[IgorPartola]

I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it. I use my phone for navigation and mount it such that when I look at it I am not taking my eyes off the road. I find this to be far better than having to look down at the center of my dashboard but CarPlay navigation UI via Google Maps or Waze also works fine so it’s not a huge difference.

Realistically the only navigation UI have seen that was better was a 2012 or 2013 BMW 5 series which had a HUD that projected my location, speed, heading and turn by turn navigation (with lane info!) onto the windshield. That system rocked because of how the projected UI had your eyes focus farther out so you had a very easy time perceiving the road ahead while getting the next direction info.

I assume my next car will have it and I might even upgrade the radio in my current car to have it but it is to me entirely optional.

[namdnay]

> having to look down at the center of my dashboard

that's why more recent models move the screen higher up. it sometimes looks a bit silly (like they glued an ipad on top of the dashboard), but it's a lot more usable

> HUD that projected my location, speed, heading and turn by turn navigation (with lane info!) onto the windshield

the latest carplay implementations are compatible with the inbuilt navigation aids, so turn signals from waze/maps/whatever will feed into the HUD

[cmovq]

I wish everyone would just have an option to see the navigation the the gauge cluster.

[izacus]

That's a very common feature nowadays, isn't it? For a rather new models.

E.g. Peugeot 4008 I was driving a few months ago could show CarPlay/Auto maps on main gauge cluster.

[Telaneo]

My Kia Soul has a version of this, but it doesn't integrate with Carplay, and the maps that came with the car are already outdated enough to bother me.

[bjord]

you actually may be able to update these. it's worth looking into.

[Telaneo]

The maps? Why would I bother when I can use Carplay instead?

The car's integration with Carplay? Even models that are 4 years newer than mine seem to still not have this. Not sure what's going on there.

[dyauspitr]

I prefer it to the side a little bit. The glance down at my gauges means I completely lose sight of the road at least in my case.

[mlrtime]

After using a HUD , I don't want to go back to gauge cluster.

We all know driving looking at a phone is bad, starring at your cluster for a few seconds can also be bad.

[user_of_the_wek]

Weirdly enough, some cars don't even have that cluster any more. Like the Volvo EX30.

[felixg3]

It works with Apple Maps and Google Maps, Waze doesn’t pass this information to the car.

[nutjob2]

> that's why more recent models move the screen higher up.

That's far from optimal, that would be where I have my phone, at eye level just to the left of my head, right in front of the pillar. It's perfect in every way, especially since I'm longsighted.

Slate has the right idea, car makers should get out of the user software/interface business and prioritize choice. The instrument cluster is fine, as are basic controls, but they just tend to screw things up and add complexity.

[mschuster91]

> it sometimes looks a bit silly (like they glued an ipad on top of the dashboard), but it's a lot more usable

... until there's some child walking right into that visual "dead space".

[Tagbert]

You really should keep that child strapped into their car seat.

If you are concerned about blocking visibility, none of the screens are high enough to block view of the area in front of the car. They only block the upper part of the dashboard or some of the hood.

[mschuster91]

> You really should keep that child strapped into their car seat.

I'm talking about kids walking to school. Many cars are already tall enough to be a problem for children [1] and the problem is getting worse, there is no need to add giant ass screens inside cars to make the problem even worse than it already is.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/11/ever-rising-he...

[ipdashc]

> I am clearly in the minority here but I have driven cars with and without CarPlay and honestly do not care whether a car has it.

I'm in the same boat, though with Android Auto or whatever. I'm honestly surprised how many people seem to need CarPlay; a comment or two down there's a stat claiming 79% of buyers wouldn't buy a car without it. Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it?

I don't get it. It's a nice to have for sure, but honestly not that special, and gets annoying at times (when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone, plus a few other minor grievances). And it's not much easier than just plugging in an aux cord.

[KingMachiavelli]

In some states you no longer can interact with a phone at all unless mounted. Phone mounts kind of suck or you’ll be in a rental without your nice mount. A 15” screen is easier to read than a small phone bouncing on a mount.

If I’m spending $10K on something, I want the Android/iOS experience to be first-class instead of some shitty UI designed be people who I presume don’t drive cars.

Cars are otherwise fungible between brands. If one has CarPlay/Android Auto there is little reason to pick a brand that lacks support.

[leoedin]

I recently upgraded to a car with CarPlay, and it's actually a worse user experience than just having my phone on a really solid Brodit phone holder.

For example - when using Google Maps on my phone I can pan around the map to look at nearby places really quickly - maybe while I'm stopped at traffic lights, and then reset back to the navigation. Spotify in CarPlay is really hard to use - much harder than the normal app. Whether it plays the song you want seems to be a game of chance.

