Some thoughts on carplay

[MattBW]

Although there are a few threads on stereos with Carplay, I thought I would post my own thread after a week using carplay and my thoughts on it. To put that into perspective I have been pondering a stereo upgrade but I've been struggling to justify it to myself.

My 2015 Cali came with an RNS 315, it has DAB, Satnav, and after enabling it myself BT music and phone functions. Pretty much everything I need.

I've been driving my partners 65 plate Seat this week, which has the same stereo as the VW which includes carplay etc. I was quite keen to use it and see if it offered something worth the upgrade. this is me just pouring my thoughts onto the page. Would welcome any counter points or thoughts.

Voice activation
Being able to say hey Siri and send messages, change the music or make a call is brilliant. However I have now realised that if my phone is connected to power that this feature works anyway, even with my RNS 315.

Text messages were almost laughable in how wrong it got them, doesn't seem quite there yet but that seems to be road noise that confuses it. I know siri works mostly ok in the house.

Phone calls, generally calls the right person but got it wrong a few times. The siri activated calls also works with my rns315 so its siri that lets the side down.

Music selection
The hands free music selection works ok (but then it works exactly the same with my iphone anyway) but it is a bit cumbersome. The carplay interface lets you play a song or playlist but its a bit hit and miss, if I asked Siri to play an album it sometimes told me it wasn't available even though it was. It will let you create a station from any playingsong but wont let you see more from that artist or select another of their albums. I found myself using the controls at times and having to stop to ensure I was safe.

Satnav
Voice activation works well for directions, I really liked it, the screen is clear and concise if maybe a little too basic and devoid of extra handy info. I'm also wondering if there is some sort of delay, it seems less accurate and a little laggy when driving. This may be the combination of phone gps lag and screen lag combined for updates that seemed delayed.

It got me there but I was usually closer to the turn than the satnav showed. Here I still think my satnav wins on speed, accuracy and of course works without phone reception or data. The only upsides are apple data should be more upto date and be good for finding places that might reside in "POI" on the 315. You also don't have to spend a small fortune to get the inaccurate maps barely updated each year.

The biggest weakness is that you need your phone. I know, I know that is obvious but this was really apparent my iphone stopped charging in the week and I couldn't repair the charging port until the evening. For this reason I would probably want a carplay unit with satnav too if travelling aboard, a few aftermarket seem to have satnav as optional.

Display
For me the whole appeal of a more advanced setup and deeper integration is a more pleasing visual appearance. I like to see album art (quicker at a glance than reading the text) but for some reason on carplay art is only ever blurred behind the text, you can't see it and can only vaguely make it out. Pointless?

Using other apps
You can't use anything other than what apple says you can use, so its in effect phone, Apple maps music, text and books/podcasts. Too restrictive at present?


My conclusion:
I like the clean style and undistracting UI. Voice activation is getting better but works with the phone on my rns315 anyway. For me it needs a bit more development from apple until it's a must have feature. A bit like my apple watch, I wear it every day but I don't really have any must have use or need to, I just use it because it's there. For now I've enjoyed playing with carplay but the RNS 315 has a few years in it yet.

 

[Loz]

I think that pretty much sums up my experience with the carplay with one additional annoyance, sometimes it switches off the radio (selects the phone for media) but nothing is playing and even if you press the radio button it switch back, the only way to fix it is to play music off the phone and then press the radio button.

For longer journeys I always use my iPad with full TomTom western Europe with traffic and speed warnings.

 

[Alibee]

Voice activation
Being able to say hey Siri and send messages, change the music or make a call is brilliant. However I have now realised that if my phone is connected to power that this feature works anyway, even with my RNS 315.

Text messages were almost laughable in how wrong it got them, doesn't seem quite there yet but that seems to be road noise that confuses it. I know siri works mostly ok in the house.

Phone calls, generally calls the right person but got it wrong a few times. The siri activated calls also works with my rns315 so its siri that lets the side down.

Thanks for the thoughts Matt, that's really very useful.

It's worth noting that the voice-activated functions are almost certainly using the functionality natively provided by the phone, rather than anything VW have introduced. My experience with both manufacturers is that Android phones have substantially better voice-driven functionality (possibly because of the processing power available to Google and their greater focus on language analytics?) than my iPhones.

I've used my Nexus 4 & 5x for voice-driven calls, text, searches, etc in my T4 for a couple of years now and the results have generally been very accurate and consistent, although there have been some flaws from either software limitations or cabin / road noise / dog licking/chewing phone!

