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I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it. I use my phone for navigation a

I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it. I use my phone for navigation and mount it such that when I look at it I am not taking my eyes off the road. I find this to be far better than having to look down at the center of my dashboard but CarPlay navigation UI via Google Maps or Waze also works fine so it’s not a huge difference. Realistically the only navigation UI have seen that was better was a 2012 or 2013 BMW 5 series which had a HUD that projected my location, speed, heading and turn by turn navigation (with lane info!) onto the windshield. That system rocked because of how the projected UI had your eyes focus farther out so you had a very easy time perceiving the road ahead while getting the next direction info. I assume my next car will have it and I might even upgrade the radio in my current car to have it but it is to me entirely optional.

ipdashc 3mo ago
> I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it. I'm in the same boat, though with Android Auto or whatever. I'm honestly surprised how many people seem to need CarPlay; a comment or two down there's a stat claiming 79% of buyers wouldn't buy a car without it. Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it? I don't get it. It's a nice to have for sure, but honestly not that special, and gets annoying at times (when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone, plus a few other minor grievances). And it's not much easier than just plugging in an aux cord.
- shawabawa3 3mo ago
  I'm one of the people that wouldn't buy a card without android auto and carplay support Car UIs are just universally awful. Even if somehow you find one with a decent UI, it will never get updated and within 5 years it will suck
  - IgorPartola 2mo ago
    No within 5 years it would be exactly the same :)
- KingMachiavelli 3mo ago
  In some states you no longer can interact with a phone at all unless mounted. Phone mounts kind of suck or you’ll be in a rental without your nice mount. A 15” screen is easier to read than a small phone bouncing on a mount. If I’m spending $10K on something, I want the Android/iOS experience to be first-class instead of some shitty UI designed be people who I presume don’t drive cars. Cars are otherwise fungible between brands. If one has CarPlay/Android Auto there is little reason to pick a brand that lacks support.
  - leoedin 3mo ago
    I recently upgraded to a car with CarPlay, and it's actually a worse user experience than just having my phone on a really solid Brodit phone holder. For example - when using Google Maps on my phone I can pan around the map to look at nearby places really quickly - maybe while I'm stopped at traffic lights, and then reset back to the navigation. Spotify in CarPlay is really hard to use - much harder than the normal app. Whether it plays the song you want seems to be a game of chance.
- yoavm 3mo ago
  I use Android and having Android Auto is absolutely a must have for me. AUX cord? It's been a few years since I've seen a phone with a headphone jack, or a car with an AUX input. I also don't miss the time where my phone had to be connected on one side to USB for charging, on the other side to the sounds system, and my navigation was done using a a 6" screen that kept falling between the chairs. Android Auto/CarPlay let's you connect one thing (or not at all), have your phone charged, your navigation clear, and your music playing smoothly and controlled with the physical car knobs.
- geocar 3mo ago
  CarPlay is better than android auto in that it works with my iPhone; as to why it is currently in _my_ requirements, it’s simple: I rent cars when I travel, I’m too lazy to memorise so many maps, and I don’t have a good mount I can bring with me. That being said I think there are a few things that make my carplay experience _worse_ than my friends’ android auto experience: for example today I am annoyed by google maps spam me with notifications trying to get me to use googles maps instead of waze which is so fucking stupid since it’s also google and it just makes me more annoyed with google instead of being the sort of thing that would convince me to switch to android. But I have to admit the google maps and waze integration on android is better.
- ExoticPearTree 3mo ago
  > Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it? It just works and it is, like others before me said, consistent. I can connect my iPhone to any car I drive that has CatPlay and the dashboard looks like I like it. And Spotify starts right from where it left off in the other car. Can't speak for the Android experience.
  - rkangel 3mo ago
    The Android Auto experience is very smooth and fundamentally exactly the same.
- square_usual 3mo ago
  > when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone This is on Google Maps. Nothing about Auto/CarPlay prevents this. Google just chose to do this.
artisinal 3mo ago
I use CarPlay as an extended screen but still do everything on my phone that is mounted on the dashboard. Works good for me.
namdnay 3mo ago
> having to look down at the center of my dashboard that's why more recent models move the screen higher up. it sometimes looks a bit silly (like they glued an ipad on top of the dashboard), but it's a lot more usable > HUD that projected my location, speed, heading and turn by turn navigation (with lane info!) onto the windshield the latest carplay implementations are compatible with the inbuilt navigation aids, so turn signals from waze/maps/whatever will feed into the HUD
- cmovq 3mo ago
  I wish everyone would just have an option to see the navigation the the gauge cluster.
  - izacus 3mo ago
    That's a very common feature nowadays, isn't it? For a rather new models. E.g. Peugeot 4008 I was driving a few months ago could show CarPlay/Auto maps on main gauge cluster.
    - Telaneo 3mo ago
      My Kia Soul has a version of this, but it doesn't integrate with Carplay, and the maps that came with the car are already outdated enough to bother me.
      - bjord 3mo ago
        you actually may be able to update these. it's worth looking into.
        Telaneo 3mo ago
        The maps? Why would I bother when I can use Carplay instead? The car's integration with Carplay? Even models that are 4 years newer than mine seem to still not have this. Not sure what's going on there.
geocar 3mo ago
Having my phone mounted is fine but it’s been hard for me to find a good mount that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions? I don’t hate carplay but some things annoy me like I can’t Shazam what I’m listening to in the car because CarPlay pauses the cars audio. I would be willing to try to make it optional until CarPlay works better.
- xxs 3mo ago
  >that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions? Clip based ones, worst case you can mount them on the aircon vents. They are not great in general but they are cheap and you can fit them pretty much anywhere
  - geocar 3mo ago
    Do you have a specific suggestion? I have tried everything that is available at my local shops (which looks like it came from Temu)
    - xxs 3mo ago
      You can try 'ugreen phone holder car' in amazon. Ugreen is an ok brand. Usually there will be a hook and some tension mechanism for the air vent.
- IgorPartola 2mo ago
  I ride motorcycles so I use Quad Lock. It’s an expensive ecosystem and you must use their specific case but it works incredibly well and has every kind of mount and various extenders that let you modify it to be just right.
iainmerrick 3mo ago
How do you mount your phone in a rental car? Do you bring your own phone holder with you?
- cromka 3mo ago
  You pay 50 USD extra for the holder, duh!
- benhurmarcel 3mo ago
  When I plan to use a rental car I usually pack a phone holder that fits on air vents. You never know if you’ll be able to connect your phone to the car so that’s a small backup.
  - bluGill 3mo ago
    Be sure to let them know at the rental corner if you are dissatisfied because it doesn't work with your phone. Run car companies buy a lot of cars and in turn actually have input to how a car is made and they also have reason to care about your satisfaction. rental cars is one of the best places to get things to change because the rental car companies can get a change that you alone otherwise couldn't get made.
King-Aaron 3mo ago
I'm going to jump in and say I mostly agree. It's no big issue for me one way or another to have a car with the technology from factory, and I do like having the wireless connectivity - music from the phone etc is really nice - but visual maps and visual UI add no value to me personally. The setup I have for my project car is ideal for me - a small bluetooth receiving amplifier that feeds the speakers directly. It's all hidden behind the dash, has no visible UI, but I get in the car and the phone takes over, it's in a cradle and becomes the head unit. I never need to see a map on screen (Maybe because I grew up doing orienteering, or can just listen to the verbal directions, I'm not sure) so that doesn't bother me. And siri can handle hands-off interaction with the device when needed. I did upgrade the head unit in my family/daily car to support carplay etc, but the primary motivator there was finding a unit that could support a reversing camera. It certainly made the interior feel more modern, but again I don't think it adds much value to me personally.
pipe2devnull 3mo ago
When I put in directions on my phone it gives me turn by turn directions in the gauge cluster so I don’t have to look at the center screen as often

