Apple has quietly added a line on its CarPlay microsite acknowledging that it will indeed support the feature in existing cars through aftermarket systems. Specifically, Alpine and Pioneer are listed under the line “And you’ll soon be able to add CarPlay to your current car with an aftermarket system.” The companies announced earlier this week plans to update existing in-dash display systems with CarPlay compatibility through firmware updates. While the announcements had the full weight of credibility, Apple recognizing these brands specifically on its microsite is a significant development as the company has only pushed upcoming vehicles as having the feature up until now. Earlier today, Hyundai announced it will bring CarPlay to its 2015 Sonata early this summer leaving Honda the only partner committed to delivering CarPlay this year without an announcement. Other partners committed to CarPlay in 2014 include Volvo, Ferrari, and Mercedes-Benz and have already announced models with CarPlay support.
Beyond partners committed to shipping CarPlay at some point this year, Apple says it will ship CarPlay in future models from the following automotive manufacturers: BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Psa Peugeot Citroen, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota. Several new cars available for sale later this year are being announced at the New York International Auto Show where Hyundai showed off its CarPlay offering so more CarPlay news could be unveiled this month as the show continues.
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This is pretty cool.
The Pioneer units are extremely nice. They could almost be used without CarPlay. If you were to get one just because CarPlay is coming out….you may reconsider how much you actually USE CarPlay itself vs. the incredible wealth of built in features.
This is the predicament I’m facing right now. The head unit in my Tacoma is starting to just shut off at random times, so I’m more than happy to buy one of the AVIC units this weekend. Only the 8000 features a cap active screen (at $1400). The AppRadio3 units price around $300-400 have capacitive screens. I can’t quite figure out if the resistive touch screens used in the lower model AVIC’s are the dual layer touchscrens like the older Garmin units, or if they’re a piece of glass. I don’t want a shitty touch experience that I’m stuck with, and I could probably be just fine with the $300 head unit and Siri Eyes Free… so… Tough call. I just want a nice clean interface for Spotify and Podcasts, and possibly nav off the phone. I like using Google Maps, but not opposed to Apple Maps either, but would rather not use another third party solution.
I can’t find any good demos of what CarPlay will actually DO either. I’m sure it’ll function just like I’ve always wanted something like this to, I hate third party interfaces as they’re rarely designed well and are difficult to actually use.
If you want to see CarPlay in use watch Need for Speed as they demo off some of it’s use in the movie.