At the Geneva Auto Show, Apple announced Apple CarPlay for iPod/iPad/iPhone and iOS in cars that will first arrive in Ferrari, Mercedez-Benz Hyundai and Volvo in 2104.
Apple calls CarPlay “The best iPhone experience on four wheels.” The display enlarges all of the iOS functions significantly.
CarPlay lets iPhone users make calls, navigate, listen to music or get messages with a word or a touch. iPhone functions are controlled from the cars’ controls and Siri can be activated with a steering wheel button.
Once the iPhone is connected to the car with CarPlay installed, using Siri, you can access your contacts, make calls, return calls and listen to voice mail. When messages or notifications arrive, Siri announces then and then can read the messages out loud. The driver can dictate a message or call back.
CarPlay’s mapping feature integrates with contact locations and offers routing suggestions depending upon routing and ETA. Siri will voice directions while a map appears on the in-dash screen. Audio apps Spotify Stitcher, Podcasts, Beats Music and iHeartRadio work with CarPlay, too.
CarPlay will be available for iPhones in iOS 7 and works with a lightning connector and be available in select cars in 2014.
Other cars that will offer CarPlay after 2014 are BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, , Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Kia, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp. This system was previous codenamed iOS in the Car.
We suspect that in the next sixth months to a year, there will be third-party after market head units that will have CarPlay connections and big screens in the price range from $200-$400.
There are currently many ways to connect devices to in-dash units, MirroLink mirrors what is on the smartphone on the screen.
Since in the future CarPlay will be available in cars such as Chevy, Ford, KiA, Nissan and others with systems in place already, we suspect that this is a system that runs on top of the existing client operating systems such as Airbiquity’s Choreo.