[shawabawa3]

I'm one of the people that wouldn't buy a card without android auto and carplay support

Car UIs are just universally awful. Even if somehow you find one with a decent UI, it will never get updated and within 5 years it will suck

[IgorPartola]

No within 5 years it would be exactly the same :)

[yoavm]

I use Android and having Android Auto is absolutely a must have for me.

AUX cord? It's been a few years since I've seen a phone with a headphone jack, or a car with an AUX input. I also don't miss the time where my phone had to be connected on one side to USB for charging, on the other side to the sounds system, and my navigation was done using a a 6" screen that kept falling between the chairs. Android Auto/CarPlay let's you connect one thing (or not at all), have your phone charged, your navigation clear, and your music playing smoothly and controlled with the physical car knobs.

[geocar]

CarPlay is better than android auto in that it works with my iPhone; as to why it is currently in _my_ requirements, it’s simple: I rent cars when I travel, I’m too lazy to memorise so many maps, and I don’t have a good mount I can bring with me.

That being said I think there are a few things that make my carplay experience _worse_ than my friends’ android auto experience: for example today I am annoyed by google maps spam me with notifications trying to get me to use googles maps instead of waze which is so fucking stupid since it’s also google and it just makes me more annoyed with google instead of being the sort of thing that would convince me to switch to android. But I have to admit the google maps and waze integration on android is better.

[ExoticPearTree]

> Is it that different from the Android implementation? Is there something special about it?

It just works and it is, like others before me said, consistent. I can connect my iPhone to any car I drive that has CatPlay and the dashboard looks like I like it. And Spotify starts right from where it left off in the other car.

Can't speak for the Android experience.

[rkangel]

The Android Auto experience is very smooth and fundamentally exactly the same.

[square_usual]

> when Android Auto connects on my phone, it tends to stop me from using the maps app on the phone

This is on Google Maps. Nothing about Auto/CarPlay prevents this. Google just chose to do this.

[iainmerrick]

How do you mount your phone in a rental car? Do you bring your own phone holder with you?

[benhurmarcel]

When I plan to use a rental car I usually pack a phone holder that fits on air vents. You never know if you’ll be able to connect your phone to the car so that’s a small backup.

[bluGill]

Be sure to let them know at the rental corner if you are dissatisfied because it doesn't work with your phone. Run car companies buy a lot of cars and in turn actually have input to how a car is made and they also have reason to care about your satisfaction. rental cars is one of the best places to get things to change because the rental car companies can get a change that you alone otherwise couldn't get made.

[cromka]

You pay 50 USD extra for the holder, duh!

[King-Aaron]

I'm going to jump in and say I mostly agree.

It's no big issue for me one way or another to have a car with the technology from factory, and I do like having the wireless connectivity - music from the phone etc is really nice - but visual maps and visual UI add no value to me personally.

The setup I have for my project car is ideal for me - a small bluetooth receiving amplifier that feeds the speakers directly. It's all hidden behind the dash, has no visible UI, but I get in the car and the phone takes over, it's in a cradle and becomes the head unit.

I never need to see a map on screen (Maybe because I grew up doing orienteering, or can just listen to the verbal directions, I'm not sure) so that doesn't bother me. And siri can handle hands-off interaction with the device when needed.

I did upgrade the head unit in my family/daily car to support carplay etc, but the primary motivator there was finding a unit that could support a reversing camera. It certainly made the interior feel more modern, but again I don't think it adds much value to me personally.

[pipe2devnull]

When I put in directions on my phone it gives me turn by turn directions in the gauge cluster so I don’t have to look at the center screen as often

[artisinal]

I use CarPlay as an extended screen but still do everything on my phone that is mounted on the dashboard. Works good for me.

[geocar]

Having my phone mounted is fine but it’s been hard for me to find a good mount that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions?

I don’t hate carplay but some things annoy me like I can’t Shazam what I’m listening to in the car because CarPlay pauses the cars audio. I would be willing to try to make it optional until CarPlay works better.

[IgorPartola]

I ride motorcycles so I use Quad Lock. It’s an expensive ecosystem and you must use their specific case but it works incredibly well and has every kind of mount and various extenders that let you modify it to be just right.

[xxs]

>that works with random rental car I get. Any suggestions?

Clip based ones, worst case you can mount them on the aircon vents. They are not great in general but they are cheap and you can fit them pretty much anywhere

[geocar]

Do you have a specific suggestion?

I have tried everything that is available at my local shops (which looks like it came from Temu)

[xxs]

You can try 'ugreen phone holder car' in amazon. Ugreen is an ok brand. Usually there will be a hook and some tension mechanism for the air vent.