Apple has released on their website a teaser page on their next area of integration, and that is within the car. It comes as no surprise as last year during the Apple Developer Conference they made known that they will be partnering with several car makers to get iOS integrated with the car.
Since a year ago, all we could do was just speculate what that integration might look like and now Apple has released some snippets of the end product.
It seems that voice recognition will play a big role here together with touch screen technology as well as the ability to integrate with the existing car controls and knobs. It looks like Siri will play a part in the ecosystem as well. Car manufacturers have struggled to get voice control properly working and who knows, this might just be a step closer.
Another feature would be Apple Maps but here in Malaysia, the data is seriously hopeless and I do hope Waze could be integrated in as well. It would be fantastic if it could be integrated into a car’s head up display as well. In my honest opinion, I wouldn’t trust Apple’s Maps to lead me anywhere in Malaysia.
Incoming calls would seem simpler but it would be good if more information could be shown on the screen as well such as the contact’s photo. But then again I am just speculating based on their images. Also asking Siri to call someone especially with Malaysian names will probably be a nightmare as well.
I love the messaging functionality via Siri voice commands but most of the time I always get the name wrong and Siri keeps sending the wrong message. The novelty does wear out but I assume that it would still be the same in the car as well.
In terms of music, nothing much has changed aside from you having the same iTunes control on the car stereo system and touch screen. The only advantage I see here is the ability to switch between music, iTunes Radio and podcasts easily on the car screen instead of via the phone.
And finally the bit that everyone has been waiting for, the car makers who are participating in this. As we reported previously, Audi went with the Android Alliance, so in 2014 we see Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, Jaguar and Volvo having Apple CarPlay whilst the other manufacturers would probably need to take some time to build that interface.
I really wish that we could have an ability to make this backward compatible with older models, but then again, my car lacks a touch screen. Perhaps my next car might be skewed towards a technology choice instead of the usual requirements.
