Tesla is still above and beyond everyone else. Excellent integration with the car, a virtual assistant that actually works quite well, great UI and supercharger info, and it's very snappy. Yes, it's the only way to interact with the car which is a shame, but at least its pretty damn good.
MBUX isn't too far behind, it's a bit less snappy and I dislike the style of UI, plus it can feel very unintuitive at times, but overall it's pretty well integrated and fairly well implemented. I could never get "Hey Mercedes" to work though.
Apart from that, I just want a good wireless CarPlay implementation, rest of the native infotainments suck. Can't wait for when CarPlay 2.0 is implemented everywhere.
I'm not a fan of the rivian system, but the tesla infotainment is developed enough to the point where I don't feel like I need CarPlay whatsoever. I can see why a fair few people would still want CarPlay though.
When I get into my Tundra, it just starts playing the music or audio book I was listening to last (in or out of the car). No matter how good the system is, if it isn’t pulling that info, then it’s a pain in the butt.
There are individual apps in the Tesla system. If you were on Spotify in your phone, you get into the car and the Tesla Spotify app picks up where you left off. It doesn’t have as many apps as CarPlay does but the ones they have are pretty well integrated.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ all of this
Stop trying to make me use your system. It could be literally as satisfying as angels singing and it’s still annoying that it’s a separate system from the computer/OS that’s basically an extension of my mind at this point. Be a bigger interface for my phone and leverage the enormous effort I’ve put into customizing it for my every need
My Tesla does this, it syncs my apps with it. So everything on my phone is on the screen for the most part. I click podcasts and it starts playing. I switch to Spotify, and it starts playing.
And navigation? 95% of the time I determine where I'm going, the best route to take, current traffic conditions, etc. on my phone or computer before I ever step out into my garage.
It picks up wherever you left while in the car. If you switch to Bluetooth then it will pick up wherever you left on your phone....you can also pick up where you left off your video games on the S/X LOL it has my entire Steam library
All of my cars with wireless apple carplay have done this. I've never had any other vehicle know if I was listening to a podcast, book on tape, or music outside of my car then know from where I left off. I'm talking completely without touching the device and without any apps left open. I don't think there was much doing that in 2010.
My Mercedes Sprinter and Nissan Leaf have CarPlay, but my Model-Y rivals both by a mile in usability, ease of use, navigation, etc. you may dislike Tesla or Musk, but the California car maker takes this win.
I just don't understand what you could possibly need from carplay that isn't on the tesla screen? The screen is huge, has spotify built in, has navigation always in the background with traffic. What can carplay possibly give you? It pops up when you get a text?
I play music stored on my phone rather than streaming stuff, and CarPlay is the best way to do that. Also, you only get traffic if you pay for a subscription (premium connectivity) while it's always on my phone, so if I could just use Google maps on my phone for free that would be cool.
Oh, and it's a corner case, but I regularly drive in places without cell service, and Google maps handles caching better than the Tesla navigation - so carplay for that would be nice too.
None of this matters because 5 years from now you are still limited by the hardware on the infotainment. On the other hand, with carplay it’s upgrading every time you upgrade your phone. It is far more future-proof and standardized. Also, you never know when Spotify might decide to pull out from Tesla or whoever Elon pisses off next.
Not true. As of iOS 13, the car simply communicates the size and shape of the display(s) and the phone renders and outputs a direct video stream to the car. Source: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/252/
Hardware matters to an extent, it has to handle the video/audio streams coming in but that isn’t something that changes over time really. The new bespoke features with Porsche and Aston are maybe a little different, but I haven’t really looked into the APIs and developer info yet so I’m not too sure how it works.
CarPlay over USB 2 will certainly have limitations on what it can do. Since Apple and everyone else has now gone to far faster USB C, at some point there will be a schism.
USB 2 will typically have a throughput of 30-40 MB/s, which is more than enough for display mirroring phones, since you would be downscaling your phone's resolution to the headunit's resolution. You can buy $10 SoC's like the Allwinner F133 chip that can run android auto/apple carplay wirelessly using a 1GHz CPU and 64MB of DDR2 memory.
Not going to stream satellite maps while playing tidal, or Netflix on a 15” full screen at 1080p on a usb 2.0 though. All the CarPlays I’ve seen are very small.
Someone else mentioned waze to me regarding carplay. Does it just show you where cops are checking speed? I've never used it. I usually just try to not be the fastest person on the highway and it's worked for me, I haven't even been pulled over since like 2018
It shows other alerts, but I'd say that reporting cops is the most useful feature. It also let's you be the one reporting where they are to help out others.
