Apple To Unveil Its 'iOS In the Car' Project Next Week

An anonymous reader tips news that Apple's efforts to bring iOS to cars will be shown at the Geneva Motor Show next week. 'Drivers will be able to use Apple Maps as in-car navigation, as well as listen to music and watch films. Calls can be made through the system, which will tie into the Siri voice recognition platform so that messages can be read to the driver who can respond by dictating a reply.' Apple's partners in the automotive industry will be Volvo, Ferrari, and Mercedes Benz to start. Apple first said they were working on this system at last year's WWDC.

Comments

"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[mrspoonsi]

Way to go to kill the product before it begins...

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[jonwil]

Apple Maps is still better than the out-of-date-before-it-even-launches navigation systems in most cars these days. The ones where you might (if you are lucky) be able to get a set of 2-year-old maps as an "update" to your system if you can find a dealer willing to sell it to you and you are willing to pay the big price.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[Phurd Phlegm]

The last time I seriously tried to use the map app was in November. I wanted to visit a Volkswagen dealer that I knew was in the area, but not its exact location. I searched for "Volkswagen" and it showed me six hits around the metro area. None of them were the VW dealer, though one did include the string "Volkswagen" in its name. All of them were further away than the dealership, too. At other times, searching shows me locations in the San Francisco Bay area when I am in Minnesota. As far as I can tell, the "side effects of an early launch" are still there and the map app has been demoted to the back page of my phone again.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[Savage-Rabbit]

Most Apple Maps issues were a side effect of an early launch.

Maybe, but as far as I can tell, they've never fixed the somewhat hilariously misplaced POIs near me. They appear to be untouched from when I first checked them back when iOS 6 was released. (Although I see that the power substation is now a Men's Wearhouse instead of a Nordstroms, so I guess something has been updated.)

The other Apple Maps issue is that they don't show the difference between "there's no traffic here" and "we don't collect data for this road" making their traffic reports entirely useless.

Combine the two, and no one I know with an iDevice bothers with Apple Maps for navigation, they stick with the Google Maps app. It's still better.

I know it borders on sacrilege to point this out but Google Maps conks out on you the moment you don't have network coverage and while it has a caching function I'll still put my trust in an old fashioned Garmin unit any time. I haven't tried the Garmin iPad app yet but if it's any good, combining it with the Garmin HUD looks like it would bee too good a nerd toy to pass up.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[rmdingler]

Son of a bitch!

There is no way you're wrong.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[MightyYar]

Their usual first-mover advantage? Has Apple ever been a first-mover? Maybe the Lisa 30 years ago, and that sold horribly. Apple's last 3 successes have been taking something that mostly sucked with a tiny market and blowing it up by making something that sucked a lot less and thus expanding the market.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[Hognoxious]

Second mover.

Confucius he say: last penguin into water get no fish, but first penguin into water get eaten by seal.

Re:"Apple Maps as in-car navigation"

[Plumpaquatsch]

Yeah Google Navigation as an in-car GPS would be awesome.

Yeah, it would reduce the number of cars on the road drastically.

Volve

[future assassin]

I though Volve was going with Valve Steam OS for the cars.

Re:No more Volvo?

[noh8rz10]

i imagine that amongst volvo's target market (people who drive volvos and those who could afford one) the share of iPhones is much much higher. i personally am holding off on a new car purchase until the iOS car integration is expanded further.

Uhmmm... what?

[mark-t]

Drivers will be able to use Apple Maps as in-car navigation, as well as listen to music and watch films.

Say what?

No.... seriously... what?

Is Apple fucking insane?

Re:Uhmmm... what?

[mrprogrammerman]

The summary clearly says "drivers".

Re:No more Volvo?

[Zero__Kelvin]

Disliked by most of the rest? I think you have Slashdot slanted glasses on, because most people don't displike Apple; they simply can't afford it. They quite literally don't know if they like it or not, because ... wait for it ... they can't afford it.

Ha ha Ford just signed up with Blackberry

[EmperorOfCanada]

Ford goes from Microsoft's sync (which most people call MS Stink) and signs up with the zombie corpse of a phone company blackberry. I wonder which genius company (who's shares are about to get another boost) will team up with Apple? Tesla maybe? Fiat? Ford having Blackberry will probably cause exactly 3 customers to pick ford. But Apple will attract hoards of people not only can they put an apple in their pocket but they can get into the pocket of an apple.

