Apple has shown its new car assistance system at the Geneva Motor Show. CarPlay will allow us to use an iPhone as a driving assistant in a simpler way and only with voice commands thanks to Siri support. Three major car manufacturers will launch vehicles that integrate this system as early as 2014 and a good handful of brands will do so later.
Siri as assistant
Once we connect the iPhone to the car, we can do many operations simply with voice commands. Calls, reading and sending SMS, listen to music and make use of the navigation. All these operations are done with native iOS applications that have been with us for a long time, but there will also be third-party applications that will have support for CarPlay. Spotify e iHeartRadio they will be there as well and others may join in the future.
The case of listening to music or audio pieces receives special attention and by using Siri we will simply have to name the artist, song, podcast or audiobook that we want and it will play it.
Notifications and messaging will be read by Siri and we will have the option to respond using dictation.
Another important aspect is the navigation that will depend on Maps and that it will make use of the address information from our contact list, emails and SMS. Through voice commands we will receive precise directions and we will also be given information about traffic.
In short, Siri will give us all the information we need and will listen to us to receive orders. We will simply have to press a button on the steering wheel to activate it. It will be a little famous kitk from The Fantastic Car but without Turbo Boost and that sense of humor so much his.
Dashboard touchscreen - near tablet
Many of these services will be seen simultaneously on the touch screen that we will find on the front of the dashboard. The handling of this through application icons and typical iOS menus will remind us of a tablet-like experience. Perhaps the option to use CarPlay from this screen should be left for moments when we are stopped.
Availability and compatibility
In this year 2014 there will already be models of Ferrari, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz with CarPlay, being able to see them already at the Geneva Motor Show. Later on, there will be models of such important and varied brands as Ford, Suzuki, KIA, BMW Group, Hyundai, Honda, General Motor, Peugeot, Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru, Toyota, etc ...
We will need iPhone with Lightning connectortherefore only iPhone 5, 5S and 5C will be supported. Obviously they will have to have iOS 7 like OS.
Source: Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),