Daniel Ross

I will point out that Google similarly has Android Auto which … is a pale imitator and not worth mentioning further.

Screen mirroring is an incredibly overlooked application in my experience. We bought a new minivan a couple years back (and because we’re that cool, it’s a EV minivan), and despite all the bells and whistles, the biggest impact by far has been the ability to cast my phone to the entertainment system. Rather than deal with Blu-Rays/DVDs scatted in the car, we just stream from Hulu, Disney+ or our own Plex library. Dual benefit of being able to pre-load the content for offline viewing or being able to stream to the tastes of my super-discerning grade-schoolers.

It’s cool to see how seamless phone integration with a car’s display can mean so much. When I was car shopping last year, Apple Car Play did seem like a cool feature, and I weighed it into my decision making. While I ended up with a car that doesn’t have Apple Car Play, it was amazing how suddenly a feature I hadn’t even considered before I started shopping made its way into my decision-making. It’s a great example of how digital integration/innovation can provide so much value to customers that it might even outweigh other basic features of the product (like MPG or trunk space).

I’m also curious as to how this plays in to distracted driving. The general advice used to be “don’t talk on the phone while driving” and many places still give tickets for holding a phone up to your ear. Is there really much of a difference between “hands-free” and voice activation? Car companies seem to know that there’s no way to beat phone use for drivers, so they’ve integrated to make it a safer experience. Much like how people used to be looked down on for using a phone in class or at work. Now it’s recognized that mobile technology can enhance everyday activities instead of distracting from them.

However, risk increases for older drivers and those who don’t have a solid understanding of their car’s infotainment system. For those users especially, the extra attention needed to interact with the technology could be fatal. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-seniors-autos/vehicle-infotainment-systems-dangerously-distracting-especially-for-seniors-idUSKCN1UK34F

I also traded my car at the end of 2019 for a 2020 model and got a car with Apple CarPlay which I didn’t have before and I didn’t consider it while making my purchase. It totally changed the way I drive. I don’t have to use an external GPS, I don’t have to be distracted every time a text comes through–my car screen will display a notification that a message came through and it’ll read to me and I can also replay via voice to text. The other great thing I noticed is that it atomically disables any alerts that I can’t answer via voice through my car which eliminates even more distractions. For instance, I’ll get an alert when a text or WhatsApp message comes through but I won’t be notified about e-mails or Facebook Messenger messages.
The ability to be able to use my phone to display the things on my screen just makes a world of a difference and the most feature I use is the GPS feature .The other feature I loved is being being able to play my music through pandora. I can skip, rewind, replay and control the volume all from my wheel. It definitely beats having to pick up my phone to do any of that. I didn’t realize how different my driving experience would be and how much safer too.