Smartphones come to dashboards
Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto turn cars into robotic assistants.
Playing deejay with voice commands will get easier for more Americans this fall as some best selling cars get updated with software that integrates smartphones into the dashboard.
With the 2016 model year, Apple’s Car Play and Google’s Android Auto will turn cars as affordable as a basemodel Chevy Spark into rolling robotic assistants that give directions to nearby restaurants or play the latest hits with commands as simple as “Play Ellie Goulding.”
As with phones, voice- activated car technologies don’t always work as intended, bringing up inaccurate directions or failing to open an app, for example. Buta test of both systems on a 2016 Honda Accord showed them to be convenient and incredibly intuitive.
Both Car Play and Android Auto should give drivers more time to keep their eyes on the road compared with the automakers’ own voice systems, which can require multiple steps and looking at on- screen menus. Still, as with any systemthat requires driver input, there are concerns about distraction.
“Anything that takes your attention away from the task of driving is not something you want to engage in,” said Kathy Lane, a spokeswoman for the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization created by Congress to promote safety.
Neither system has been tested yet by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, spokesman Russ Rader said. The institute studies both human and mechanical factors in trying to reduce the number of vehicle crashes.
Consumers increasingly want to use their smartphone while driving— without running afoul of the law. For the last few years, drivers of most new cars have been able to speak to their phones and have audio stream through a car’s speakers using the nearly ubiquitous Bluetooth wireless standard. However, doing so can require fiddling with the phone, like holding downthe home button first.
Both Car Play and Android Auto allow voice commands to be turned on with a touch of a steering wheel button. Phones need to be plugged into the USB port, where the phone is kept charging and powering the in- car entertainment. You can access maps, voice mail, phone contacts and music apps using a touch screen in the dashboard, with no need to grab your phone.
There are two limitations with the Apple system, whether or not you’re using iton Car Play. Oneis that Apple reserves voice commands for its proprietary apps — phone, maps, texts and Apple Music.
The other is that you must be a subscriber to Apple’s $ 10- a- month Apple Music service if you want ask the digital voice assistant Siri such complicated tasks as “play the top song from2011.” ( It’s Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” if you were wondering.) However, you can use your voice to play songs you have downloaded and own on your iPhone.
The less restrictive Android Auto will allow you to use apps like Spotify as long as you specifically tell it to “play Aerosmith on Spotify,” or set Spotify as the default music app. A Spotify subscription also costs $ 10 a month.
The systems themselves can cost users a lot more.
The 2016 Honda Accord EX with manual transmission is the lowest trim on which Honda is offering Car-Play and Android Auto support. At $ 25,480, the EX is $ 1,315 pricier than the Sport trim, and includes things like a moon roof, keyless remote and a better touchscreen display.
Volkswagen’s entry- level 2016 Jetta 1.4T at $ 17,680 offers Car Play and Android Auto as part of a $ 995 technology upgrade that includes a larger touch screen and rear view camera.
Some automakers believe that such features could motivate buyers to move up the trim level, rather than to more expensive models. “It’s going to provide a good benefit to the Accord shopper,” said Jay Guzowski, manager of product planning for mid- size cars at American Honda Motor Co.
General Motors stands alone in offering Car Play and Android Auto as standard equipment on cars as inexpensive as the Spark — the 2015 version retails for upward of $ 12,170 — and as high-volume as its Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu sedans and Silverado trucks. Chevrolet marketing director Steve Majoros calls the decision “revolutionary,” and one that the automaker hopes will improve its market share.
“Car Play and Android Auto are about to really hit the mainstream,” Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Karl Brauer said. “We’re talking about some 40 to 50 models that’ll have it in probably the next 12 months or less, which is maybe about 20% of the entire car market.”
IHS analyst Colin Bird predicts that automakers in the U. S. and Canada will sell a modest 497,000 cars with Car Play, Android Auto or both this year. The number should jump to 5 million in 2018 and nearly 10 million in 2020.