Not really. Tesla's maps experience is miles away from Google Maps on CarPlay. CarPlay has some other goodies that would be nice to have if it wouldn't ruin main Teslas experience.
Honestly, aside from the handling mechanics the directly relate to the hiw the vehicle moves (steering, stopping, etc) the "user experience" to working with vehicle peripherals seems to be steadily getting worse every year.
What am I missing? I can play podcasts/music/whatever from my phone, the name/progress bar shows on the UI. I can control volume, next track, next in play list etc from the Tesla UI.
Maps/Nav are already google and speech recognition works well. I've seen horrid interfaces from Ford, Subaru, and Toyota, which would make me beg for a phone UI, but the tesla UI seems pretty similar to my Pixel 8. I.e. pinch/zoom/rotate works pretty well with a decently high update rate.
Also a Tesla owner. Hate that can not use Car Play. What am I missing? Google maps lets me search by topic, Telsa doesn't. I end up having to pull out my phone to find anything. Then to add insult to injuiry, 50% of the time I pick "share" and pick the Tesla app it fails with some error message and I need to get out of Google Maps, launch the Tesla app, then go back to Maps and share again. No other app on my phone has issues with sharing .
Another feature I miss from
CarPlay is my podcast app. Instead, to listen to my podcasts I have to again use the phone instead of the Tesla console.
others include that my phone streams better and has more services. I could take a video call with CarPlay or stream something from a service not available on Tesla
I'd also like to use a functional browser on the large screen while charging. Tesla's browser has crashed on me just trying to read the Tesla manual. It's useless
Like say thai food? Hardware stores? Etc. That works for me. Displays a list with letters on the map, then I can click on the letter or on the list to navigate. It also tells me hours and if they are about to close, just like maps.google.com.
I've gone back and forth between maps.google.com and clicking nav, and voice searching and clicking nav. I see no practical differences. I assume they use the same engine since they give me the same route and ETA. Can you give me a specific search that doesn't work for you?
> another feature I miss from CarPlay is my podcast app. Instead, to listen to my podcasts I have to again use the phone instead of the Tesla console.
Before I start I click on the podcast or playlist on my phone and hit play. Then it's a pretty nice experience. I can pause, next track, play, change volume, see the title, etc through the Tesla UI. If I get a call it auto pauses, if I open the door it decreases the volume, etc. I'm quite fond of it, so say I have a dog park play list. I can listen to it while I put on my shoes, enter the car, audio switches to car, I start driving to dog park, I leave the car, audio switches back to phone, etc. Basically seamless.
How would it be different with carplay?
> others include that my phone streams better and has more services. I could take a video call with CarPlay or stream something from a service not available on Tesla
Er, exactly, my audio comes from my phone. Youtube music auto downloads my playlist, I can download youtube videos, and both seem to have much better audio quality than the built in music streaming from the default breezer (default tesla app). I thought the Tesla sound system was crap, turns out breezer quality is crap. I especially like that I can "stream" music from my playlist, even when I have no signal, great on cross country drives.
> I'd also like to use a functional browser on the large screen while charging. Tesla's browser has crashed on me just trying to read the Tesla manual. It's useles
> Like say thai food? Hardware stores? Etc. That works for me. Displays a list with letters on the map
Ha. Try to search for "Safeway". The UI in Tesla is made by utter morons who need to be fired and forever banned from working on UI, so the list CUTS OFF THE ADDRESS DETAILS. So you just get a list of "Safeway" stores with a distance to them.
This also happens when you type a regular address for something like "1935 E 5st", the first result in the list might be in a wrong city.
I searched on Safeway, not sure it's worth posting a picture.
I get the following list:
A 1701 Jackson St, 1.4 miles away, open to 11pm
B 13111 W Alameda Pkwy, 4.6 miles away, open to 11pm.
