This would be a huge sell for all of us driving cars that are just a bit too old to have a stereo with Carplay, and/or whose head units can't be replaced for technical reasons.
With all other gadgets, I want them independent. I want a printer that connects directly to the network, but one that requires a print server. I want a thermostat I can program on the device itself, not one that requires a phone just to program. I want a streaming device with its own remote, but one that requires a phone to work it. And for appliances like washers and refrigerators, well, I don’t want that connecting to a network or other devices at all.
So I don’t want the carmakers giving up on having decent infotainment built in to the car. I shouldn’t have to plug my phone into it. With cheap 5G the car should connect to the network on its own. It doesn’t help that I find Carplay underwhelming: stabbing and swiping a screen while driving is a bad experience.
However, that doesn't give Apple a cut of the new vehicle margin.
Technology likes the environment to stay the same, which is impossible in a car.
(I also pointed this out originally but I have now owned two cars in the last ten years with head units that couldn't be replaced because the vehicle integration was too tightly coupled.)
I wonder if the new widgets capability in iOS 15 will allow you to get close to that. I’ll have to make a screen for that when it’s out of beta to see.
Has anyone tried this yet? (or something like it)
Disc: Googler.
Android Auto running on Android is different -- it has a 50 state legal purpose: Android is a popular OS for in-car infotainment. Apple CarPlay runs on Android too, that's how it was implemented in my car from the factory.
iOS, by contrast, is not used for car infotainment systems, only Apple's mobile devices. Apple is unlikely to go out of their way to make a product for their mobile devices that is intended to be used while driving that could only be used on a mobile device.
Android Auto was released in 2015, which only ran on a handful of OEM head units: https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/8259565/google-launches-a...
In late 2016, Google allowed it to be run on-phone: https://web.archive.org/web/20161107221224/https://blog.goog...
It's really just my opinion that Apple wouldn't go out of their way to port software to a different platform with no PR-friendly purpose.
Yes, but these were Android tablets fitted into head units. Not Androind Auto - a UI specifically designed to be used while driving which would make the Android OS liable for legal issues.
> It's really just my opinion that Apple wouldn't go out of their way to port software to a different platform with no PR-friendly purpose.
They don't need to. The ask in this comment thread was to have the CarPlay UI on the phone itself - the phone being an iPhone.