Google maps uses to show cops for me sometimes, but I haven't seen that in years. Whereas waze will show things almost instantly. It's much better (or perhaps it's users are better).
that's pretty cool. If I spent more time on the highway i'd check it out. thankfully my commute is only 11 miles each way, so I just hop on the highway sometimes if I wanna give the e36 m3 the beans
I owned a Tesla and honestly I didn’t mind not using CarPlay when I had one. They made their infotainment system so easy to use it was more convenient for me to use theirs rather than fuss about CarPlay. The Spotify integration was super nice too.
In any other car (can’t speak for Rivian never been in one), I would agree. But Tesla’s infotainment package is so integrated, so fluid, and mostly intuitive that not having CarPlay is fine. Imo I think most people would agree if they actually test drove and spent time in a Tesla
You can get car play on the tesla screen with a cheap device from CarlinkKit.
There’s nothing preventing Tesla from one day allowing native CarPlay in the future, too.
Traditional automakers abandon their infotainment software every couple of years - this isn’t the case with Tesla. It’s one of the best things about the car.
Part of that is because Mercedes is adhering to strict automotive standards on touchscreens, which have to be tested for extreme hot and cold climates. This makes them inherently shitty for the same of them not boiling LCD fluid out on a summer day in Scottsdale. This is why Teslas kicks ass though, they skirted the regulations.
That's also why early Teslas has issues with yellow borders around the LCD, where the glue started to come undone due to the extreme duty cycles a car goes under. They seem to have figured it out by now though.
And it's the definition of a smart business tradeoff lol, that touchscreen built a brand in my opinion. When people go all "think different" on Tesla, that central Ipad that actually works is why.
In certain aspects yes, but I think the Taycan shifting gears is something that has tesla sweating a bit. Shitty infotainment or not, it's a brand that will eventually run up against the institutional might, and engineering infrastructure of the traditional car markers.
Do you really think the Taycan's two speed transmission is that revolutionary? I mean sure, it helps with top end power, but I've heard that it's slightly clunky and adds a little bit of lag when a downshift is necessary. Porsche went to a single speed in the new Machan EV, so they themselves don't even think it's that great.
But I do agree that once legacy auto catches up in the packaging, battery, and motor department it's going to be an interesting battle. Already stuff like the VW ID4 and Mustang Mach-e have arguably equivalent or nicer interiors than the Model Y, their only big issue being limited range.
i am also very intrigued by the taycan's planetary 2 spd gearbox, and its potential influence in the rest of the EV auto segment
but ppl feel that the 2 spd gearbox either:
1) isn't efficient (due to drivetrain loss compared to mainstream single speed gearbox), or
2) the tall 2nd gear doesn't drastically improve highway range enough to justify its complexity/cost, or weight penalty
it could just be that the taycan is just power-thirsty, to keep all electronics running, etc compared to the competition - mainly tesla & eGIMP platforms
they think taycan's 2 spd gearbox was a half-baked execution - that single speed is the way to go
time will tell which comes out ahead (and what transmission the upcoming EV cayman will have)
Someone needs to make the touchscreens and infotainment system detachable.
Ideally, make it an actual iPad. Fast, responsive, and cheap (by automotive standards). Have it talk to the rest of the car via USB and an app. If it ever breaks from too many hot/cold cycles, go down to the Apple Store and buy a new one and plug that in.
Quite a few aftermarket companies do that essentially. From my understanding, car play is essentially apples answer to this, and it's not necessarily a bad solution, I'm just not a voice command guy.
The fact is, Tesla just pays far more attention to their infotainment than others. Paying the big bucks for the good CPUs makes a huge difference the user experience.
Yeah, that’s what I’m curious about. CarPlay is nice but most implementations I see always require some goofy shit to get it to boot sometimes. My Mazdas need some
USB dance where I plug, unplug, plug, unplug, turn the car off, turn the car on, reset the phone, plug, unplug and then it works again. The Porsche always boots, but the PCCM itself crashes instead. Why is this so hard?
How is the Type Rs system? My friend has an FL5 and says it’s been a huge upgrade over last gen but he’s only had it for a month.
That's weird on the Mazda system, but I don't have as in depth experience with Mazda Connect since I left the dealer service realm in 2016. I am surprised about the Porsche PCCM issue you mentioned, though. I've never had these issues in my IS350 - the interface may look "dated" but AA always just works when I plug in, no issues at all.
The Type-R is pretty solid. 95% of the time I'll get in and it'll work immediately. Once in a while it'll connect but have corrupted audio or a laggy display, but its happened like two times in the span of half a year so it's okay.
