Android Auto and/or Apple CarPlay, please

I agree. I particularly want CarPlay.

carplay etc are great for the standard mini displays in most cars but a complete waste of that big display in the Tesla.
It would only work if it only took over half of the display and I can't see that happening.
So you would end with a great phone experience but zero car features.

@Twiglett interesting speculation... but I remember all the discussions, with compelling arguments, on why we would never be able to get an update to improve the way the backup camera worked and how it could never have dynamic guidelines :wink:. I do think there are some serious challenges, and wouldn't count on seeing this... but...

Twiglett said:

carplay etc are great for the standard mini displays in most cars but a complete waste of that big display in the Tesla.
It would only work if it only took over half of the display and I can't see that happening.
So you would end with a great phone experience but zero car features.

Click to expand...

Half the display as an option similar to the other apps, and expandable to full screen just as the others, seems pretty much perfect to me. Look at the screens for CarPlay and it looks like exactly the form factor that it's designed for. And the multitouch display would work a lot better than the non multitouch screens on many other vehicles.

I'm fine with other people not using it if it doesn't appeal to them, but I think it'd be great and one of the best things they could do for the display.

thats the point - Tesla has the half display features with two sections because its controlling all of the display and all of the features.
Carplay and Android Auto takes over the whole display - thats the point of what it does.
Its not designed to share screen real estate.
Its like running a Windows computer and running a different OS on part of the screen.
It can be done with products like VMWare etc, but its a huge development hurdle and Tesla don't use Windows for the console (thankfully)

I don't really care how it does it, but I'd love to get Waze, Escort Live, Google Music, Google Maps, etc. to work on the 17" Tesla display. I don't see a reason why I have to clip my phone to a vent to use these apps, right next to a giant 17" screen.

AustrianMax said:

I don't really care how it does it, but I'd love to get Waze, Escort Live, Google Music, Google Maps, etc. to work on the 17" Tesla display. I don't see a reason why I have to clip my phone to a vent to use these apps, right next to a giant 17" screen.

Click to expand...

Because one is a car and the other is a phone?
The phone is designed to allow anyone to create an application for that phone - and designed to be obsolete in four years.
The car on the other hand has to run the car systems and is not designed for external apps to run on it.
Sure the car has much more advanced electronics than most, but it is still light years apart from a general purpose computer.

This is more of a "I want MY applications, not the ones you made"

But the problem is when we get "my" applications from my phone now we lose the supercharger based navigation, because thats a Tesla system. We lose all the Tesla integrated features because they are not built into <insert system here>

ra-san said:

Half the display as an option similar to the other apps, and expandable to full screen just as the others, seems pretty much perfect to me. Look at the screens for CarPlay and it looks like exactly the form factor that it's designed for. And the multitouch display would work a lot better than the non multitouch screens on many other vehicles.

I'm fine with other people not using it if it doesn't appeal to them, but I think it'd be great and one of the best things they could do for the display.

Click to expand...

Agreed, and Tesla is aware. If you contact them about it (and you should), you'll get the standard "Thanks, we're looking into it." It's pretty clear the layout of the center console is absolutely ideal for Android Auto/CarPlay integration, and I think we'll get it eventually. Notably, Tesla hasn't spent any time giving us even the most basic smartphone integration. That seems like an indication they want to do it right, rather than quickly, but are resource-starved as usual.

Twiglett said:

Carplay and Android Auto takes over the whole display - thats the point of what it does. Its not designed to share screen real estate. Its like running a Windows computer and running a different OS on part of the screen. It can be done with products like VMWare etc, but its a huge development hurdle and Tesla don't use Windows for the console (thankfully)

Click to expand...

But that's not the point of what it does. I'm admittedly not as familiar with Android Auto, but CarPlay does not have to take over the whole display and I'd be extremely surprised if Android Auto did, either. Automakers (see Volvo's XC90, for example) have shown their large-touchscreen interfaces with CarPlay in windows while the vehicle's stock interface remains intact around it. This is an anticipated and supported use case.

Here is Volvo's Sensus CarPlay integration. The only part that's Carplay is that portion above the climate controls (look familiar?) and below the Navigation/Media/Status window.

Why do you think it'd have to take over the whole display, just because that's the way it's been shown with smaller display systems? Even on those systems there typically are buttons (though maybe all so far have been hardware buttons) to switch back to the other non-CarPlay functions.

I really expect that if implemented on the Tesla display, it'd just be another app you could select and have occupy a half size window or a full size window just as with the current apps, and regardless still leaving the rest of the non-app client area alone.

Perhaps you are a CarPlay implementer and know the interface it expects. I'm not, but based on the reading I'd done of it, I expected it wanted a client area which it would own the display of, and defines the IO capabilities it expects and can handle, but otherwise makes no demands or assumptions about what happens outside of its given display.

Edit: lol, meanwhile a better post, with pictures even, got posted on the same point. Thanks. I think there are a lot of misunderstandings out there about these features and people are afraid it'll mean tesla can't still have a tesla interface and functionality, but that isn't true. It's sort of true that it would compete with resources, but could also be a lever to free up resources to focus on core and tesla specific functionality too. I think the later is more important.

not an CarPlay implementor, but a tech implementor who is constantly being burned by "why can't your product do 'x' - it should be able to"

Another vote for Android Auto!

I'd love a CarPlay or Android Auto interface. Ideally the android one, as I personally like the speed at which Google iterates and improves their big data offerings.

I would hope that it is possible with the epic tesla screen and hardware, and I think it would be a fantastic idea for tesla to implement as it would mean they would not need to focus on apps that Google and Apple already do better.

I find myself using Google maps and nab on my phone for example, as it's better than that native to the tesla.

Bill D said:

Even Hyundai gets it: HYUNDAI TO BRING ANDROID AUTO TO CARS. It sure seems like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are showing the way to the ultimate automotive user interface paradigm.

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They're doing BOTH on the same head unit. They showed it at CES in January 2015.

Hyundai Expects Apple CarPlay, Android Auto Available by First Quarters End

I also saw Parrots new dashboard wants to turn your old clunker into a smartcar | The Verge (also supports both) when I was there.

Given Tesla's apparent Apple favoritism we can expect CarPlay well before Android Auto IMO. It's very unfortunate cause... well I love Android <3

Even the Android Tesla app is still listed as "Beta"... WTF?

Kbra said:

Given Tesla's apparent Apple favoritism we can expect CarPlay well before Android Auto IMO. It's very unfortunate cause... well I love Android <3

Click to expand...

Has anyone done a Tesla owners survey of what phone OS that they use? I know Android has a larger market share in total, but I believe that Apple has does better at the high end and people with ~$100k cars probably have higher end phones.

Twiglett said:

not an CarPlay implementor, but a tech implementor who is constantly being burned by "why can't your product do 'x' - it should be able to"

Click to expand...

Well, in that case, it's fortunate it's already been demonstrated it can work windowed in exactly the manner described as shown in a car shipping now:
IHS Auto Reviews: Apple CarPlay in the 2015 Volvo XC90 - YouTube

wayner said:

Has anyone done a Tesla owners survey of what phone OS that they use? I know Android has a larger market share in total, but I believe that Apple has does better at the high end and people with ~$100k cars probably have higher end phones.

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There was an informal poll here awhile back, and it did lean towards iPhone. However, the most recent poll on the subject showed a slight lean towards Android. It's essentially a 50/50 split:
2015 Poll for all owners - Android or iPhone?

thanks for link, that is really interesting and much more encouraging

I'd can see Android Auto and CarPlay as apps at the top of the screen, press and they open in half screen just like the current apps in the car.