Apple announces major updates to CarPlay

[timesinks]

I'm referring to the update from WWDC where CarPlay takes over the entire vehicle. My Bolt has compatibility with CarPlay, but the processing is taking place on a phone. I don't have to have my whole car Applified, and can instead use Android Auto.

The next generation that was announced is still powered by an attached iPhone. That's why I said: "No auto manufacturer is going to require its buyers to also have an iphone. While this next-gen could project to all the screens in the car, there will be no more need to actually use it than there is today."

You would not be forced into CarPlay on both screens any more than you would be on one screen.

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[jjswan33]

The next generation that was announced is still powered by an attached iPhone. That's why I said: "No auto manufacturer is going to require its buyers to also have an iphone. While this next-gen could project to all the screens in the car, there will be no more need to actually use it than there is today."

You would not be forced into CarPlay on both screens any more than you would be on one screen.

Exactly!! The new CarPlay will just be able to access new car data sources similar to what a Maestro device does when you install one on an aftermarket radio.

OMG APPLE IS TAKING OVER MY CAR... lol

 

[Houston_Longhorn]

Also, real quick for the “Amazon invested in Rivian” people —

My Alexa/Echo plays Apple Music.

My Alexa/Firestick plays Apple TV+

And my iPhone has an Alexa implementation on it (that I use more often than it’s Siri implementation).

Amazon and Apple work together just fine.

 

[MIG]

Most people don't grok that what happened in cell phones and TVs can also happen in cars. The hardware is further commoditized and the bulk of the revenue, profitable margins, and valuable data flows to Google and Apple. Tesla gets it, which is why they've bucked the trend and built a moat. Rivian gets is too but it won't stop people from complaining. The worse the software from Rivian, the louder the complaints. Clock is ticking for good software...

Absolutely ridiculous. In case you haven't noticed Rivian, Tesla and the other companies similarly want to commoditize features and updates. They aren't building moats to protect buyers, they're doing it to keep buyers contained in their own for-pay environments. There are no benevolent entities in commerce.

 

[yizzung]

Absolutely ridiculous. In case you haven't noticed Rivian, Tesla and the other companies similarly want to commoditize features and updates. They aren't building moats to protect buyers, they're doing it to keep buyers contained in their own for-pay environments. There are no benevolent entities in commerce.

What part of revenue, profit margins, and flow of valuable data (cited by me as the key reasons) have anything to do with benevolence? I didn’t say squat about protecting consumers. Maybe you should reread my comment.

 

[DJG]

The idea of a bunch of cars with the same cartoonishly bad Apple UI is a pretty depressing dystopian future.

Rivian definitely should have used Android Automotive though, unless they plan on quickly rolling out more apps (map routing on phone transferred to vehicle, Netflix/YouTube/prime video, voice to text, Chrome etc.). I like that they are doing their stuff in house only if they can provide comparable levels of quality and options.

I believe I saw someone reported through heresay and rumor that someone from Rivian told them they were working on streaming entertainment services. Like I said, these discussions should probably be tabled for a year or two and see what it looks like then. It's unreasonable and unproductive for others to be pounding the table for Car Play on day 1.

What would be WAY more productive, is to litter the boards, in an organized thread and fashion, the specific apps/services available in Car Play that they would like to see Rivian implement, either directly through those apps or indirectly through their own solution. That way, we're all working together and not having circular philosophical debates that end in agreeing to disagree. Telling Rivian you want Car Play ends in a respectful thanks for your input. Telling them specifics will bear fruit. They aren't building a software team to just implement someone else's software.

 

[astonius]

I just want to know who told Jason Cammisa that CarPlay was coming to R1s and if it was accurate.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

why would Rivian do something its customers want?

To be a customer don’t you have to own a R1T first?

i just want to BE a customer.

 

[timesinks]

I believe I saw someone reported through heresay and rumor that someone from Rivian told them they were working on streaming entertainment services. Like I said, these discussions should probably be tabled for a year or two and see what it looks like then. It's unreasonable and unproductive for others to be pounding the table for Car Play on day 1.

