Gadgetory

it turns out that 2015 is the year you finally lose any excuse for using your phone behind the wheel earlier this year the first cars are the Google's Android auto started hitting showrooms and now it's apple's turn as its carplay is starting to hit the masses Chevrolet is one of the first car makers to enable car play across its lineup now I've been able to test it out in a 2016 Corvette Stingray car plays very similar in concept to Android auto it replaces your cars native infotainment system with an interface that's very similar to an iPhone or an iPad that's a good thing the vast majority of in-car infotainment systems like the one in this otherwise very cool Corvette are garbage with ugly icons slow scrolling and confusing menus carplay is just a basic grid of app icons which any iPhone user will instantly recognize and know what to do with plug in your iPhone scroll through the pages and tap on the app you want to use there's even a button that mimics a HOME key on your iPhone takes you back to that grid of icons those apps are fairly limited however and carplay only supports a handful of them there's Apple music Spotify I Heart Radio podcasts audiobooks and a few other audio apps supported plus Apple maps iMessage and SMS phone calls and well that's pretty much it unlike Android auto carplay doesn't support any third-party messaging apps and you won't find any of Google's apps here such as Maps underpinning all of this is Siri which is your main point of interaction with carplay scrolling through lists and each app is very limited and rather annoying especially on the lousy touch screen that comes in this Corvette so most things are done by voice commands you can ask Siri all of the same things in the car that you can do on the phone such as what's the weather or what's on your calendar send a message to Tom comments all text messages are sent and dictated by voice like Android auto car plate doesn't actually let you read anything on the screen so you can also control Apple music but sadly voice controls don't work in third-party apps making them rather limited but on the plus side dictation a series often accurate making it easy to send messages on the first try Apple Maps is perhaps unsurprisingly less accurate than Google Maps however and it's the one thing that I really wish I could change in carplay traffic information doesn't seem to be as up-to-date and when I compared routes side-by-side with an Android phone Google's directions are often faster and easier to navigate carplay will get you from point A to point B but it just might not be the easiest right there the other problem I have the carplay is that well it's just too limited that's largely by design both carplay and android auto are built to lessen the distractions you have one behind the wheel but I'd really love to be able to send messages in facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts in addition to standard iMessage or text I also personally prefer Spotify over Apple music but in carplay Apple music is a far better experience because I can access my full library with my voice which I can't really do with Spotify carplay is also less pretty to look at than Android auto and it's app grid layout is more tedious to navigate than the tab system that Google uses requires you to bounce in and out of apps more often than should be necessary but carplay still miles ahead of anything I've seen from automakers including what's in this Corvette and it's a huge step forward for in car information navigation and entertainment Apple's got a few kinks to work out still especially with Apple maps for the most part I can't imagine driving a car without this kind of convenience and functionality now if only it would keep me from speeding in the stingray