I'm Getting a New Car, and I Don't Care About CarPlay

Am I insane?

Time and time again, I’m hearing people say that they wouldn’t buy a new care without Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.¹ (The after-show on the latest episode of Mac Power Users was the last example.) I also hear how stupid some companies are for not including these systems in their cars. And I just don’t get it. Or, to be honest: I think I know some reasons why my opinion seems to differ from most people’s.

I live in the land of EVs

Norway has been subsidising EVs heavily for many years. And I think this statistic shows the effect well:

To put things into perspective: The EV market share in the US is currently at 8.9%, which is well below the 13% we had all the way back in 2014 – ten years ago.²

A welcome effect of this, is that we also have a healthy used-market for EVs – so I literally can’t remember the last time I talked to someone who weren’t buying an EV.³ I’ll come back to why this is important!

My experience

The car I’ve had for the last 3 years, is a 2019 Tesla Model 3, which I bought used. My wife and I are expecting our first kid in May, and we have a large dog – so we need something larger in the next 6 months. That’s why I’ve been looking at new cars again.

I’m pleased with my Model 3! And the Model Y would probably be the best purchase for us. But I simply don’t want to buy one, due to *gestures in the general direction of Elon Musk*. Luckily, we have tons of options over here. But when I started doing my research, I found myself not caring about whether the cars had CarPlay – even though I’m heavily entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.⁴

The reasons I haven’t missed CarPlay

A big caveat is that I haven’t owned a car with CarPlay – so maybe I’m missing something obvious! However, I’ve never really missed it either.

Another important factor is that the software in the Tesla is pretty great. I entirely understand that CarPlay can be a hotfix for crappy infotainment, though.⁵

But anyway, I just don’t miss CarPlay when:

• I already get my phone calls etc. in the car,
• the map and navigation is great, and picks up events from my calendar automatically,
• I have radio right there,
• and I’m logged into my Tidal account (which changes to my wife’s if she’s driving).

The only things I don’t have access to, is things like podcasts and audiobooks. But when I’m alone, I just listen with my AirPods (on transparency of course!) as I go in and out of the car. And if I’m with someone else – that’s the only time we use the bluetooth connection to the phone. So, yeah – having access to those things would absolutely be a little bonus of having CarPlay. But it’s really minor!

Could a factor be that, since we’re not English natives (and these tools are much worse in Norwegian), there’s some voice stuff I’m missing? For instance, if some like having access to texting by voice. Genuinely confused!

Overlooked negatives about CarPlay

Again, I get that CarPlay can be better than a crappy built-in infotainment – or if you’re borrowing or renting a car. But there are some things that make me dislike the idea of carmakers resting on CarPlay bailing them out:

Disconnected look and feel

Let’s take navigation as an example:

• My car has only one massive screen. And I really like that when I use navigation, it takes up a lot of space. It’s a bit like how the iPhone revolutionised things, by being able to prioritise area.
• Another nice example, is a car that has a decent screen in the middle, a smaller screen behind the steering wheel, and a HUD (head-up display). While navigating, you’ll get a decent showing in the middle, while you also get some information behind the steering wheel. When you should make a turn, you also get notified in the HUD.
• Compared to both of these, just having navigation in a little, disconnected CarPlay window, seems like a substantial downgrade.⁶

With an integrated system, every part of the software (also the non-infotainment ones) can be cohesive. Apple fans should be able to see the appeal in that!

Battery woes

Last year, my wife and I really put the EV lifestyle to the test, when we drove from Norway to Toulouse in southern France. That was a three-day drive – but navigation and charging was effortless:

1. We put in where we wanted to end up,
2. the car calculated when (and thus where) we needed to charge – which it also changed on the fly if things changed,
3. and, importantly, when charging was near, it started pre-heating the battery.

That last point is important for the charging speed – especially in colder climates. And it’s something I think many people are missing, if you’re not used to EVs.

Now, please correct me if I’m wrong here – and I know all of this could be fixed in the future, but:

The thing is, for the longest time, CarPlay didn’t know about your battery’s state of charge. And hopefully the example above shows why that’s a big nerf to the navigation! They did start to roll out support for this a year or two ago – but I don’t think many cars support it yet. And I don’t think there’s a way for the CarPlay navigation to tell the battery to start pre-heating.

Maybe I’ll eat my words!

As most cars I’m looking at do support CarPlay, and also might have worse built-in systems than Tesla, I’ll might become a convert in a year…

Some big pros for CarPlay:

• I stand by the idea that the ceiling is higher on integrated systems – but the floor is much lower. And, in general, carmakers are far from having earned our trust, when it comes to creating good software.
• As someone who uses a more niche music streaming app, in Tidal, in lucky that my car supports it natively. CarPlay provides a much larger variety of services.
• It also, probably, provides more longevity – compared to the very real fear that the carmaker just “forgets” about your car.
• I’ve already mentioned the benefits if you’re borrowing or renting a car.
• And it’s also way easier to create more thorough integration with things like messages, calendars, etc.

And as my most important con regarding CarPlay is exclusive to EVs, I genuinely understand it being important if you’re buying an ICE car.

My conclusion

If I were to sum it up, I think there are two main points I want people to think about:

1. I want more people to be aware of the significant cons of CarPlay when it comes to EVs.
2. And I think it would be more nuanced if people went from saying “my next car has to have CarPlay” to: “My next car has to have CarPlay – unless the built-in software is great”.

And I kind of get why car company CEOs chooses not to integrate it:

• As the ceiling is higher on integrated systems, it can become a differentiation.
• And if they don’t have CarPlay to lean on, they have to work harder on making their own software great. I mean, imagine the pressure on GM to deliver a software experience customers like!

Perhaps you could say that, people who are really serious about making hardware should make their own software?