What would be WAY more productive, is to litter the boards, in an organized thread and fashion, the specific apps/services available in Car Play that they would like to see Rivian implement, either directly through those apps or indirectly through their own solution. That way, we're all working together and not having circular philosophical debates that end in agreeing to disagree. Telling Rivian you want Car Play ends in a respectful thanks for your input. Telling them specifics will bear fruit. They aren't building a software team to just implement someone else's software.

Tesla has been at this for almost two decades. Even with their total vehicle volume, they barely have any third party integrations. No navigation, no audio beyond spotify/tidal/intune.

The point of CarPlay/AA is you get them all with no additional effort or cooperation. It's two integrations to maintain rather than two dozen.

My Panasonic smart tv from circa 2011 came with youtube, hulu, netflix, and others that ran directly on the tv. One by one, those apps have all been discontinued. The tv can't stream anything directly anymore. But you plug in an apple tv, and voila, access to modern versions of all the apps.

Yes, I do think Rivian is already a better software company than Panasonic ever will be. But fewer and simpler integrations are going to work better and be supported longer. CarPlay/AA is a total of two integrations that if done, would provide:

• Alternative and better navigation, including Waze, Google, Apple as well as many others
• Over a dozen music streaming apps, including Youtube, Amazon, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Apple Music
• Text messaging
• Many podcast and audio book apps, including Libby which is commonly used by public libraries

By integrating only two platforms, suddenly owners have access to dozens (if not hundreds) of applications on their vehicle screen.

Oh, and I have a ton of content already downloaded onto my phone. Music, podcasts, audio books, offline maps. That way when I lose service, be it in a remote area or on a plane, I'm not out of luck. CarPlay means I can seamlessly access all that content I already have with me in the car from the car's screen. I don't need to separately manage downloads to the car's infotainment (and no stressing about whether I have enough storage in the system or how many write cycles I'm going to use).

There's a reason CarPlay users have a choice of dozens of audio apps and that Tesla can only offer 3. Roughly speaking, for about the same effort, Rivian could provide two standalone additional apps (say Netflix and Apple Music) or Rivian could provide access to dozens and of apps. This is not just about picking some executive's pet app (Spotify?). It's about taking advantage of all the work that has already been done by dozens and dozens of app developers to make and maintain car-screen versions of their apps.

 

[Houston_Longhorn]

Tesla has been at this for almost two decades. Even with their total vehicle volume, they barely have any third party integrations. No navigation, no audio beyond spotify/tidal/intune.

The point of CarPlay/AA is you get them all with no additional effort or cooperation. It's two integrations to maintain rather than two dozen.

My Panasonic smart tv from circa 2011 came with youtube, hulu, netflix, and others that ran directly on the tv. One by one, those apps have all been discontinued. The tv can't stream anything directly anymore. But you plug in an apple tv, and voila, access to modern versions of all the apps.

Yes, I do think Rivian is already a better software company than Panasonic ever will be. But fewer and simpler integrations are going to work better and be supported longer. CarPlay/AA is a total of two integrations that if done, would provide:

• Alternative and better navigation, including Waze, Google, Apple as well as many others
• Over a dozen music streaming apps, including Youtube, Amazon, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Apple Music
• Text messaging
• Many podcast and audio book apps, including Libby which is commonly used by public libraries

By integrating only two platforms, suddenly owners have access to dozens (if not hundreds) of applications on their vehicle screen.

Oh, and I have a ton of content already downloaded onto my phone. Music, podcasts, audio books, offline maps. That way when I lose service, be it in a remote area or on a plane, I'm not out of luck. CarPlay means I can seamlessly access all that content I already have with me in the car from the car's screen. I don't need to separately manage downloads to the car's infotainment (and no stressing about whether I have enough storage in the system or how many write cycles I'm going to use).

There's a reason CarPlay users have a choice of dozens of audio apps and that Tesla can only offer 3. Roughly speaking, for about the same effort, Rivian could provide two standalone additional apps (say Netflix and Apple Music) or Rivian could provide access to dozens and of apps. This is not just about picking some executive's pet app (Spotify?). It's about taking advantage of all the work that has already been done by dozens of app developers to make and maintain car-screen versions of their apps.

