Apple CarPlay & Lexus

[Ian Schmidt]

Right, CarPlay is a superset of Siri Eyes Free. Either way it's good to have.

 

[Ch’Pok]

The other thing to consider is the regular updates provided by smartphone makers. Smartphone users (especially Apple) have become accustomed to yearly, significant updates of the OS. Automakers, on the other hand, have a “planned obsolescence” business model. Unless automakers want to start putting much stronger processors in their infotainment systems, I doubt a yearly update scheme would even be possible for them. Except, maybe, for the top of their ranges, like the LS.
Imagine what capabilities iOS or Android will have eight years from now and realize a car’s OS is not likely to change noticeably during that time.

 

[spwolf]

The other thing to consider is the regular updates provided by smartphone makers. Smartphone users (especially Apple) have become accustomed to yearly, significant updates of the OS. Automakers, on the other hand, have a “planned obsolescence” business model. Unless automakers want to start putting much stronger processors in their infotainment systems, I doubt a yearly update scheme would even be possible for them. Except, maybe, for the top of their ranges, like the LS.
Imagine what capabilities iOS or Android will have eight years from now and realize a car’s OS is not likely to change noticeably during that time.

it is also impossible to use your 8 year phone with new features, so thats a moot point. Heck, even 3 year old is a problem.

If manufacturers would follow Apple model, then you would throw away your car after 3-4 years because it would take 15 seconds to turn on vehicle.

 

[ssun30]

The other thing to consider is the regular updates provided by smartphone makers. Smartphone users (especially Apple) have become accustomed to yearly, significant updates of the OS. Automakers, on the other hand, have a “planned obsolescence” business model. Unless automakers want to start putting much stronger processors in their infotainment systems, I doubt a yearly update scheme would even be possible for them. Except, maybe, for the top of their ranges, like the LS.
Imagine what capabilities iOS or Android will have eight years from now and realize a car’s OS is not likely to change noticeably during that time.

Consumer electronics manufacturers are the biggest practitioners of planned obsolescence. Most of their products are designed with a guaranteed life of 18 months, after that it all comes down to luck of the user. I don't see how cars are made with planned obsolescence in mind given that even the least reliable ones remain usable after ten years.

There was a time when it was a common practice for smartphone manufacturers to use Li-ion batteries that are rated to only 300 charging cycles (600 with built-in protection) so the batteries will stop working after 18 months. It is only after the Apple battery scandal that they request suppliers to make batteries with up to 700 (or 1100 with protection) charging cycles. Still smartphones have lots of parts that are designed to fail way before the batteries hit the 700 cycle mark.

But you are right automakers could make OTA updates of the infotainment system; it's really the way of the future. However it will depend on the quality they are willing to invest in it. Tesla is known for buggy OTA updates (part of reason is their strategy of using customers as Beta testers). Lower end manufacturers are way worse than Tesla. I used to drive some chinese car-sharing EVs (in China, slapping a cheap tablet on the dashboard is the standard way of making the infotainment, so surprisingly even the cheapest shitboxes can do OTA updates); these things have at least three things that don't work: sometimes it's the AC; sometimes it's the regenerative braking control; sometimes it's the rear view camera; you discover something new everytime.

it is also impossible to use your 8 year phone with new features, so thats a moot point. Heck, even 3 year old is a problem.

If manufacturers would follow Apple model, then you would throw away your car after 3-4 years because it would take 15 seconds to turn on vehicle.

The electronics system that drives the vehicle itself is isolated from the infotainment, so OTA updates will not cause a car to be undrivable or unsafe. They will have tons of quirks that annoy the heck of the owner, if they don't make sure these updates work. Knowing TMC's standards, they will probably not do QA tests with their customers. The problem with Tesla is that these Beta version softwares not only control the infotainment, but also the drivetrain and safety systems, which is something a traditional automaker will never do.

 

[JJohn341]

Apple Car-Play is run entirely from the phone. As long as the car system has the interface ready, apple carplay will work without any hitches. Lexus only needs to worry about their systems and updating the firmware to support the car-play interface.

 

[telithos]

I don't know that I'd equate automobile obsolescence with what happens with consumer electronics. With automobiles, it's more of an issue of time to plan, engineer, manufacture and then put up for sale. Adding to that, they pretty much have to be a bit more on the conservative side given what damage a safety issue or reliability issue can do to a brand. With consumer electronics, some of it was certainly planned obsolescence, but some of it also had to do for the longest time with how quickly mobile hardware was advancing. You can see now that even phones as far back as the iPhone 5S are still receiving updates, where you were lucky for a while if your phone lasted >18 months. Android is a little different... not necessarily in a good way.

