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Comment by smm11 | Hacker News Reader

Today I learned that people pick a car based on how well it integrates with a cell phone.

The last few times I’ve rented a car it’s had CarPlay and based on those experiences, the next time I buy a car, it must have CarPlay. The experience without it is just so poor (and don’t get me started on how ridiculously bad the experience of pairing bluetooth is in my parent’s car which requires a mix of voice commands and button presses in a completely undiscoverable way).

Once you get used to Waze on the big screen it’s really hard to go back.

yup! me too. Thats how i ended up buying a new car instead of a recent second-hand version of the same. Carplay was an absolute non-negotiable must have.

You can just get an older car and replace the radio.

With a large screen capable of CarPlay with enough real estate for navigation etc? Most everything is custom OEM sizing/fit/etc these days , gone are the days of interchangeable single-cd headunits

Custom OEM size/fit has been addressed to some degree for a quite a while now by both the "mainstream" car audio manufacturers [1] and, more extensively, by some lesser-known aftermarket brands [2].

YMMV based on just how old your car is and the type of OEM head unit, but there are kits (e.g. this one for a 2016+ Honda Civic [3]) that allow you to install "standard" head units with a fit/style similar to OEM.

[1]: https://www.crutchfield.com/g_462350/Apple-CarPlay-Compatibl...

[2]: https://www.joyingauto.com/head-unit.html

[3]: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120957812B/Metra-95-7812B-Dash...

Yes, I was considering replacing my 2013 Honda Fit but just got a double-height Pioneer radio (AVH-2400NEX iirc) installed by an audio dealer.

It works perfectly, kept the existing car controls and I still have a car that mysteriously fits your entire apartment inside it while also not being subjected to a CVT.

Eh I've had decent experiences with BT in cars, there are some truly terrible implementations out there though.

My current vehicle doesn't have a functional BT connection, because some idiot put it behind a voice activation (and the mic broke).

I don't think this is the long term future, though - I've seen it work really well, if consumers actually start caring about how to connect to their cars it will work better.

BT will always "just work" - Android Auto and Carplay (never used) are enterprise monstrosities you must sign your soul for in blood that don't work on Thursdays, by comparison.

Yeah yeah I'm sure it does some app thing but I honestly don't car, what with cellphones becoming less reliable over time. I only want to play music in my car, BT works great (once it is setup).

My experience with CarPlay has been rock solid in four different cars from four different manufacturers. I was able to connect in about a minute in every case (the longest time for connection was the first rental car with CarPlay where I didn’t realize it was there until I plugged my phone into the USB jack to charge—this was in 2018 and it was wired CarPlay).

In contrast, the BlueTooth in the car that I own typically takes about half a block to a block’s driving before it actually connects to my phone, occasionally refuses to connect or will pair but not send audio. There’s some weird interaction between Overcast and the car’s Bluetooth that means that if I’m listening to a podcast when I turn off the car, I need to restart Overcast before it will send audio to any output (including the car when I get back in).

I don’t understand the “you must sign your soul for in blood” claim, unless you’re an open source absolutist (or maybe Android Auto is really bad, I don’t know), but your claims don’t match my experience.

CarPlay for rent car is really important because it don't need to learn car original system, and needs navigation than daily use.

People use the infotainment in cars almost as much as the actual driving interface. It's not all that weird!

Cars are a very mature technology, if you're not a car hobbyist, and the different brands are not very different.

The new-ish field of screen and cell phone probably has the most differentiation right now.

In the US, lack of CarPlay really only removes Tesla from consideration at this point. Everything else, from Ferrari to Kia, supports CarPlay. Is there another holdout I’m missing?

Weirdly I think rivian too. They think they can be better at car media software than apple - they’re wrong, and I hope they change their mind.

Millions upon millions of used vehicles don’t support CarPlay.

I can see it especially if the various models are "similar" - I chose my last used car from Hertz from a field of two - based on how well the iPhone played music with the radio. Other than that the cars were functionally identical for me.

70+% of US car buyers per the Apple presentation where this was discussed.

It’s absolutely order qualifying for me.

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