About CarPlay
Apple's HomeKit and HealthKit, which are Apple-designed, are different from CarPlay (formerly branded iOS in the Car), which is designed to partner with the operating systems already present in cars, most especially QNX, which is owned by Blackberry.
ZDNet | BlackBerry's QNX: Why it's so valuable to Apple, Google, auto industry
Summary: For smartphone giants looking to take their experiences to auto dashboards, all roads at least tie into BlackBerry's QNX platform. Here's why.
BerryReview | John Chen Confirms Apple CarPlay is Powered By QNX “Underlying Technology”
itechwhiz | Apple CarPlay: iCars with iPhone, QNX and Pioneer Aftermarket
Last month my wife's transmission failed for the second time. Since her minivan already had 170K miles on it we decided to trade for a new one from among the carmakers named in the articles above. The new vehicle has a console display and lots of buttons and knobs to control various facets of its operation, plus a USB port and Bluetooth. Maybe many of you are already familiar with these sorts of features -- I don't expect that many are new -- but since my wife and I had been driving around in vehicles that were at least 14 years old before this, it's all new to me.
The thing is, the interface to this infotainment system kinda sucks. We learned from someone at the dealership that large improvements are expected once Apple's CarPlay has been integrated, and I have no doubt that this will be true given Apple's UI expertise and the relative suckage of what's in the vehicle now.
Another basis for comparison comes from about three years ago when a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and plowed into me. I was fine but my car was not, initially totaled but I talked the insurance adjustor into applying the pittance they would have given me to replace it towards repair and paying for a rental while my car was in the shop. The rental was a Ford and used Microsoft Sync in its console. I thought it sucked even worse than the experience I'm seeing now in my wife's new vehicle. It's no wonder that Ford bailed on Microsoft for at least some of its former functions.
My hope is the maker of our new vehicle will offer a firmware update to at least some of its current models so that my wife (and I) will be able to start having a much more usable (and safer!), hands-free interface to her console infotainment. |
