I have a Honda Pilot with car play it’s great. But sometimes CarPlay doesn’t recognize the phone right away.
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I have a Honda-CRV with CarPlay. I have learned to plug in my phone and confirm that CarPlay is connected, before driving off. I will not buy another car without CarPlay.
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Wireless is useful if you made lots of short trips for instance running to get the groceries, drop off the kids, etc. It’s great to just get into the car, start the engine and have the iPhone automatically connected to the car and have navigation and audio running immediately. The opposing scenario would be to jump into the car, fumble with the cable, get it plug in before you start the car. It gets tiresome if you made many short trips. For long trips, yes, I agree with you that it is good to have the phone charged as well. I guess a Wireless CarPlay also support wired too, if you choose to have it.
I have the same CRV as you do and love the CarPlay a lot. I wish it comes with wireless CarPlay though. Fortunately, if I don’t have the phone plug into the cable, the head unit is smart enough to wirelessly connects to the iPhone via Bluetooth, so I still get audio (Spotify or Overcast) wireless over Bluetooth. I still get to call people via Bluetooth too. The only thing missing is Navigation, which I think is not possible to do via Bluetooth. Otherwise, it will be a dream set up. I think the only reason for Wireless CarPlay is navigation, since most of the other functions already works!
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Just purchased my first car with Car Play and was equally impressed. Just wondering, though, whether there were any “hidden” features I should be aware of.
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CarPlay is more or less a mirror of your iPhone’s display. If a passenger picks up your phone while you’re using navigation and switches over to play a quick game of Mini Metro, you’ll lose the map on the in-dash display. If you pop back to the map on the display, your passenger’s game will be interrupted.
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Note that this is changing in ios 13 - see the last section here:
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Ditto with my Honda CR-V.
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I love reading this. I’m getting a new VW Golf in the next few days, and it comes with Carplay. It’ll be my first experience with it. Really looking forward to that. I’ve had nothing but frustration from the aftermarket Alpine and Kenwood head units I’ve been using for a decade.
Similar experience here. Never had CarPlay in my own car - or my parents’ cars, which I travel in regularly. However, a hire car that my family rented for a family holiday had it, and it was sweet.
I did consider getting it installed in my own car, but it would have cost over AU$500. And given that I’m actually trying to reduce my own car usage and take public transport more (driving stresses me out like little else), I didn’t think it was worth it. In fact, I’d love to completely get rid of my car eventually, and rely on buses, trains and Uber. If I live close enough to work, it will be cheaper. However, I wouldn’t complain if an Uber driver had it and let me listen to Overcast on it 
Just as long as you’re not riding a Lime scooter…we were carless in Brisbane for a few months & I loved it except for the occasional scooter insanity.
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I’ve been researching this unit for a couple weeks now. For me it will be about $1,500 out the door for the additional cables and taxes. Experience so far? Anything you like outside the CarPlay features of the unit? What made you lean toward this model?
Thanks in advance.
Brian
I went with this unit because wirecutter recommended this line in general, and I decided not to pinch pennies but go with the most up-to-date version. (I bought it at Best Buy, where they matched much lower amazon price, but still did a free install of the stereo, and only charged me for installing the rare view camera.)
It works pretty much exactly as advertised. It takes, maybe, 30-45 seconds for the wireless connection to kick in. (I connect it with a cable for longer drives, so it doesn’t kill the battery, but for daily commute, my phone just stays in my purse.) There was, maybe, one time it had trouble connecting automatically, so it required some button pushing. But otherwise, it’s just flawless. Nice, big, reasonably sensitive touch screen. Also, while it’s not directly CarPlay related, I love the back up camera!
Any specific questions I can answer? Otherwise, it’s just “works as advertised” 
It’s not necessarily an ether/or kind of thing. My car has built in navigation (based on Garmin’s system) as well as CarPlay. Generally I find the GPS reception to be better and more accurate for the build in system and I find it to be more convenient overall but it’s wonderful having Google Maps, Waze, and (even) Apple Maps available on the car’s display if and when they’re likely to provide a better service.
Likewise, I find that it gives me some peace of mind knowing that all the map data is stored locally in my car’s system so if there’s a deviation from the planned route, I know that I’m not relying on cellular data reception (or cached route data).
On the flip side, updates for my car’s navigation system are provided only once per year so the online systems can be a bit more accurate. They can also take into account day-to-day changes such as construction and temporary closures.
Even more than navigation though, having apps such as Overcast, Music, and Audible “natively” integrate with the car’s controls is what makes CarPlay something that I absolutely love.
One more thing that I’ll mention: Touchscreens are a terrible way to interact with any car controls. If you have a choice, choose something that at least provides the option of a physical knob and button to navigate the infotainment system. My system is based purely on touch and I really, really, really dislike that.
I agree re: the touchscreen. My installation included hooking up the volume and arrow buttons on the steering wheel which work for Apple Music. Almost all my other interaction is via Siri - they installed a mic at my rear view mirror which has been working well.
Seems like another argument for going wired at this point…practically instantaneous and it charges the battery too!
To each his own. I carry my phone in my purse, not in my pocket. Getting the phone out, plugging it in, and then reversing the process at the end of the trip (and making sure I don’t forget it and leave it behind) takes longer than for the wireless connection to get established. For the length of my commute, the battery is fine. If I am taking, say, an hour-long drive, then yes, I do plug it in.
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I use it all the time. For music on iTunes/ Spotify, for podcasts and navigation- waze mainly. I wouldn’t buy a car without it although I see that some manufacturers are looking to charge an annual fee for it.
Wanted to pop back in and thank you for the recommendation. Purchased the Pioneer last week and had it installed in our 2015 Outback this past Friday. Only timed I’ve had it wired so far was for initial setup. I would say it takes 10 seconds or so for the wireless connection to kick in for me. I didn’t even notice.
If you have any suggestions on setup of the unit (within CarPlay or your settings with Pioneer itself) I would appreciate anything. I am going to fiddle with it over the next few weeks but thought I’d ask.
Thanks again for the confirming the recommendation. Love the unit so far.
I didn’t do anything in particular to set it up. I turned off interface sounds (for volume adjustments, mostly) because I find them annoying, and configured the gps to my preferences (alway orient the map up north) for the occasional situations when I might use it. For CarPlay, I rearranged the icons on the screen, but that’s all.
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I have a 2018 Lincoln MKZ that included wired CarPlay. I recently got this adapter that turned the wired CarPlay into a wireless system:
It works great, just get in, start the car, and it autoconnects. My car has a CarPlay USB outlet hidden in the center console, so I attached the unit inside with a 3M Command strip.
If you are looking for a way to make your wired CarPlay wireless, I recommend this device.
