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5 Things to Know About Apple CarPlay

 & Chandra Steele Senior Features Writer

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Smart cars, like those equipped with Apple's just announced CarPlay, might earn their name by ensuring your eyes stay on the road and your hands on the wheel as you do all those things that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautions against and the law doesn’t allow.

Making calls, texting, switching songs, and getting directions is front and center with CarPlay, a feature making its debut in a few cars at the Geneva Motor Show this week. On cars so equipped, a touch screen takes up the middle console where control knobs used to be. Before Apple came up with the name CarPlay—and undoubtedly rejected iCar—it was calling the system iOS in the Car. Apple first introduced the concept last summer at WWDC 2013. “Ninety-five percent of the cars being sold today have integrated music playback and control from an iOS device but we want to take this integration to a whole other level,” Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said when he presented it.

Those who have dropped their BlackBerry of yore for an iPhone might be surprised to find out that CarPlay is built on BlackBerry’s QNX platform, the same OS powering the BlackBerry Q10.

CarPlay will be available on select new car models in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Here’s what those who get into the driver’s seat can expect.

Siri Will be the Voice of Your Car

She’s not exactly KITT, but Siri will be listening to your every command as you drive, via a voice-control button built into the steering wheel.

Works With iPhone 5 Models

CarPlay plays along only with the iPhone 5, 5C, and 5S.

Apple Maps Will Get You Where You’re Going

Um, maybe, that is. Apple Maps has had its ups and downs and sometimes trouble telling its right from its left, but its navigation is built into CarPlay.

Coming to a Car Near You

Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and Ferrari are showing cars with CarPlay at the Geneva Motor Show this week. Honda, Hyundai, and Jaguar will also be part of the first CarPlay lineup. Coming up behind them will be BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.

Satellite Radio Might Take a Backseat

There’s nothing much on the FM dial anymore and satellite radio subscriptions that come with new cars are more often than not discontinued after the free trial ends. CarPlay works with Beats Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Stitcher, though not Pandora.

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light. 

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

  • Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
  • Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
  • Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
  • Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life 

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple? 

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player. 

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone. 

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

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