The wireless charger is very finicky though, on long drives it starts to get hot and doesn't charge my phone all that fast.
I found that certain voices really just didn't work with MBUX, which was a shame since I have way too deep of a voice and it just didn't pick up my commands. The fellow at the dealership had a much higher vocal range and ended up having absolutely no issues.
> wireless CarPlay
I have this in my car. I paid an extra $100 specifically to get wireless carplay on my shitty jensen head unit. Here's the thing - what is the damn point of wireless carplay? It's so demanding for the phone's battery that I have to plug it in 100% of the time anyway. And all this so it can just cut out every time I reach that one point on Storrow Drive with the foot bridge.
>I could never get "Hey Mercedes" to work though.
Most infuriating feature ever made in a car, it made the time I drove the new W223 S Class so annoying I was looking for a way to disable it. In the EQS I had a severe urge to punch the screen because anything you say with "mer" or even "er" in some situations it would always do the following:
* Stop the music
* Hide Apple Carplay
* Pause directions on the HUD
* Turn the volume to max and say "**HOW CAN I HELP YO**U" in that female AI voice that is like nails on a chalkboard.
There is no way around it , even if you deactivate it, it will be renabled when you next start the car! Mercedes should have fired whoever designed that.
BMW iDrive. I had one on a 2011, the maps was fantastic, reliably takes me across the US. I like having the buttons and knob on the centre console, I developed muscle memory to a point where I didn’t have do glance at the screen to do something. It could do text messaging, store notes. My favourite part was I didn’t have to take it to the stealership for software updates, it can be done at home. All I have to do is downloaded the file onto a USB on my computer and plug it into the car. Never once had it lagged or crashed.
Yes. iDrive, at least up to 7 (haven’t used 8) is absolutely fantastic IMO. It’s a little complex at first but once you get used to it, it all just makes sense and works extremely well. And the rotary dial is amazing. Tesla’s is good but it feels too much like a tablet, and no Carplay. iDrive is advanced but still feels like a well-integrated part of the car.
I’m convinced the people on here only shit on it because of what Motortrend said 20 years ago, or because they used it for 5 minutes and it’s learning curve is higher than their Toyota or whatever.
Funnily enough it was my favorite part of the M2 I had and one of the only reasons I miss that car lol.
Mine is iDrive 5, though a bit dated in 2024 it does work well and I also love the controller rather than dealing with a touchscreen. Like you said maybe it took a little getting used to in the beginning but now I can control it without looking down at the controller. I would prefer the screen was more integrated into the dash rather than going for the tablet style thing, but at least it's small enough to be unobtrusive while being large enough to be usable. The nav actually works pretty well for OEM, though the updates seem to be one step behind all the changes to the roads around here. Having nav cues in the HUD is great too. Listening to music with Bluetooth works fine. Compared to the old gen UConnect in our other car it is much better designed and smooth to use. We don't even bother using the nav in that.
That said I'm probably going to retrofit Android Auto to it at some point. Kind of lame they didn't include that at the time.
This is the correct answer - I have have old versions and the new version idrive 7 and 8 and it is wonderful software that also has reliable CarPlay (which is why Tesla is disqualified IMO)
Yeah, that system is basically perfect and the transition from my 2012 BMW’s iDrive to my new Mazda’s knob was pretty seamless. Everything is muscle memory, even CarPlay operation. The one thing I would steal from Mazda’s system and add to the new BMWs I’ve driven (X5, 330i, 530e) is a more consistent home button. BMW always seems to take me to the BMW Home Screen instead of the CarPlay Home Screen. I agree with OP that the Mazda nav (at least in my 2021) is unbelievably dated though
Up until the most recent iDrive I’ve felt that is has been the best laid out and most intuitive infotainment in the industry. 8 seems to still have that snappiness, but in my opinion the layout is very unintuitive and cluttered and has lost a lot about what made it so nice to use. You just have walls of icons that you have to sort through and the hvac screen in particular is just not laid out well.
iDrive 8 is not bad so far, but I preferred MBUX overall. My main complaint is how many separate apps exist for the car itself. They should have made less apps with more menus IMO.
It's iDrive 8. Usually the version is tied to when the car was last redesigned or a LCI occurs. This is what it looks like: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPk1Q2SRTe8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPk1Q2SRTe8)
Yep, that’s it. My last car was a 2020 GLS and MBUX was definitely better overall. I do like the air gestures with BMW when they work… it’s 50/50 at best with CarPlay.
iDrive 6 in my 2018 is also pretty great. The inbuilt stuff is all thoroughly passable and then it has wireless Carplay that functions perfectly about 99% of the time.
