
Consumers often find that their car’s infotainment systems are quickly becoming outdated, something we can attribute to the fact that cars themselves receive updates to their design every few years. Apple has found the remedy to this by introducing Apple CarPlay – one of the must-have infotainment features for iPhone owners who are in the market for a new car. Available from iPhone 5 onward, CarPlay, a part of the iPhone’s iOS system, enables users to have access to the latest features including up-to-date maps, contacts, and apps. Consumers are free to update their phones when required without having to make any hardware changes to their vehicle.
How does it work?
Seamlessly integrated into your infotainment center, Apple CarPlay offers a way to safely use the phone’s convenient features while driving. In simple terms, Apple CarPlay takes the user interface of the iPhone and places a simplified version on the screen of your infotainment system. In tune with Apple’s style of simplicity, CarPlay is easy to use – all it takes is connecting the phone to one of the car’s USB ports via a Lightning cable and answering a prompt to enable the use of CarPlay. A growing number of vehicles already allow for a wireless connection via Bluetooth as well.
Once connected, the infotainment display will change into iPhone-style icons that can be controlled via the car’s touchscreen, knobs, and dials. The voice command buttons in many cars are subsequently replaced by Siri when operated, allowing for easy voice-command access to most functions. Not every app is displayed on the infotainment system as a safety precaution, and things like imessages are read out loud by Siri instead of being displayed to aid with the goal of reducing driver distractions.
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