this is addressed in the article. You can just Cmd/Ctrl+F for the word CarPlay for an answer.
There’s a quick action button to navigate back home on the map widget, but it just opens the map app full-screen, defeating the purpose of the widget entirely. I’d love to have CarPlay open to handle my phone and messaging alongside the radio, but that’s not possible, even though the display is clearly big enough to show both at once.
All of that is made worse by how slow everything is. Switching between the radio and the map or the map and CarPlay is… slow. Swiping along the cards is pretty slow. The display can be responsive, and the games are certainly playable, but in most instances, it’s just slow.
This is the point in any car review where many people are already drafting emails to me about just using CarPlay or Android Auto instead of the stock software, but friends, CarPlay and Android Auto are not good at helping EV owners navigate charging. If you want to plot out a route with accurate range estimates and an effective charging strategy, you have to use the built-in nav — especially since Ford has taken the time to organize charging stations by speed, and seeking out 150kW fast chargers is an important part of the Lightning experience because the battery is so big. Apple and Google are a long way behind on this front.
“If you want to plot out a route with accurate range estimates and an effective charging strategy, you have to use the built-in nav”
I saw that phrase in the story and came here to comment and saw this thread.
I think we should be honest with ourselves about recent history: Apple and Google will be quicker to roll out functionality for EV specific navigation (i.e. chargers) in their apps then car manufacturers will be to fix their UI problems.
Edit: I also dont want to spend $xxx a year on map updates from manufacturers when Apple Maps are free (I understand I’m not the customer with Google even if their mapping product is great) and better
I also dont want to spend $xxx a year on map updates from manufacturers when Apple Maps are free (I understand I’m not the customer with Google even if their mapping product is great) and better
I visibly jerked in my chair reading that from remembering all the GPS devices I relied on for years that happily bricked themselves after the company stopped supporting them and their internal maps "expired".
> I think we should be honest with ourselves about recent history: Apple and Google will be quicker to roll out functionality for EV specific navigation (i.e. chargers) in their apps then car manufacturers will be to fix their UI problems.
I think you are missing the point of what the actual problem here is. Apple and Google already show EV charging stations on their maps just fine, you can even filter by type of charging (CCS, CHADeMO, etc.). That's not the issue.
The issue is the navigation system using information about your vehicle in real time (current outside temperature[0], battery charge remaining, speed, AC usage, calculated estimate of distance of range remaining using all the info above, etc.) to automatically create a route to your final destination that includes charging station stops on the way. To calculate the frequency of those stops, locations, how long you will need to spend charging there in the most optimal way (e.g., it is actually much faster to make 2 stops to charge from 15% to 50% than to stop 1 time to charge from 15% to to 85%), you need real time data about your own vehicle specifically.
Unless Google and Apple somehow get access to that live data from the vehicle itself in real time, that functionality is impossible to implement. And, naturally, the only entity that would have that info is the car nav system itself. Plus, I don't think many users would be enthusiastic about sharing such sensitive information with Apple or Google.
0. In case anyone is curious why outside temperature is relevant, EVs take outside temperature into their calculation of estimated range, because lower temperatures reduce range available.
This is simply growing pains. Nobody who needs gas plans out their stops on a road trip. They simply notice they're low, and pull of at the next station. As much as I'd like to have two way communication with my car and android auto, it's probably unrealistic to expect the auto industry (in tandem with Google) to actually move fast enough to implement something like that before it's no longer useful.
> 0. In case anyone is curious why outside temperature is relevant, EVs take outside temperature into their calculation of estimated range, because lower temperatures reduce range available.
That's actually not important at all. Simply noting the current rate of discharge/speed is enough. I use ABRP with a bluetooth ADB dongle to get live data to my maps for long road trips and it works wonderfully. It doesn't have to be perfect since hardly any EV driver is going to want to be under 20% battery when they arrive at a charger.
> Unless Google and Apple somehow get access to that live data from the vehicle itself in real time
Apple is working on it. Google will likely follow suite. Neither are likely to be implemented in a vehicle I own before it's irrelevant though.
Thanks for the link. I had no idea CarPlay was not only planning to go in that direction, but have already done the work to make it happen, and are fairly close to releasing it soon. Their car manufacturer partnerships look pretty solid as well.
Still, late 2023 as of now seems a bit far out. But I don't think that majority of car manufacturers will manage to get to the CarPlay level of quality for their own in-house infotainment systems even by 2033.
EVs with Google's software native like the Polestar have that functionality. Google Maps can do it, its more of a limitation of the current Android Auto implementation.
I wonder if Android Auto would be able to get this data with the current structure of Android Auto, or if existing cars would never be able to support it.