Digression aside, I look forward to Apple CarPlay being available for those trips that are longer than just a few minutes where I want to use Spotify or Google Maps from my phone (and maybe other apps eventually?). By necessity and also for cost reasons, the processors for automobile infotainment systems will never be quite as fast as what you can get in a state of the art mobile device, bearing in mind that a car is subject to much harsher conditions potentially than a phone ever will/should be. Giving consumers a choice is a good thing, especially since it sounds like once it's implemented, the car manufacturers don't have to do that much to support it (CarPlay or Android Auto).

As for why wireless CarPlay isn't that common: have you used wireless charging on your phone recently? Have you seen how hot your phone can get when just doing something intensive (think gaming, or playing music/running maps/some other stuff at the same time). I find it weird that Apple even allows it at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if you very easily run into thermal shutdown conditions on the phone if you try to do too much on it while wirelessly charging. Either that or it would just start throttling everything back like crazy. Also, wireless CarPlay also probably requires new bluetooth chips in the car, support in the infotainment system's firmware, *and* the requisite wireless charging pad (which is usually optional in most cars that even have it).

 

[Ian Schmidt]

If manufacturers would follow Apple model, then you would throw away your car after 3-4 years because it would take 15 seconds to turn on vehicle.

You missed Monday's big Apple shindig. iOS 12 will support the same phones as iOS 11 and it will (up to) triple performance on the oldest models it supports (which are now 5 years old). In the car industry only Tesla does anything remotely similar.

 

[spwolf]

You missed Monday's big Apple shindig. iOS 12 will support the same phones as iOS 11 and it will (up to) triple performance on the oldest models it supports (which are now 5 years old). In the car industry only Tesla does anything remotely similar.

i didnt miss it, i bet it is imaginary triple speed up of all phones... I am still mad that my barely used iPad Air after update from iOS 7 to iOS 10 got so slow that is basically unusable.

Dont get me wrong, I am p/o that Toyota Europe is dragging their feet with these integrations and being silent on Apple Carplay and Alexa.

 

[Sakura]

i didnt miss it, i bet it is imaginary triple speed up of all phones... I am still mad that my barely used iPad Air after update from iOS 7 to iOS 10 got so slow that is basically unusable.

Dont get me wrong, I am p/o that Toyota Europe is dragging their feet with these integrations and being silent on Apple Carplay and Alexa.

Apple is notorious for that, Spwolf. Updating the iOS on an older model iPhone, iPad or etc..., will result in the device being slower than it once was. It doesn't even have to be that old. I have experienced this with an iPhone that's 2 years old.

This issue will play into Apple's hands. For the people want to update to iOS 10 to use the new CarPlay stuff but have an old phone, they will be out of luck - the phone might get insanely slow and glitchly.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

This issue will play into Apple's hands. For the people want to update to iOS 10 to use the new CarPlay stuff but have an old phone, they will be out of luck - the phone might get insanely slow and glitchly.

Again, they're claiming they've optimized all the code from the kernel scheduler on up to perform better on older devices, so wait and see if that's really the case.

 

[Sakura]

Again, they're claiming they've optimized all the code from the kernel scheduler on up to perform better on older devices, so wait and see if that's really the case.

Really? I guess we see then. I didn't know about that. I just had bad experiences with iOS upgrades.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Enough people had bad experiences that they're doing something about it

 

[ross7777]

https://lexus2.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10174/p/190,1684

Lexus remains committed to enhancing our in-vehicle multimedia guest experience. We are currently conducting an internal trial for Apple CarPlay® compatibility in some 2018 LC, 2018 LS, 2018/19 NX, 2018 RC, 2018/19 RC F, and 2019 ES (non-navigation). At this time, we do not have any additional information we can share but anticipate providing further details to the applicable guests in Summer 2019.

 

[krew]

Very interesting detail!

 

[krew]

krew

Lexus to Bring Apple CarPlay to Select Older Models

Some LC/LS/NX/RC/RC F could get iPhone functionality.

View the original article post

 

[Deusex]

Android Auto for RX, please!

 

[yiantony]

It's good to see that they are testing these out. They should simply offer infotainment units upgrade. Btw it's funny to see them keeping a distance from Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and now since AC is integrated, you can see Apple CarPlay on pretty much all the Toyota car ads on Instagram. They know how important this thing is.

 

[guanche2k9]

Hopefully they'll apply the same backwards compatibility for Enform 2.0 with Android Auto!

 

[krew]

Hopefully they'll apply the same backwards compatibility for Enform 2.0 with Android Auto!

I have no inside info, but I wonder if that's why there's a delay until the summer. Surely they know if Apple CarPlay works or not on the older models, so maybe they're just waiting to do Android Auto at the same time.

 

[Tragic Bronson]

It's good to see that they are testing these out. They should simply offer infotainment units upgrade. Btw it's funny to see them keeping a distance from Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and now since AC is integrated, you can see Apple CarPlay on pretty much all the Toyota car ads on Instagram. They know how important this thing is.

There's quite a few pissed off 2018 Camry owners that are mad that their Entune system isn't getting the update where they can get ACP lol.