Building on this…I have a newish LG tv (2019?) that has an App Store. It has most but not quite all of the streaming apps.

And I have it connected to a Firestick where I run those same apps. Why? Because the exact same Disney+ app (or any other streaming app) works better on the Firestick….buffers less, fewer weird errors, updates faster.

Seems to me that the app manufacturers prioritize support for bigger app stores. They get bug fixes first, they get better testing, they get new features first. Because that is optimal allocation of resources from an app manufacturer.

And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say there are more LG smart TVs today than Rivian will ever sell cars. So if LG’s app store isn’t big enough to get prioritized bug fixes, what is Rivian going to get?

PS….While I am an Apple guy, if Rivian pursues Android Auto to get that app store, that would address my concerns. It doesn’t HAVE to be CarPlay.

 

[Houston_Longhorn]

What would be WAY more productive, is to litter the boards, in an organized thread and fashion, the specific apps/services available in Car Play that they would like to see Rivian implement, either directly through those apps or indirectly through their own solution. That way, we're all working together and not having circular philosophical debates that end in agreeing to disagree. Telling Rivian you want Car Play ends in a respectful thanks for your input. Telling them specifics will bear fruit. They aren't building a software team to just implement someone else's software.

Even though I disagree with your approach (See my prior post), I’ll play.

I want Waze, Apple Music, and Sirius XM.

By the time we get everyone’s list, CarPlay will have become an obvious easier approach.

 

[swhme]

I just want to know who told Jason Cammisa that CarPlay was coming to R1s and if it was accurate.

on the latest smoking tire, Matt was saying that he and cammisa are going to do a show about all the lies they get told by manufacturers…

 

[swhme]

Even though I disagree with your approach (See my prior post), I’ll play.

I want Waze, Apple Music, and Sirius XM.

By the time we get everyone’s list, CarPlay will have become an obvious easier approach.

waze, google maps, Apple Music, pocketcasts, Gaia, and calendar

 

[DJG]

Even though I disagree with your approach (See my prior post), I’ll play.

I want Waze, Apple Music, and Sirius XM.

By the time we get everyone’s list, CarPlay will have become an obvious easier approach.

Be more specific, another map/nav app isn't likely going to happen (it's messy and confusing, there should only be one). What features from Waze would you like added to their map?

Are there specific things about Apple Music that Spotify doesn't have (artists, etc?). If a case can be made, perhaps Apple Music can replace Spotify down the road, but I doubt they want more than one base media player (internet radio being a separate category).

I believe Sirius will eventually be available through Alexa. Otherwise, TuneIn is essentially the same thing and it's free.

They aren't going to compromise on their philosophy/ethos of an uncluttered system, so I doubt we'll ever see an app tray with numerous redundant apps. The goal is not to appease the masses and give unlimited choices. Like you said, if they wanted that they would just integrate Car Play.

 

[Houston_Longhorn]

Be more specific, another map/nav app isn't likely going to happen (it's messy and confusing, there should only be one). What features from Waze would you like added to their map?

Are there specific things about Apple Music that Spotify doesn't have (artists, etc?). If a case can be made, perhaps Apple Music can replace Spotify down the road, but I doubt they want more than one base media player (internet radio being a separate category).

I believe Sirius will eventually be available through Alexa. Otherwise, TuneIn is essentially the same thing and it's free.

They aren't going to compromise on their philosophy/ethos of an uncluttered system, so I doubt we'll ever see an app tray with numerous redundant apps. The goal is not to appease the masses and give unlimited choices. Like you said, if they wanted that they would just integrate Car Play.

I agree, Waze should be the only navigation app in the system. I’m not going to explain why it has won the market if serious navigation users, I’m simply going to state that it has already won the market because it is the best.

Rivian should not be selecting which music subscription service it’s users use. It should support all of them so that a user can use whatever they already use. I use Apple Music. That is what I will use in my vehicle.

TuneIn and SiriusXM are not even remotely comparable.

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