One of the major differences has been the ability to have more of 'conversation' with Android where iOS tends to forget what you were talking about. This is particularly the evident in web searches (e.g.: "Which country has the largest land area? What is its population? How many are unemployed?) but also extends to phone-based tasks.

I won't be able to give thoughts on the Android / App Connect functionality until late March, but I'll make sure I post them once I do.

 

[Loz]

Thanks for the thoughts Matt, that's really very useful.

It's worth noting that the voice-activated functions are almost certainly using the functionality natively provided by the phone, rather than anything VW have introduced.

Yes, quite correct, as VW voice control is a different and additional cost/feature over and above carplay/app connect.

 

[Lewis]

Agree with lots of what has been said so far. Would be really interested to hear from an android user who has substantial experience with Android Auto on App Connect for comparison.

I've found the Siri voice control to be very accurate when it's me alone in the car but less so with passengers - I think partly though I'm quieter and slightly more self-conscious when others are in the car and this makes it work less well.

I do love the Siri and Apple Music combination - well worth the monthly subscription imo.

Same feelings about Maps, Apple is an inferior product to Google but can't see them relaxing that restriction anytime soon.

All that being said, I'm glad I didn't spend over £1000 on Sat Nav, CarPlay does the job more than sufficiently

 

[AndyFromTheBrac]

Interesting comments Matt. Worth checking if your external mic is actually functioning for CarPlay (or it's just using your phone). I had that kind of issue before had a mic wired up and the "confusion" has all but disappeared now.

For me apple maps, though behind google maps is streets ahead of the RNS products in terms of features, functionality and clarity.

 

[MattBW]

Interesting comments Matt. Worth checking if your external mic is actually functioning for CarPlay (or it's just using your phone). I had that kind of issue before had a mic wired up and the "confusion" has all but disappeared now.

For me apple maps, though behind google maps is streets ahead of the RNS products in terms of features, functionality and clarity.

It is a fully loaded Seat, how would I check the mic is the car one being used? Is there a way to determine it. The Seat seems to only offer wired carplay too.

 

[Loz]

It is a fully loaded Seat, how would I check the mic is the car one being used? Is there a way to determine it. The Seat seems to only offer wired carplay too.

start siri, then stroke the microphone grille with your nail and see if the wave at the bottom of the siri screen reacts..

 

[Teejay]

Although there are a few threads on stereos with Carplay, I thought I would post my own thread after a week using carplay and my thoughts on it. To put that into perspective I have been pondering a stereo upgrade but I've been struggling to justify it to myself.

<snip>
.

Voice activation
Works well when it wants to, I've used the Google while driving to say things like "how far to X from here" it generally is pretty good. I can use it to navigate to here and it generally is fine.

Text messages
Again this is hit and miss, it's funny when I was getting really rather annoyed at it one day I shouted, " *uckity, *uckity, *uck, *uck, *uck, useless *ucker." It managed to understand every word perfectly and send it to my wife without problem. She was howling with laughter when she read it.

Phone calls,
This is more successful when using Google, but when and use it from the wheel ,i.e. VW system with the connect bluetooth phone it often fails to call at all and the phone reboots. So for hands free calls I really need to disconnect Android Auto and just use Bluetooth.

Music selection
I don't have a lot music there but dislike the Google Play app, I cannot seem to get the application to just play instead of shuffling everything.

Satnav
With TOMTOM on the same phone it very rarely puts a foot wrong and gives directions with plenty of time. However, I find that sometimes Google seems to tell me to take an exit several seconds after I've made the turn. More of an oddity with Google no doubt.

Display
Same here, although I find that it seems to select night time view when it seems perfectly bright outside. I turned up the brightness on the screen. From within the VW settings.

Waze is supposed to be able to use the speakers but I have to select Bluetooth as the media source. I'm sure that this was ok in the past so not sure if I've changed a setting.

I'd love if I could select the SATNAV app because TOMTOM would be my choice, but I cannot see that happening anywhere in the near or distant future. The did tout Waze as option, it does have more useful items like cameras and speed information.

Ramblings end

..me..

 

[DM]

Pretty much agree with everyone hing you say Matt. One frustration is the fact that it disables Bluetooth so Mrs DM can't control the music whilst I have the navigation.

 

[John Ramage]

I've got a Kenwood DNX525DAB and I was thinking of upgrading it to Carplay and have decided to put it on hold for now until car play improves. However I have found that I can use Hey Siri on my apple watch to control my music,playlists, send texts and make calls and it all works amazingly well