what does CarPlay give you?

[whitex]

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!

I’ve always hated talking to devices. Never talk to my phone, electronic assistants, cars, etc. However, once I got an Apple watch I started using Siri to read and reply to messages whenever I walk in rain or cold where it’s not convenient to take the phone out but I have headphones in my ears. Taycan was the first car I ever had with CarPlay, I found I use it there too. So I still don’t talk to my devices outside of those two usecases - I even enter my destination on my phone in Waze before I start driving (Waze shows up on CarPlay in the Taycan). Funny though, I still cannot bring myself to tell Alexa to turn lights on or off in my kid’s rooms (they set it up for themselves) even though there is no other way to control them!

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[Scandinavian]

I didn’t bother to activate CarPlay when I got my car and am not sure whether I will use it but sitting bored waiting in my car today I decided to see what it was all about.
I touched its icon, it told me I needed WiFi and blutooth active, which I have, or connected by USB.

It didn’t find my phone wirelessly so I connected by USB and it connected straight away.

It disconnected the phone from the built in hands free, as expected, and the PCM showed “Maps” and icons for maps, music and phone.

Is that it? Have I done something wrong or is there some cunningly hidden trick swiping masterstroke way of getting anything else?

If not it offers nothing of value to me over the PCM, as far as I can see.

Sorry for such a basic question, and I am not that bothered but wondered what all the fuss was about? and what I have, presumably, got wrong?

Note I used to be an early adopter of all technology for decades but have been unimpressed by most of it for the last 15 years when I went back from file based music to CDs and LPs for convenience.

CarPlay in itself only gives you the functions you have listed plus voice control etc. But if you really want to make it useful, you need to download a number of further apps on your phone.

I like that you can get BBC Sounds app and use their programs. They are no longer available as a station on the PCM since BBC stopped using the normal internet to distribute music etc. I like the News coverage in the mornings. This is not needed in the U.K. since you get that as normal radio or DAB though.

Other useful apps to display in the car is ABRP, Charge Map, ZapMap etc so that you easily find available charging stations. The PCM is not very user friendly for that. The filters are quite rough. And once you have found a suitable charging station, you can get the navigation active with Google maps. That is a feature I use a lot when driving abroad.

I hardly ever use voice control since my messages come in on three languages, English, Swedish and French. And then it is not possible to automatically play the correct language.

CarPlay will of course use the phones data connection and not the cars . But with a 150G allowance per month, that is never any problem.

A few screen shots of my apps that I use in Carplay.

 

[Bill33525]

I have Waze on the center screen for the police, traffic reports, Text message alerts, and sometimes navigation as well. My wife has XMradio on the passenger display. We are both happy that way! First time my adult son [a BMW fan] drove the Taycan he remarked there's a lot going on in the dash display. On the first turn he was all smiles as the 30 series tires steer like a gocart.

 

[snstevens]

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!

Back in 2005 voice control was awful, but that’s changed dramatically in the last 18 years. Take a look at my notes above for instructions on how to use Siri and you’ll find it’s pretty straightforward.

Start simple by asking Siri for directions to either a place you know exists nearby, or to someone/someplace in your contacts (e.g., a friends house). The location for directions does not have to be in your contacts. Maps will do a search and give you options.

Another simple use case is to ask Siri to play a message that has just arrived on your iPhone. When it arrives she’ll ask you if you want to listen to it. Just say “yes”.

The next step would be to share your ETA with someone when you’re navigating using Maps.

Once you’re comfortable with these Siri controls, you’ll be ready to use your new knowledge in front of other people. Simply get in the car with a colleague, or your wife, ask Siri for the shortest route to a destination, and then, if it makes sense, share your ETA with someone you’re planning to meet at the destination (remember, you got this). Your passenger will be impressed! ?

 

[f1eng]

Simply get in the car with a colleague, or your wife, ask Siri for the shortest route to a destination,

?
My wife would assume I was talking to her and I’d get “you’re driving” or ”why ask me?” depending on mood. ???

 

[snstevens]

I think I should mention that while you can do all of the things I’m suggesting above using the touch screen interface, it is much, much safer to use Siri if you are already driving. No accidents, OK!

 

[f1eng]

I think I should mention that while you can do all of the things I’m suggesting above using the touch screen interface, it is much, much safer to use Siri if you are already driving. No accidents, OK!

Went out just now to do a recce and didn’t expect the car to see the phone even though WiFi and blutooth are enabled so plugged in to USB, touched the CarPlay tile and waited. It didn’t find the ‘phone and I can’t be arsed to continue dicking around with it.

So CarPlay joins my drone and music streamer as more trouble than they are worth

Thanks for suggestions anyway!

 

[Jasper4S]

Thank you @f1eng for this question. I’m was also missing the point. This thread was helpful. Carplay still isn’t it for me, but it is not as unuseable as I thought. I just don’t like the look and feel.

 

[anonymouse]

I use CarPlay for BBC Sounds, Audible, and a speed camera app, Flitsmeister.

But I hate it.
Apps are crippled and dumbed down. Eg maps doesn’t even have pinch to zoom. The screen is too bright. The music you play on CarPlay doesn’t show up properly in the main dashboard display. The user interface doesn’t look like the PCM. When I press the steering wheel phone button I get an error message. And so on.
I think CarPlay has a place in cheap cars which have little software of their own. But plopped into the middle of PCM it just looks silly much of the time.

 

[4thPcar]

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!

in that case just pretend you are talking to your car...

 

[outie]

I can enter a place on my phone to navigate to while the car is moving. You can’t do that with PCM. Good luck trying to find the right place by talking to the car.

 

[Replika]

I've owned 6-7 CarPlay vehicles and over time grew to really dislike it. It seems like I am always diagnosing connection issues at the worst times. I just want to get in and drive. As Anonymouse said the design of the UI looks out of place on a car dash. Something about the colorfulness of it looks inelegant to me.

Current solution is a Peak Design phone mount. Maybe not as integrated, but I love it.

 

[snstevens]

Went out just now to do a recce and didn’t expect the car to see the phone even though WiFi and blutooth are enabled so plugged in to USB, touched the CarPlay tile and waited. It didn’t find the ‘phone and I can’t be arsed to continue dicking around with it.

So CarPlay joins my drone and music streamer as more trouble than they are worth

Thanks for suggestions anyway!

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.

 

[Perry]

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.

 

[whitex]

Another simple use case is to ask Siri to play a message that has just arrived on your iPhone. When it arrives she’ll ask you if you want to listen to it. Just say “yes”.

This is does not happen in the car for me. With headphones, the message is automatically read. In the car, I only get an onscreen notification which I have to press in order for the message to be read. At the end of the message Siri does ask if I want to reply.

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