Apple’s New CarPlay System Will Turn Tens Of Millions Of Cars Into iPhone Accessories

Apple’s New CarPlay System Will Turn Tens Of Millions Of Cars Into iPhone Accessories | TechCrunch

"Apple’s newly announced CarPlay, which is the rebranded version of iOS in the Car, a system for converting your vehicle’s in-car entertainment system into an iOS-powered dashboard fed content and brains by your phone, is a play that could massively expand the Apple mobile ecosystem – by turning cars into app-enabled iPhone accessories. The CarPlay system was revealed today during the Geneva Motor Show, where partners Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo all announced that they’d begin shipping CarPlay-enabled vehicles to drivers this week. In 2014, that group will expand to include Honda, Hyundai and Jaguar, and beyond that it’ll ship on cars from BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Open, Peugeot-Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota."



Apple, Automakers Partner for In-Vehicle CarPlay Tech | News & Opinion | PCMag.com




Volvo Press Announcement:
Volvo Cars Brings Apple CarPlay To The All New Volvo XC90
"Volvo’s unique portrait screen gives users the benefit of having both Volvo and Apple content co-existing simultaneously, removing the need to switch between a dedicated car and iPhone screen."
"Apple CarPlay allows connection of iPhone to the car through a Lightning cable – with Wi-Fi coming in the near future.
The connection is based on a streaming H.264 video feed that returns user input from the touch screen."

Analyst: CarPlay Shows Apple Push for Artificial Intelligence - The Mac Observer
"While the technology should help to further "lock-in" existing consumers to the ecosystem and could convert non-iOS users, we believe the more significant announcement is in the details--namely Apple's artificial-intelligence-like or contextual awareness technology, which we view as the potential future key to its ecosystem differentiation versus other vendors."

Apple's New Car System Turns Your Dashboard Into an iPhone Accessory | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
"That physical connection will offer much deeper integration than things like the Siri Eyes Free system found in Chevy cars, which only requires Bluetooth connectivity. ... (One interesting side note: If you’re looking for a dual-boot car, you might be best off buying a Honda or a Hyundai in the near future. Both of those carmakers are listed as being part of the 2014 CarPlay lineup and are also members of the Android-focused Open Automotive Alliance.). ... If it’s a success, factory-installed in-car systems of the future will simply be “dumb terminals,” relying on connected mobile devices for all the entertainment features. That’s probably a great thing for both consumers and developers."

 

Seems like the real advantage to this system is that the car just becomes an easily upgradeable dumb terminal, at least for the stuff that's on your phone, as suggested by the wired article I'm adding to the original post. Car tech is so bad right now, and changing so fast, that obsolescence has become a real factor for cars.

 

I thought this was a really good article summarizing the current state of in car electronics, the deeper level systems, the unique challenges for cars, and the current efforts to make the top level systems better...

2014's battle for dashboard supremacy: Apple's CarPlay vs. Google's OAA vs. MirrorLink | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

"Look at a modern smartphone. Then, go tap on any of the recent touch-screen interfaces found in a modern car. By and large, the shift is jarring. These infotainment systems are often slow, frequently sluggish, and quite generally aesthetically challenged."- so true