C 11088 W Jewell Dr, 6.3 miles away, open to 11pm
Of course the A, B, and C are also on the map, you can click on the address or the letter on the map or the list and it will Nav there. Seems pretty easy to use and clear.
I've seen the different city thing before, but almost always when I don't have the address quite right. Things like missing a digit, or missing a S or N on a street. Once I fix it, it's always the local one.
so Tesla added that because it wasnt there when I bought the car. But it still missing essential info like ratings, reviews, pictures, etc....
> podcasts
my app lets me swtich to any podcast. that's more than just next/prev on a playlist. It also lets me advance +30s, +2m which is use all the time
to skip ads or segments
> video
you seemed to miss the point of wanting to use the large console display to show video from the phone (while charging). the face that audio comes out the car speakers is not an arguement against CarPlay support
The EV charging planning features while route planning still seem pretty necessary with the current level of deployed charging infrastructure (at least in the US) ...
I don't think at least CarPlay has anything able to meet the actual need there or even a way to provide something that would ... Maybe a separate map app that ran inside carplay to provide the required featureset?
Electric vehicle routing is an option in Apple Maps and I'm assuming in Google Maps as well. A Rivian app could handle the rest. I'm pretty sure Apple would be extremely happy to figure out a way forward.
Important to note as well that you can technically support CarPlay and Android Auto just for the infotainment and keep the map function in-house running along with it.
Not necessarily. I drive an EV and don't have a charger at home so I rely on public infrastructure exclusively.
Day to day it or (my the usage patterns) don't change much and after the firstof when and where charging would fit in my schedule (usually while getting groceries each week).
For people who drive a lot of different routes or on vacation an dedicated EV mapping feature is nice but so far A Better Route Planer worked just fine (my car has no usable native solution).
Except that there are Android applications (like ABRP - https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ ) that do planning _better_ than the built-in navigation software in Tesla.
> Maybe a separate map app that ran inside carplay to provide the required featureset?
Yup. It's a pretty straightforward feature. Heck, I'd write it myself once I get an EV with Android Auto.
I had a car headunit with wireless Android Auto before and I drive a Rivian now. I thought it would be a degraded experience before buying the car. But I think it's probably a generally better experience now.
Context: I used Android Auto almost entirely for maps and streaming audio, and I always have my phone mounted on the dash to play some media when I drive.
1- Versus either wired or wireless Android Auto, there's just one less step after getting in the car. The car boots ready to go and navigate. There isn't a 2 step loading of the car OS, and then streaming your phone content
2- No battery usage in wireless mode. Phone runs less hot generally vs charging wirelessly or plugged in, which matters on sunny days.
3- If you're not just one-tap navigating to a routine place and you're actively searching for a destination, given how big infotainment screens are continuously getting, I just don't think it's generally a good medium for prolonged interactions. I rather hold the phone in my hands and interact with a familiar phone interface and then send the destination to the car, than doing search and explorations on a car. And I rather hold an untethered phone that isn't slowing down because of the heat from streaming when I do interact with the phone.
4- CarPlay might be better, but Android Auto still has plenty of edge cases, correctly controlling volume, play/pausing media, depending on which app was in the foreground when Android Auto got initially connected. For the first few years, Google Maps disallowed having Maps open simultaneously on the car display and on the phone. And the car app has much less features. I have to turn the engine off or turn off wifi to disconnect Android Auto and use Maps directly. Having 2 full functioning devices with a thin, mature (Bluetooth) interface between them on the Rivian is a cleaner separation.
I love CarPlay/AA, and maybe this is hyperbole but not doing CarPlay/AA isn't that crazy of a decision. Tesla, GM, other big automakers have done this too.
It's not always about that. AA and Car play are a very common reason for service visits and it's not uncommon for customers to get their entire head unit replaced because of frozen screens or whatever. GM hired a lead dev from CarPlay to help lead their replacement. When they work it's great but my touchscreen freezes regularly and it's extremely annoying.
