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New CarPlay Vehicles From Honda, Kia and Lincoln Debut at Detroit Auto Show

A trio of carmakers have unveiled new vehicles with CarPlay and Android Auto support at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month, including the 2017 Honda Ridgeline, 2017 Kia Forte5 and 2017 Lincoln Continental. All three models will be available in the first half of 2016.

2017 Kia Forte5

Kia's all-new 2017 Forte5 will feature CarPlay and Android Auto support

The 2017 Ridgeline will mark Honda's return to the North American pickup truck market, which it exited after discontinuing the mid-size sport utility truck in 2014. Meanwhile, the 2017 Forte5 and 2017 Continental will be among Kia's and Lincoln's first CarPlay models in their vehicle lineups.

Honda's 2016 Accord and 2016 Civic also feature CarPlay and Android Auto, while Kia has indicated later availability in the 2016 Optima.

Lincoln is a luxury vehicle brand under Ford, which earlier this month announced it is adding CarPlay and Android Auto to all 2017 vehicles in North America equipped with its SYNC 3 platform. CarPlay and Android Auto will also be available in 2016 Ford vehicles with SYNC 3 as an upgrade later this year.

CarPlay has finally experienced widespread adoption in 2016, nearly three years after being introduced as "iOS in the Car" at WWDC 2013. Toyota is one of the only major vehicle brands without a future commitment to CarPlay, although the Japanese carmaker remains listed as a CarPlay partner on Apple's website.

The trio of new vehicles have yet to be added to Apple's new CarPlay available models list published on its website last week.

Related Roundup: CarPlay

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Top Rated Comments

133 months ago
Honestly this is what people are looking for in a new car purchase. All manufacturers should provide CarPlay and android auto and the ability to switch between the two at will. I feel any manufacturer that doesn't do that will see slower sales for the year/s. I myself am considering a new vehicle this year and basically only looking at vehicles with CarPlay, since I don't want to have to learn a whole new system every time I buy a new car.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
133 months ago



CarPlay has finally experienced widespread adoption ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/01/2016-carplay-vehicles-list-us-models/') in 2016, nearly three years after being introduced as "iOS in the Car" at WWDC 2013. Toyota is one of the only major vehicle brands without a future commitment to CarPlay, although the Japanese carmaker remains listed as a CarPlay partner on Apple's website.

I think "widespread" is a bit of a stretch. Only a handful of makers have committed their entire lineup to CarPlay. Honda and Ford are still taking baby steps. Audi is only "all in" with their VW brand. BMW has committed but no announcement on what model or model year.

Widespread means it's pervasive and more common than not. But that isn't the case yet. Carplay is making tremendous strides at adoption, and is increasingly common on current models, but lets not delude ourselves into thinking it's widespread yet.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
e93to Avatar
133 months ago
I was at several dealers a couple of weeks ago. I asked about CarPlay and Android Auto, and.... every person I spoke to was clueless as to what CarPlay and Android Auto were.

Some aftermarket solutions seem to offer CarPlay retrofit though. Not sure how well they work, but I read about them on various car forums
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheShadowKnows! Avatar
133 months ago
Your first example is not CarPlay enabled, if you choose to use your device as an iPod you will not have any CarPlay functionality whatosever, as if it is not connected. Using CarPlay also disables the use of Bluetooth devices with the car, as they are expected to connect to the iPhone instead...and when a CarPlay over AirPlay connection is eventually introduced, the WiFi functions will probably be lost as well.
Sorry to disagree.

I do not know the specs of CarPlay/Wireless, but fully expect CarPlay to be transport agnostic, and behave equally either wired or wireless.

Here is my take:

* The control plane remains always under control of the iDevice: where the iDevice display is sent to the vehicle's in-dash screen via an H.264 video stream. The in-dash display turns into a pass-thru, remote hit-sensitive screen.
* The data plane remains under control of the app on the iDevice: so that what you click-on, see and hear is precisely the content that the app manages.
* The "glue" between the car's in-dash device and the user's iDevice is transport agnostic: wired or wireless.

Could be wrong, of course.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
133 months ago
No need to get snooty, of course I saw the article...which clearly says "wireless" followed by assumptions about it being Bluetooth. Nothing to take up with Apple nor VW, they didn't say a word about how it works.

Bluetooth does not lend itself well to client/server functions that require a lot of bandwidth. Apple will undoubtedly want to leverage AirPlay for this, if only for better quality audio...but also because there are screen mirroring functions happening. When's the last time you used a remote desktop over a bluetooth connection?
I responded the way I did because your response to me was rather uppity and cocksure ("Highly unlikely," was your statement). No one knows the reach of wireless CarPlay, only that its coming, but if it's not BT then all that is left is WiFi. Either way it's wireless and its in the works, if not demo ready.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
133 months ago
Just a personal opinion:

If I end up with a car that has AndroidAuto/CarPlay for my next car, and CarPlay still does not have Google Maps and Waze, then my next phone will be Android and not an iPhone, period. Right now I get by fine with my 6s+ mounted on my dash.

There is no way at all, no way, I will not have Google Maps and Waze for my navigation needs. Those two apps have been, and continue to be a genuine order of magnitude superior in overall functionality as compared to Apple Maps.

Apple needs to be in discussions with Google about getting GMaps and Waze into CarPlay, and concede to Google whatever they want, or there are going to be a whole lot of iPhone users switching over/back to Android.
This is why I'm not in a rush to get car play. I'm fine with a mounted iphone.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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