Why do people use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto?

[ajroxstar]

I’m wondering why people use Apple CarPlay? have been using the Lucid interface and everything is working great. I can use the gps, I can listen to Spotify/usb/bluetooth from my phone, answer /receive calls. I can ask Alexa to change the song, get the weather etc. not sure why even bother using Apple CarPlay with the iPhone. Am I missing something? Does CarPlay offer any advantages that I’m not aware of?

 

[dchesrown]

Waze

 

[hellolucid]

Waze while driving, Netflix/YouTube while waiting for the car to charge. Lucid native apps are okay but they have bugs and the navigation is wonky. iOS/Android apps (Google/Apple maps) tends to be bug free and if there is one, they are much faster at fixing them. It took Lucid 2-3 iteration of updates before they fixed CarPlay (even the latest update notes mentions something about a bug fix), the Android phone calls still have issues which they haven't fixed (i don't have the latest software from yesterday so not sure if they finally fixed it).

 

[Lucken]

Waze while driving, Netflix/YouTube while waiting for the car to charge. Lucid native apps are okay but they have bugs and the navigation is wonky. iOS/Android apps (Google/Apple maps) tends to be bug free and if there is one, they are much faster at fixing them. It took Lucid 2-3 iteration of updates before they fixed CarPlay (even the latest update notes mentions something about a bug fix), the Android phone calls still have issues which they haven't fixed (i don't have the latest software from yesterday so not sure if they finally fixed it).

Wait, you can get video on the Lucid screen?! I wasn’t aware of that. Or, are you talking about your phone?

 

[DeaneG]

I find Google Maps to be much better than the car's built-in HERE navigation. Better/more pleasant voice directions, more POIs (HERE works OK on addresses, but many of the places we drive to have only a name, not an address), and Google knows where building entrances are and how to navigate in a large parking lot.

Maybe the biggest issue is that we do all our trip planning on our phones or desktop using Google maps, not HERE, and the two databases aren't identical. If you plan on Google and drive on Google, you get what you expected 100% of the time. If you plan your trip on Google and drive on HERE, sometimes there is an unwelcome surprise.

 

[segbrk]

Wait, you can get video on the Lucid screen?! I wasn’t aware of that. Or, are you talking about your phone?

Not real iPhone CarPlay, but the Carlinkit can do that.

For me it's not even strictly that I prefer Waze over Lucid's nav. All the nav options have their issues and their benefits, and that's why choice is good.
I choose Waze for longer trips because it's best at: toll road directions, hazard (and speed trap) reports
I choose Apple Maps for city driving because it's best at: UI - especially with complicated roads/intersections
I choose Google Maps for back country driving because it's best at: accurate and up to date coverage in rural areas, e.g. with seasonal road closures
I choose Lucid's nav when, like this past weekend, I drive out of cell coverage and Google maps' offline mode won't work at all. It also gives me a range estimate which is great, but I sure wish it would just provide that data via CarPlay to the other nav systems. Its actual navigation is currently not the best. For example, when I used it last weekend to navigate to an EA, it took me to a section of road somewhere near the EA. It didn't tell me which side of the road to look on. Turns out the EA was behind a row of businesses from there and through a Walmart parking lot. I couldn't even see it from where nav dropped me.

It's also nice having my normal podcast and audiobook apps right there on the car screen, though that's a much smaller concern.

 

[idiot900]

I use YouTube Music for music. No Lucid infotainment app for that, nor for a couple other audio apps.

I can open/close my garage door from CarPlay.

Although I now normally use Lucid navigation because I like seeing the route overview on the bottom screen, it's worse than Apple's and Google's IMHO so I like having the option. Also, in pricnciple you can have Waze running in the background and warning you about speed traps and the like even if using Lucid nav.

 

[joec]

I’m wondering why people use Apple CarPlay? have been using the Lucid interface and everything is working great. I can use the gps, I can listen to Spotify/usb/bluetooth from my phone, answer /receive calls. I can ask Alexa to change the song, get the weather etc. not sure why even bother using Apple CarPlay with the iPhone. Am I missing something? Does CarPlay offer any advantages that I’m not aware of?

The reason to use CarPlay is that my phone already knows everything about me. And the car does not.

If there's an appointment in my calendar coming up, the car will automatically set up directions to that appointment. It'll be sitting there, ready to go in the maps app as soon as I get into the car.