ipdashc 3mo ago

> I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it. I'm in the same boat, though with Android Auto or whatever. I'm honestly surprised how many people seem to need CarPlay; a comment or two down there's a stat claiming 79% of buyers wouldn't buy a car without it. Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it? I don't get it. It's a nice to have for sure, but honestly not that special, and gets annoying at times (when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone, plus a few other minor grievances). And it's not much easier than just plugging in an aux cord.

shawabawa3 3mo ago
I'm one of the people that wouldn't buy a card without android auto and carplay support Car UIs are just universally awful. Even if somehow you find one with a decent UI, it will never get updated and within 5 years it will suck
- IgorPartola 2mo ago
  No within 5 years it would be exactly the same :)
KingMachiavelli 3mo ago
In some states you no longer can interact with a phone at all unless mounted. Phone mounts kind of suck or you’ll be in a rental without your nice mount. A 15” screen is easier to read than a small phone bouncing on a mount. If I’m spending $10K on something, I want the Android/iOS experience to be first-class instead of some shitty UI designed be people who I presume don’t drive cars. Cars are otherwise fungible between brands. If one has CarPlay/Android Auto there is little reason to pick a brand that lacks support.
- leoedin 3mo ago
  I recently upgraded to a car with CarPlay, and it's actually a worse user experience than just having my phone on a really solid Brodit phone holder. For example - when using Google Maps on my phone I can pan around the map to look at nearby places really quickly - maybe while I'm stopped at traffic lights, and then reset back to the navigation. Spotify in CarPlay is really hard to use - much harder than the normal app. Whether it plays the song you want seems to be a game of chance.
yoavm 3mo ago
I use Android and having Android Auto is absolutely a must have for me. AUX cord? It's been a few years since I've seen a phone with a headphone jack, or a car with an AUX input. I also don't miss the time where my phone had to be connected on one side to USB for charging, on the other side to the sounds system, and my navigation was done using a a 6" screen that kept falling between the chairs. Android Auto/CarPlay let's you connect one thing (or not at all), have your phone charged, your navigation clear, and your music playing smoothly and controlled with the physical car knobs.
geocar 3mo ago
CarPlay is better than android auto in that it works with my iPhone; as to why it is currently in _my_ requirements, it’s simple: I rent cars when I travel, I’m too lazy to memorise so many maps, and I don’t have a good mount I can bring with me. That being said I think there are a few things that make my carplay experience _worse_ than my friends’ android auto experience: for example today I am annoyed by google maps spam me with notifications trying to get me to use googles maps instead of waze which is so fucking stupid since it’s also google and it just makes me more annoyed with google instead of being the sort of thing that would convince me to switch to android. But I have to admit the google maps and waze integration on android is better.
ExoticPearTree 3mo ago
> Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it? It just works and it is, like others before me said, consistent. I can connect my iPhone to any car I drive that has CatPlay and the dashboard looks like I like it. And Spotify starts right from where it left off in the other car. Can't speak for the Android experience.
- rkangel 3mo ago
  The Android Auto experience is very smooth and fundamentally exactly the same.
square_usual 3mo ago
> when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone This is on Google Maps. Nothing about Auto/CarPlay prevents this. Google just chose to do this.

