology just disappointed by a lot of it.

as I am sure you know that’s a brilliant resume!

 

[npx]

Yeah that's pretty weird - my wireless connection for carplay probably connects within 10 seconds about 95 percent of the time.

 

[whitex]

The only time I've seen random Siri prompts is when I left my phone in my pocket, and random motion caused the Siri to wake up for some reason. For this reason I always take my phone out of my pocket when in the car (this improves LTE reception as well).

That said, if Siri starts acting up again let me know and I'll drive up your way - this is something I'd love to see and understand.

My just car just stopped doing the phantom Siri summon last night around midnight. It was doing it for about 2 days, then last night it was still doing just before midnight, I parked it, started driving again just after midnight, no more random Siri popups. I have no idea whether midnight had anything to do with it, as I don't recall last time when it stopped, was it mid-usage or overnight.

My iPhone is always in a holster on my belt, screen into the holster so no random screen touches. I like wireless CarPlay because I don't want to always plug my phone in the car.

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