Even without an appointment, if I tend to go to the same cafe every Thursday morning, my phone notices that and offers to navigate there next Thursday.

All the music, audiobooks, and podcasts I've downloaded are already on my phone. And the phone knows where I've left off on all of them. Start any of them up on CarPlay, and it seamlessly starts in the right spot. And when I finish, my phone now knows where I stopped in the car, so I can continue from where I left off on my phone later.

If I want to make a new appointment or set a reminder while I'm driving, I just invoke Siri and ask it to set it all up for me. And now it's on my phone, where I need it to be.

And since I have two cars, regardless of which one I take, I get all these same integrated features, presented in a consistent fashion.

The car as a siloed computer has none of these advantages. It constantly needs to be told where I want to go and what I want to listen to. And anything I tell it stays in the car.

There is no in-car computer system than can compete with the integration that comes from CarPlay.

 

[Bobby]

I’m wondering why people use Apple CarPlay? have been using the Lucid interface and everything is working great. I can use the gps, I can listen to Spotify/usb/bluetooth from my phone, answer /receive calls. I can ask Alexa to change the song, get the weather etc. not sure why even bother using Apple CarPlay with the iPhone. Am I missing something? Does CarPlay offer any advantages that I’m not aware of?

I love my car so much more with CarPlay. I use it all the time for the tight integration between my calendar and navigation. Texting is easy and predictable with Siri. Choice between Apple nav, Google nav, and Waze. Apple Music is basically unlimited. I can use SiriusXM for free because I have an account for my other car. No separate account needed. I can open and close my garage with a voice command. The Electrify America app is actually very good and accurate. I can access Libby. Verizon has a much stronger signal near my house than the built-in signal so any audio streaming works much better through CarPlay as well. I find the native UI much better looking but much less useful.

What’s important to me and a luxury car is options… Choices. I literally will not consider buying a Tesla or a Rivian or any vehicle that does not have CarPlay. When CarPlay 2.0 is released, that will become my base criteria. There are others who feel the opposite, they enjoy the built-in UI or they don’t use Apple. That’s just fine. I am hoping android auto is released soon so android users can also have more options.

 

[blueice89]

I use CarPlay everyday Infact it’s all I used because it integrates directly with Google maps so makes it easy to sync between phone and car easily. I do not use the Lucid navigation system. I like CarPlay so much, also a fan of Apple, and being able to switch between maps and music or see both at same time is awesome. The android folks in here I wonder how they use the Infotainment system cause I couldn’t live without CarPlay. Even on a long road trip I use CarPlay and not the nav. That said here are some things I would love to see to improve the interface.

1. Connectivuty: think about 90% of time my car play connects correctly. There are times though where I don’t see the icon and I have to play CarPlay magic between AirPlane mode and pressing connect devices. It’s not ideal while the car is in motion.

2. More EV integration: CarPlay should let you know too the range of the car and let you know that it your destination is too far that you should go to a charger. And if you click the car charger it should give you stats ok the charger like how many slots open and stuff

3. Autopilot Dream drive integration: It would be nice if the car could follow turn by turn navigation provided by the CarPlay system like FSD.

4. It would be cool if you are stationary that could mirror apps like YouTube or Netflix so you could watch in the car while say charging.

5. Fluidness of CarPlay is much smoother and faster than Lucid maps. Easier to scroll click and the search is better. All these features are faster better stronger in car play .

What do you love about CarPlay? Is there anyone out there that just loves thinks this makes the Lucid so good? What would you want to see as Improvement?

 

[hmp10]

Verizon has a much stronger signal near my house than the built-in signal so any audio streaming works much better through CarPlay as well.

Similar problem here. My Verizon cell signal and my partner's T-Mobile signal drop out occasionally where we live, but the Lucid's AT&T signal drops out constantly. In fact, it doesn't exist for the better part of our main route into town and drops out at many large intersections in town.

As our Tesla maintains better connectivity, I assume it uses T-Mobile as the carrier in our location. (Teslas can use either AT&T or T-Mobile, depending on location.)

 

[blueice89]

I’m wondering why people use Apple CarPlay? have been using the Lucid interface and everything is working great. I can use the gps, I can listen to Spotify/usb/bluetooth from my phone, answer /receive calls. I can ask Alexa to change the song, get the weather etc. not sure why even bother using Apple CarPlay with the iPhone. Am I missing something? Does CarPlay offer any advantages that I’m not aware of?