Re:Ha ha Ford just signed up with Blackberry

[Solandri]

Ford goes from Microsoft's sync (which most people call MS Stink) and signs up with the zombie corpse of a phone company blackberry.

Blackberry owns QNX - one of the oldest and most-respected real time operating systems in production. It's got a rock solid reputation for reliability and stability in embedded applications. Ford made a good choice going with them.

Re:We use apple maps to get lost in Northern Virgi

[cbhacking]

As in, "Hey, lets go for a joyride!" "Sounds good, anywhere in particular?" "Nah, I've got it covered though" *pushes button* "Siri, directions to the nearest 7-11"?

Because that would be hilarious.

Glad someone is finally getting in on this one

[GodfatherofSoul]

Every in-car nav system I've looked at has terrible reviews; even the dealership told me not to sweat going for the GPS option in my new car. I've got this big fancy LCD and a fancy audio system and a cell phone, but no one to tie them together.

Re:Glad someone is finally getting in on this one

[AmiMoJo]

Take a look at Pioneer's AppRadio. Basically mirrors your phone's screen on its own larger LCD, complete with touch control. It isn't perfect but seems to be the best option at the moment, as long as your car has a double DIN slot to take it.

There are a few other similar options. Search for head units that have MirrorLink compatibility, it's basically the same thing only standardized.

iPod connectors/compatibility since at least '06

[swb]

For my '07 S80-V8 an iPod connector and in-dash stereo integration was a factory option (which I added).

It works pretty well -- playlists, artists, etc. It's the "older" dock connector so a 30 pin iPhone complains about it and won't charge, but I just put in an old 60 GB iPod and leave it in there and run my iPhone off a ProClip holder with a lightning-30pin adapter run to a split USB/aux cable that connects to the AUX in, so I can have iPhone audio on the stereo, too. It's kind of a Rube Goldberg setup, but the cables are neat and its nice to do podcasts or Pandora if I want.

Bluetooth would be better overall (less stuff, less cords) but the bluetooth from that year isn't as nice as the iPod control is.

I wonder why Apple can't make AirPlay mirroring with touch to an in-dash display a standard. For makers, it would make it something Android could support with an additional protocol and it would eliminate the need for most of the horrible in-dash infotainment systems car makers come up with.

Hm

[Kartu]

Google didn't just ban Google Maps on iOS.
Apple wanted more features, Google wanted to have more prominent branding in return, Apple didn't want to give that.

So they chose poor user experience just not to say "oh it's google's map apps" more prominently.

Re:Hm

[Plumpaquatsch]

Google wanted them to hand over user data. Only Fandroids would want that. That's why AmiMuMu cheers for the crappy Google Maps.

Airplay mirroring with touch to in-dash display

[swb]

This is what they should be doing, but I fear it will be something more idiotic than that.

They can already do Airplay mirroring now and it's hard to believe that there's not an as-of-yet unimplemented protocol extension that would allow the touch input on the remote display to be sent to the phone. About the hardest part would be making sure the in-dash display was big enough and the right aspect ratio.

It'd be the most elegant solution -- all your apps with cellular data on the in-dash screen. No cords. They'd have to suppress messaging and maybe the keyboard in any app except maps or when not moving.

But I fear it will be iOS somehow adapted to the car itself and running on its hardware with a mandatory cellular data contract to make any of it useful and the 'apps' will be limited to a half-dozen or so and we'll still just use bluetooth for music and phones.

Re:Airplay mirroring with touch to in-dash display

[AmiMoJo]

They can already do Airplay mirroring now and it's hard to believe that there's not an as-of-yet unimplemented protocol extension that would allow the touch input on the remote display to be sent to the phone. About the hardest part would be making sure the in-dash display was big enough and the right aspect ratio.

There is already a standard for this, MirrorLink. Several manufacturers produce compatible head units. They screen doesn't need to be the same aspect ratio as the phone because Android apps can cope with different/changing screen resolutions and aspects. iOS may have a problem though since it is designed for a number of fixed resolutions and screen sizes.