So basically, automakers can't make a robust console to simply display the streamed content. What makes you think that their software will be any better?
It’s the natural result when software (and sometimes hardware) is treated as a line item to be contracted out to the lowest bidder. Infotainment is a core feature that shouldn’t be cheaped out on, but many automakers haven’t realized that.
It’s also just more lucrative to drive people to use the built in stuff instead of mirroring their phone, both for easier data mining and for pushing users into subscriptions.
Tesla also started doing their "iPad with a car attached" thing before CarPlay was released in 2014.
Arguably they could have switched over at some time, but they're doing well enough that they haven't felt the need.
But I'd be surprised if there isn't a Tesla somewhere in the bowels of Musk's volcano lair that has CarPlay running, just waiting for the right time to release it as a software upgrade option (only $1000!).
Address book syncing is the main issue. I want my contacts on my phone. So taking phone calls gets a bit awkward, though with Siri getting a little better it’s sort of doable.
Other than that it’s the constant re-typing of destinations from the calendar.
Here’s a fun tip I learned recently - you can press the share button on your phone and send the location to Tesla. This makes copying addresses from calendar or anywhere super easy
> PLEASE, fire the moron in Rivian (the CEO?) who doesn't want to integrate CarPlay/AndroidAuto.
I'm in my car to go from point A to point B, not to be entertained by Google or Apple.
Is Google Maps okay'ish for nav? Yup. Is it better than, say, Porsche's previous nav system: not really.
Is Google Maps, in the EU, better at indicating speed traps than my (legal) "Coyote" system: no, definitely not.
To me AndroidAuto and CarPlay are fucking gizmos.
The one thing that counts to me is how pleasant the car is to drive and its safety. On that later point arguably a car that does not have a Google/Apple tablet in its dashboard is safer than the same car that does.
I understand that we're in a FB/Instagram/WhatsApp society but maybe, just maybe, that when you're driving is the time to...
Disconnect?
P.S: if anyone comes out saying "but music", I'll answer this: my car has a better soundsystem than yours and it's not using AndroidAuto/CarPlay. It's some stuff working on top of the QNX OS. The point is the same: I care about the quality of the sound/music (so much that I basically bought a high-end limousine for its soundsystem/sound insulation), not about how I select it.
> On that later point arguably a car that does not have a Google/Apple tablet in its dashboard is safer than the same car that does
Speaking anecdotally, having CarPlay work on a rental means I can just talk to Siri. Having to futz with the car's own system, on the other hand, means lots of time not looking at the road.
> Is Google Maps, in the EU, better at indicating speed traps than my (legal) "Coyote" system: no, definitely not.
Here's the thing. Tesla does not have speed trap detection. And so you're screwed, there's NOTHING you can do with the built-in software. Your only recourse is to go and cry at Musk's feet to add the function.
With AA/CarPlay, I can just switch to a different software. E.g. Sygic supports speed traps in multiple countries, and it has fully offline maps.
Tesla's maps become a gray box once it loses the data connectivity. And in 4 years, you'll be paying $10 a month to have maps _at_ _all_ because the Standard Connectivity will not be free anymore.
Great, ain't it?
> my car has a better soundsystem than yours and it's not using AndroidAuto/CarPlay
Android Auto / CarPlay can transmit the lossless audio stream.
The thing about car infotainment is that on average, it’s not good, and even when it is, it is until it’s not. Support timelines for dash systems have traditionally been awful, which leads to them becoming outdated and progressively more useless as time goes on, well before the end of the vehicle’s usefulness. Even worse, with how deeply the infotainment ties into the operation of the vehicle these days, third party head unit replacements to fix this issue aren’t practical.
It’s also another thing to have to log everything into which is a pain and has to be repeated for each person frequently driving the vehicle.
CarPlay/Android Auto avoid both nicely.
Now of course I’d trust Tesla or Rivian to not pull support prematurely more than any traditional automaker, but it’s still a risk regardless of brand.