https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-is-apple-carplay-still-not-a-great-experience/

Exactly my experience too. The concept is good. BUT, because there is no end-to-end control system integrity is compromised. Apple, the only entity that has the ability to control multiple in-car next links needs to make and enforce standards that can increase reliability across car makes. One way might be to license software to car makers and make its in-car use mandatory for the CarPlay option in the car's entertainment system.

Quotes from the article:

My daily driver car doesn't have Apple's CarPlay smartphone integration system, but every time I hire a car (which is at least once every month or so), I get a chance to see if it's improved.

And each time, I'm sort of pleasantly surprised to see that it's gotten better, but I always feel a pang of disappointment because it could be a lot better.

I'm running an iPhone 13 Pro Max, loaded with the latest iOS 15.2.1 update, so everything on my end is good to go. The car is a late 2021 Vauxhall Corsa, so that's quite new too.

Everything is pretty fresh, so I can't blame any problems on aging technology.

So why is CarPlay so unreliable?

I mean, the process is itself quite simple. You connect a Lightning cable to the car (USB-A cable) and hook up the other end to the iPhone.

And then hope it works.

In my experience, this has about a 90% chance of success. Maybe some of this is down to me not getting used to the idiosyncrasies of the car, but remember, all I'm doing is connecting a cable to the car.

The scope for me "doing it wrong" is small.

The current vehicle also comes with Bluetooth, and that can also be used for CarPlay, but getting that working seems more of a faff.

OK, assuming it connects, the next problem I find is random disconnections. And as far as I can tell, they're pretty random. Sometimes it's rock-solid.. Next time, I'll get several disconnections within a short period.

On 2022-01-22 7:14 a.m., Thomas E. wrote:
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-is-apple-carplay-still-not-a-great-experience/
>
> Exactly my experience too. The concept is good. BUT, because there
> is no end-to-end control system integrity is compromised. Apple, the
> only entity that has the ability to control multiple in-car next
> links needs to make and enforce standards that can increase
> reliability across car makes. One way might be to license software to
> car makers and make its in-car use mandatory for the CarPlay option
> in the car's entertainment system.
>
> Quotes from the article:
>
> My daily driver car doesn't have Apple's CarPlay smartphone
> integration system, but every time I hire a car (which is at least
> once every month or so), I get a chance to see if it's improved.
>
> And each time, I'm sort of pleasantly surprised to see that it's
> gotten better, but I always feel a pang of disappointment because it
> could be a lot better.
>
> I'm running an iPhone 13 Pro Max, loaded with the latest iOS 15.2.1
> update, so everything on my end is good to go. The car is a late 2021
> Vauxhall Corsa, so that's quite new too.
>
> Everything is pretty fresh, so I can't blame any problems on aging
> technology.
>
> So why is CarPlay so unreliable?
>
> I mean, the process is itself quite simple. You connect a Lightning
> cable to the car (USB-A cable) and hook up the other end to the
> iPhone.
>
> And then hope it works.
>
> In my experience, this has about a 90% chance of success. Maybe some
> of this is down to me not getting used to the idiosyncrasies of the
> car, but remember, all I'm doing is connecting a cable to the car.
>
> The scope for me "doing it wrong" is small.
>
> The current vehicle also comes with Bluetooth, and that can also be
> used for CarPlay, but getting that working seems more of a faff.
>
> OK, assuming it connects, the next problem I find is random
> disconnections. And as far as I can tell, they're pretty random.
> Sometimes it's rock-solid. Next time, I'll get several disconnections
> within a short period.

So despite posting... ...at least more than half the article, you
managed to leave this out:

'Despite all these misgivings, I still think that CarPlay is a great
system (to me it feels superior to Android Auto, but that might be
because I'm more used to the iOS interface). It hands-down beats any
other in-car smartphone integration system I've used.'

On Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 5:27:49 PM UTC-5, Alan wrote:
> On 2022-01-22 7:14 a.m., Thomas E. wrote:
> > https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-is-apple-carplay-still-not-a-great-experience/
> >
> > Exactly my experience too. The concept is good. BUT, because there
> > is no end-to-end control system integrity is compromised. Apple, the
> > only entity that has the ability to control multiple in-car next
> > links needs to make and enforce standards that can increase
> > reliability across car makes. One way might be to license software to
> > car makers and make its in-car use mandatory for the CarPlay option
> > in the car's entertainment system.
> >
> > Quotes from the article:
> >
> > My daily driver car doesn't have Apple's CarPlay smartphone
> > integration system, but every time I hire a car (which is at least
> > once every month or so), I get a chance to see if it's improved.
> >
> > And each time, I'm sort of pleasantly surprised to see that it's
> > gotten better, but I always feel a pang of disappointment because it
> > could be a lot better.
> >
> > I'm running an iPhone 13 Pro Max, loaded with the latest iOS 15.2.1
> > update, so everything on my end is good to go. The car is a late 2021
> > Vauxhall Corsa, so that's quite new too.
> >
> > Everything is pretty fresh, so I can't blame any problems on aging
> > technology.
> >
> > So why is CarPlay so unreliable?
> >
> > I mean, the process is itself quite simple. You connect a Lightning
> > cable to the car (USB-A cable) and hook up the other end to the
> > iPhone.
> >
> > And then hope it works.
> >
> > In my experience, this has about a 90% chance of success. Maybe some
> > of this is down to me not getting used to the idiosyncrasies of the
> > car, but remember, all I'm doing is connecting a cable to the car.
> >
> > The scope for me "doing it wrong" is small.
> >
> > The current vehicle also comes with Bluetooth, and that can also be
> > used for CarPlay, but getting that working seems more of a faff.
> >
> > OK, assuming it connects, the next problem I find is random
> > disconnections. And as far as I can tell, they're pretty random.
> > Sometimes it's rock-solid. Next time, I'll get several disconnections
> > within a short period.
> So despite posting... ...at least more than half the article, you
> managed to leave this out:
>
> 'Despite all these misgivings, I still think that CarPlay is a great
> system (to me it feels superior to Android Auto, but that might be
> because I'm more used to the iOS interface). It hands-down beats any
> other in-car smartphone integration system I've used.'

Uh, Alan, I did post the link with the entire content. In fact, in your quote the author admits that CarPlay might be his personal favorite only because he is used to the iOS interface. I agree with him. The 3-pane windowed iOS screen is really nice. In terms of reliable connections my experience is that they are not very different.

That last sentence is puzzling. Other than Bluetooth, what other generally available auto/phone interface is there? Both iOS and Android Auto have more features than Bluetooth. One nice thing about Bluetooth is that it is always wireless and in my experience a lot more reliable than iOS and Android Auto. Why? It's a relatively simple system that is for AV content, one app at a time, streaming only. But to switch apps you have to pick up the phone.. Map systems do not work on Bluetooth. Not very good indeed.

In article <9fc92a2b-9b48-4e88-8bae-0faa26ef7087n@googlegroups.com>, Thomas
E. wrote:

> > Alan:
> > So despite posting... ...at least more than half the article, you
> > managed to leave this out: 'Despite all these misgivings, I still
> > think that CarPlay is a great system (to me it feels superior to
> > Android Auto, but that might be because I'm more used to the iOS
> > interface). It hands-down beats any other in-car smartphone
> > integration system I've used.'
>
> Uh, Alan, I did post the link with the entire content. In fact, in
> your quote the author admits that CarPlay might be his personal
> favorite only because he is used to the iOS interface. I agree with
> him. The 3-pane windowed iOS screen is really nice. In terms of
> reliable connections my experience is that they are not very
> different.

> That last sentence is puzzling. Other than Bluetooth, what other
> generally available auto/phone interface is there? Both iOS and
> Android Auto have more features than Bluetooth. One nice thing about
> Bluetooth is that it is always wireless and in my experience a lot
> more reliable than iOS and Android Auto. Why? It's a relatively
> simple system that is for AV content, one app at a time, streaming
> only. But to switch apps you have to pick up the phone. Map systems
> do not work on Bluetooth. Not very good indeed.

There's been a number of smartphone integrations where your smartphone has an
app that the car communicates with, usually via a cable or maybe bluetooth.

I never tried it, but HondaLink was one. I think most of these systems are
deprecated by now with Carplay/Android Auto.

--
Sandman