artisinal 3mo ago

I use CarPlay as an extended screen but still do everything on my phone that is mounted on the dashboard. Works good for me.

namdnay 3mo ago

> having to look down at the center of my dashboard that's why more recent models move the screen higher up. it sometimes looks a bit silly (like they glued an ipad on top of the dashboard), but it's a lot more usable > HUD that projected my location, speed, heading and turn by turn navigation (with lane info!) onto the windshield the latest carplay implementations are compatible with the inbuilt navigation aids, so turn signals from waze/maps/whatever will feed into the HUD

cmovq 3mo ago
I wish everyone would just have an option to see the navigation the the gauge cluster.
- izacus 3mo ago
  That's a very common feature nowadays, isn't it? For a rather new models. E.g. Peugeot 4008 I was driving a few months ago could show CarPlay/Auto maps on main gauge cluster.
  - Telaneo 3mo ago
    My Kia Soul has a version of this, but it doesn't integrate with Carplay, and the maps that came with the car are already outdated enough to bother me.
    - bjord 3mo ago
      you actually may be able to update these. it's worth looking into.
      - Telaneo 3mo ago
        The maps? Why would I bother when I can use Carplay instead? The car's integration with Carplay? Even models that are 4 years newer than mine seem to still not have this. Not sure what's going on there.

geocar 3mo ago

Having my phone mounted is fine but it’s been hard for me to find a good mount that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions? I don’t hate carplay but some things annoy me like I can’t Shazam what I’m listening to in the car because CarPlay pauses the cars audio. I would be willing to try to make it optional until CarPlay works better.

xxs 3mo ago
>that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions? Clip based ones, worst case you can mount them on the aircon vents. They are not great in general but they are cheap and you can fit them pretty much anywhere
- geocar 3mo ago
  Do you have a specific suggestion? I have tried everything that is available at my local shops (which looks like it came from Temu)
  - xxs 3mo ago
    You can try 'ugreen phone holder car' in amazon. Ugreen is an ok brand. Usually there will be a hook and some tension mechanism for the air vent.
IgorPartola 2mo ago
I ride motorcycles so I use Quad Lock. It’s an expensive ecosystem and you must use their specific case but it works incredibly well and has every kind of mount and various extenders that let you modify it to be just right.

iainmerrick 3mo ago

How do you mount your phone in a rental car? Do you bring your own phone holder with you?

cromka 3mo ago
You pay 50 USD extra for the holder, duh!
benhurmarcel 3mo ago
When I plan to use a rental car I usually pack a phone holder that fits on air vents. You never know if you’ll be able to connect your phone to the car so that’s a small backup.
- bluGill 3mo ago
  Be sure to let them know at the rental corner if you are dissatisfied because it doesn't work with your phone. Run car companies buy a lot of cars and in turn actually have input to how a car is made and they also have reason to care about your satisfaction. rental cars is one of the best places to get things to change because the rental car companies can get a change that you alone otherwise couldn't get made.

King-Aaron 3mo ago

I'm going to jump in and say I mostly agree. It's no big issue for me one way or another to have a car with the technology from factory, and I do like having the wireless connectivity - music from the phone etc is really nice - but visual maps and visual UI add no value to me personally. The setup I have for my project car is ideal for me - a small bluetooth receiving amplifier that feeds the speakers directly. It's all hidden behind the dash, has no visible UI, but I get in the car and the phone takes over, it's in a cradle and becomes the head unit. I never need to see a map on screen (Maybe because I grew up doing orienteering, or can just listen to the verbal directions, I'm not sure) so that doesn't bother me. And siri can handle hands-off interaction with the device when needed. I did upgrade the head unit in my family/daily car to support carplay etc, but the primary motivator there was finding a unit that could support a reversing camera. It certainly made the interior feel more modern, but again I don't think it adds much value to me personally.

pipe2devnull 3mo ago

When I put in directions on my phone it gives me turn by turn directions in the gauge cluster so I don’t have to look at the center screen as often