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Comment by ChikkaChiChi | Hacker News Reader

All I want is a button easily available from my steering wheel to talk to the mobile assistant I'm connected to over Bluetooth. I know it's far too much to ask of any company to support both Android and Apple, so this is my compromise.

Tesla's infotainment isn't horrible, but I should be able to use voice to do all the things they have shifted into a non-tactile interface.

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We installed the CarPlay retrofit for our recent model Mazda CX-5 and it does exactly this. The CarPlay interface completely takes over the vehicle interface and the buttons are mapped in a way that makes sense: home takes you to the home screen/springboard, nav opens Apple Maps or whatever navigation application is currently running, and music opens whatever media application was last selected. Most importantly the voice assistant button on the steering wheel triggers Siri.

Best $250 I’ve ever spent and the utility of this keeps improving as more apps add CarPlay support.

I’ve done the same thing on my 3 and agree. Also quite like using the knob to select compared to touching

That's exactly how the Tesla system works. You press the right thumbwheel on the steering wheel, (or the button above it on the S) and say "play rolling stones" or "play BBC World Service News" or whatever, and it just does. The left thumbwheel is the volume and you push it to the right to skip to the next song or station. The right thumbwheel changes the speed while on cruise control and I do sometimes mix them up and turn the volume up when I want to go faster or visa-versa.

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