Unfortunately these systems are likely to suck. I just hope they are not iOS specific and can support Android as well, because there is no way I'd want to lock myself into owning an iPhone for the lifetime of the car. Hopefully wireless charging will be included too, so it can be a true no-cable solution.

Re:Airplay mirroring with touch to in-dash display

[BasilBrush]

Many EVs essentially work that way. In ordinary driving, releasing the accelerator engages regenerative charging, which slows the car. They do have a brake pedal too, but you only use it for emergency braking or extreme downhill slopes.

Glad my car uses Google instead

[AaronW]

I'm glad my car uses a combination of Google and Garmin for the GPS. On the main screen (Tesla Model S) it shows a satellite view of the map, with pinch-zoom and rotation support via the touch screen whereas next to the speedometer it shows a more traditional 3-D GPS view which I understand is supplied by Garmin (I could be wrong though). For voice recognition it uses Google's service. The next major update due out soon improves the time estimates in real-time using the live traffic information that is overlayed over the Google map. The main screen map caches data along the route (except satellite data) for when the 3G signal is lost and the other display relies entirely on in-car maps.

My car also runs Linux for the main screen using the Qt toolkit for the UI. The only complaints I have heard are that the radio doesn't handle the proprietary Apple audio files but it handles MP3, Ogg and Flac just fine (with my USB drive formatted EXT4). Now if only Waze were integrated.

Re:ukraine!

[Applehu Akbar]

It will be if those tank drivers are using Apple Maps.

This needs to be standardized

[Solandri]

At some point, automakers settled on a standard stereo plug for their cars, meaning you could install any aftermarket stereo into any car. The same thing needs to happen to car nav and entertainment systems. A standard plug should allow access to the car's GPS antenna, radio antennas, power, speakers, climate control, rear back-up camera, etc. Then you can plug in whatever you want to control these functions, be it an iPad, an Android tablet, a Garmin tablet, or some new doohickey which hasn't been invented yet. For bonus points they can have the car transmit various sensor readings through the plug, allowing the device to display things like fuel consumption, engine maintenance logs, hybrid battery charge state, etc.

Re:This needs to be standardized

[Fazeshift]

At some point, automakers settled on a standard stereo plug for their cars, meaning you could install any aftermarket stereo into any car.

Except that they never did standardize. The closest to standardization was probably mid-90's vehicles, when you could at least count on a car maker to have 1 type of connector across all models, and that harness contained standard power and speaker connections. It was still necessary to get the other gender plug for it, and match/connect wires to the aftermarket brand harness included with your aftermarket stereo. It has only degraded from there.

Some aftermarket stereo misadventure examples:
Got a GM vehicle from the last decade? Want that aftermarket radio to turn on/off with the ignition key? Don't want to lose the warning chimes? You need this $100 module and harness that taps into the class 2 serial bus and provides the missing "ignition switched" power wire and speaker for chimes. (Or before that was available, you could buy a bizarre harness that moved your factory radio to the trunk to retain OEM chimes)

Opted for that "premium" factory stereo on that Nissan? No harness available that retains factory amp. You can either cut the amp out and redo all the speaker wiring, or try to be clever and build your own harness with RCA line-level plugs to connect to the factory amp, only to discover that the factory amp inputs are not standard line-level or "speaker level" so you get noise/pops unless you spend another $40 on ground loop isolators.

Or how about a recent vehicle that has modern USB and Bluetooth features on the base stereo? (I'm going to pick on Subaru here) Sure you can still get a harness plug for the basics, but all other connections (overhead mic, USB/aux jacks in console, steering wheel buttons) have no standardization, even between other models from the same maker. (mic has goofy amp circuit on the mic - cannot reuse for aftermarket, USB/aux jack harness - one guy made a business out of custom harnesses like this, steering wheel buttons - need a aftermarket interface module) It quickly turns into several hundred dollars in harnesses, modules, dash mounting kits, etc just to get an aftermarket stereo installed, with difficulty beyond what an average do-it-yourself'er can handle.

Or then there's the stereos integrated with HVAC controls. 3 of the 4 vehicles a considered recently had this. Good luck going aftermarket on those.

Re:ukraine!

[Hognoxious]

I don't think they have those kind of people in the Russian military.