Volvo to leave CarPlay alone, focus on other value adds

[rcjordan]

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/14/volvo-to-focus-on-value-adds-outside-the-infotainment-system-will-leave-carplay-alone

[Rumbas]

I've never gotten the idea behind carplay?
Today, I get into my car, the bluetooth automatically connects my phone and music, phone calls and text messages integrate seamlessly without any carplay or other fancy stuff? What am I missing?

[Torben]

> What am I missing?

Navigation

[rcjordan]

> Navigation

I hate to say it, but in the Volvo Google maps gps is significantly better easier to use than Apple or even *gasp* Louise's beloved Waze.  The dominant feature is being able to insert intermediate destinations easily.  It is also easy to change their order.  It handles voice commands very well.

Google is the default in the Volvo. Apple CarPlay just got the full version with the V's firmware update about a week ago.

Privacy is out-the-window, of course, but G provides an awesome interface in the dash of a high-end vehicle.  I say this begrudgingly, but they did a good job and are going to be hard to beat.
 

[ergophobe]

>> bluetooth ... seamlessly

I don't think I've ever seen those words in the same sentence. I remember getting blasted when my wife's phone would connect to the speaker in the office, not the car, and not hearing her audio, would turn the volume way up in the car thinking the problem was the volume turned all the way down.

https://xkcd.com/2055/




>> navigation

I would say more generally that you have a bigger to much, much bigger (Tesla) display and bigger icons, so it's easier to use the interface while driving with a lot less eyes off the road time. Maybe that's a bad thing, but with the phone, I need to pull over for many of these tasks. I'm not taking phone calls, reading texts or listening to music, which probably do work well on Bluetooth. It's mostly navigation, podcasts, audiobooks and I find the larger display and larger icons make it easier to queue up the book I want or podcast I want

[rcjordan]

>bigger (Tesla) display and bigger icons

The Vv XC40 has a center-dash display about the size of an Ipad.  Icons are postage stamp size.    They duplicate the current gps route map on a smaller display in the dash directly behind the steering wheel.  But voice control is good-to-excellent so a lot of selections are done that way.

The Assisted Cruise will steer itself, do braking, maintain distances & speed, etc. so on a decent highway and even some worn, faded, or poorly marked rural roads it drives itself (but requires a hand on the wheel [which I think I can defeat]).

>blasted

We still get blasted occasionally.

>text

Ugggh!  It reads incoming texts to Louise and she can reply by voice.  She loves it. I hate it.

[ergophobe]

>> postage stamp size

Do you mean that literally or figuratively? I would say ours are a bit bigger than postage stamp size, which makes them 3-4 times bigger than on the phone.

[rcjordan]

literally.

Approx 3/4 x 3/4 inches, iirc. 

[ergophobe]

Sounds about right. I find that bigger size handy. I wondered how vehicle-specific it is.