I created a post to express my love for CarPlay

 

[no gas]

The reason to use CarPlay is that my phone already knows everything about me. And the car does not.

If there's an appointment in my calendar coming up, the car will automatically set up directions to that appointment. It'll be sitting there, ready to go in the maps app as soon as I get into the car.

Even without an appointment, if I tend to go to the same cafe every Thursday morning, my phone notices that and offers to navigate there next Thursday.

All the music, audiobooks, and podcasts I've downloaded are already on my phone. And the phone knows where I've left off on all of them. Start any of them up on CarPlay, and it seamlessly starts in the right spot. And when I finish, my phone now knows where I stopped in the car, so I can continue from where I left off on my phone later.

If I want to make a new appointment or set a reminder while I'm driving, I just invoke Siri and ask it to set it all up for me. And now it's on my phone, where I need it to be.

And since I have two cars, regardless of which one I take, I get all these same integrated features, presented in a consistent fashion.

The car as a siloed computer has none of these advantages. It constantly needs to be told where I want to go and what I want to listen to. And anything I tell it stays in the car.

There is no in-car computer system than can compete with the integration that comes from CarPlay.

I’m still in the camp that automakers should just let CarPlay and android auto take over integration. They can supply basic software such as navigation and bluetooth audio, I feel it’s a waste of their resources.

 

[DeaneG]

I’m still in the camp that automakers should just let CarPlay and android auto take over integration. They can supply basic software such as navigation and bluetooth audio, I feel it’s a waste of their resources.

IMO it's much better if the car is just running native AAOS with an app store - a la Volvo, Polestar, Porsche, Ford, and many others coming soon. It's much cleaner than Android Auto in daily use and can use all the car's screens instead of just one. The cars' app store has been slow to fill but has been getting there, with native Google nav, Waze, Youtube music and most other streaming media apps, ABRP, Plugshare, Chargepoint, etc.

Basically the car acts just like another mobile device logged into your Google user account. We have this in our other EV and find no need for Android Auto. It's great compared to the fixed Blackberry-esqe UX of legacy automakers.

 

[Shuasha]

Besides what others mentioned above, the biggest reason is that at some point, all systems stop being maintained. Having the ability to use your phone as the entertainment systems keeps the vehicle more useful.

Fictitious Example: You buy a 10 year old BMW. The built in system only had a 3G radio, so that is no longer supported on any cellular network. It only supported Napster and Zune music anyway. BUT, the car has Carplay, so your phone is able to stream all the newest apps and connect at 5G speeds. You get modern routing (not outdated DVD based navigation from 2014). That's why it's important.

 

[borski]

It’s funny, because while I like CarPlay for Waze / Google / Apple Maps, I genuinely prefer the Lucid UX for almost everything else.

And if the Lucid nav were as accurate, I would actually far prefer the Lucid nav.

I suspect strongly that this is going to be one of those cases, like Apple Maps, where I don’t like it initially, and end up a few years later thinking it has the best UX of any nav app.

 

[AirPlur]

It’s funny, because while I like CarPlay for Waze / Google / Apple Maps, I genuinely prefer the Lucid UX for almost everything else.

And if the Lucid nav were as accurate, I would actually far prefer the Lucid nav.

I suspect strongly that this is going to be one of those cases, like Apple Maps, where I don’t like it initially, and end up a few years later thinking it has the best UX of any nav app.

Agreed on the experience of the Lucid UX, which has actually won me over despite the slight degradation in nav route quality (and HERE's complete ignorance of road closures that have been closed for months, much less recent ones a la California's adventurous weather patterns this year). I was kinda forced into this being an Android user, but unless Lucid integrates the google app ecosystem natively into the car as Volvo/etc have (dream scenario), I'm content and no longer counting down the seconds until AA's release as I once was.

 

[blueice89]

In other news Apple stopped building an EV which in theory leaves the door open for Lucid now

 

[xponents]

In other news Apple stopped building an EV which in theory leaves the door open for Lucid now

Yup, saw that today. What a shame...

 

[AirDoll]

In other news Apple stopped building an EV which in theory leaves the door open for Lucid now

For Lucid to build an EV? What a novel idea