Pioneer App4 CarPlay sytem

[NickCartunesAtl]

Well this is getting OT, but my issue with things like CarPlay isn't the fact that they exist in cars. It's the fact that car manufacturers don't use modular design when building their vehicles. If this stuff had the ability to be swapped out for the latest and greatest every 5 years or so, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I've never in my life seen a car that was upgradeable in such a way.

The upgrade is typically the new model car. The OEM isn't concerned with what is involved to change or replace something.

[nydriver]

The upgrade is typically the new model car. The OEM isn't concerned with what is involved to change or replace something.

Actually, some OEMs are embracing a backwards compatible functionality, at least with recent model years. From PCWorld's Preview of Android Auto:

[quote=PCWorld]Hyundai wouldn’t tell me when Apple CarPlay or Android Auto will be available in its cars, but it will debut in the 2015 Sonata model and be pushed out as an update to current owners. [quote].

I will agree that modular design is essentially dead, particularly in higher trims with infotainment nowadays. Consolidating all functions into a single computer means you're never going to get to upgrade a Ford with the touch based sync system (brain of the system runs climate control, certain dashboard displays for tach, fuel, etc.)

Well this is getting OT, but my issue with things like CarPlay isn't the fact that they exist in cars. It's the fact that car manufacturers don't use modular design when building their vehicles. If this stuff had the ability to be swapped out for the latest and greatest every 5 years or so, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I've never in my life seen a car that was upgradeable in such a way.

Car manufacturers want you to buy a new car every five years, of course. Double DIN standard sized radios were more common but seem to have fallen by the wayside in the wake of infotainment systems.

All it is is I think, as I'm no developer is have that App software changed somewhere to enable it to work with CarPlay and other such systems which are making their way on the market.
Surely this would not be of great cost and time as all of the work has already gone into the App.
All you are doing it making it compatible which as I said is more than likely some reprogramming.
To your point everyone can use may be right but the key word is can does not mean they will.
If you apply this logic, we would not even have the App for either iOS or soon to be android
As far as keeping your car 15 years, good on you, but we are all not like that either
Let's not keep up with technology the as you could apply this principle to everything then

The Android Auto and Carplay details are sketchy at best right now but both essentially offer "views" on an existing app. The existing app runs detection for a vehicle, and when that happens the app runs certain code to communicate with the car. The car stereo takes the information and populates it. The phone acts as the brain, driving the "dumb" display of the car. So you don't have to re-code your apps from scratch, but you do specifically need to code portions in.

The manufacturers backing CarPlay & Android Auto are quite numerous. Given that these two platforms have over 90% marketshare combined, and it's a more compelling argument to code for than any manufacturer specific system. I'm not really sure how many ALP owners own a Pioneer radio capable of Carplay in the same vehicle, but I doubt the number is high.

Once Android Auto is released in 2015 and perhaps Carplay more widely (it's in some vehicles now), it may be worth exploring.