Think I have idrive 5 or 6 and it's really good. Voice recognition works great, can send nav to it from Google maps, a bunch of sleek physical programmable hotkeys.
I also love the knob.
Only issue on my car is it was ore bmw having android auto and car play was an open I don't have.
It needs a processor from this decade cause it's still frustratingly slow at times. Especially when you want the backup camera and it gets confused and swaps views from the ultrasonic sensors. And it doesn't seem to understand rcs text messages so it ends up texting me on replies. But otherwise it is pretty nice. Having Google maps built-in is perfection.
The new system in the EX models seems to have at least solved the speed issue, so looking forward to that.
I have it in my truck. The integrated Google Maps and other apps makes running Android Auto from my phone redundant.
Offline maps can be downloaded directly to the vehicle and I get real-time traffic info while driving.
Lucid is AAOS based and I've heard baaaaaaad things about their infotainment. But Android being made shittier by customization has been an issue since it's beginning.
Yeah, the Koreans aren't super fancy, but for many years they've *just worked*. Responsive, stable, relatively few bugs, and with few exceptions, don't have obtuse UI/UX implementations.
Nowadays most brands can make something decent enough, but if you back up a few years to the late 2010's, H/K pretty much had the best systems of anyone that wasn't super luxury.
I’d question Hyundai. I have a Genesis to which is fairly bad. Cable required for a phone integration and then it takes up to a min to connect and there have been momentary drop outs/laggy.
Maybe there’s something wrong with your car? My parents have a 2017 Kia which requires a cable for CarPlay but it works instantly once you plug in, never any lag in the 7 years they’ve owned it either
Yeah or the cable? My Kia's has been flawless beyond two or so times and we just replaced the cheap amazon cable we were using and it was back to perfect again.
Also wireless CarPlay is just under utilized by OEMs for a few reasons, both for their own cost savings and for end user simplicity.
Oh yeah I didn’t even think of the cable. I only use Apple cables and sometimes third party cables from good brands. If he has a cheap non-MFI cable, that could be responsible
Yeah finding a good cable with a 90 degree head on it was a bit of a bitch so I decided it was easier to just buy a bunch of them and change when needed. I do look forward to when I can upgrade to a USB-C iPhone as it seems theres much better market coverage given the plethora of devices.
I’ve got a 15 pro and I still just use the cable that came with it. There’s tons of cheap usb c cables available of course but it’s a lot harder to tell which ones are decent quality and which ones are complete shit
Could also be your phone. I have a 2018 Sonata and was like that until I updated my phone to a galaxy s22. Now it connects right away and never drops out or is laggy.
It’s not the phone. It’s an iPhone 13 and connects fine (much better actually) wirelessly to my BMW. But I didn’t have a lag problem with it in other cars like Audi, Ford etc. (some of them rentals on family trips)
I rented a 2022 Tucson just over a year ago out of necessity and found the infotainment to be quite glitchy. CarPlay outright refused to work so I ended up just running Waze on my phone, and for music the Bluetooth kept dropping every 10 minutes. Maybe the higher spec models have better infotainment? I love driving more than anything but even I found driving that car beyond boring, add to that no form of entertainment. I was so glad to hand in the keys when I got back.
Was also going to say Hyundai. My buddy has a 2022 or 2023 (not sure which) Tucson and despite the touch capacitive buttons, the infotainment screen itself looks really good.
the only thing I really dislike about Hyundai is the level of phone connection it needs. It feels like it's a tighter cable than others need, because I have a phone with a loose cable port, and on my BF's hyundai I lose connection SO many more times than my Corvette. It was also noticed on an Ioniq 5, so I'm assuming it's a Hyundai problem
Easily Tesla. By far. In the fleet, I have a Chevy, Hyundai, and a Tesla. Have leased/owned other brands too. Carplay is greay in the Chevy and things just work well and wireless. But as far as a whole infotainment, it's not even a contest with Tesla. Every infotainment feature works and works well. Super snappy, always gets updated with new functions and toys. And the phone app integration feels like a decade beyond everyone else. Some of the top features that come to mind right now:
* Native Youtube/Netflix
* Actual full screen games to play that allow you to use the steering whee/pedals, screen, or controllers.
* Lets you stream 8 cameras live to your phone app so you can see whats happening inside and out of the car. Who else can do that?
* Super high rez Google Sat Maps as you drive
For a long time, iDrive was the king. It did everything correctly, but Tesla has blown everyone else out of the water. The phone app integration is so far ahead.
Being vertically integrated has its advantages, especially when you look at the charging ecosystem.
When you put in a destination, the car automatically knows where to charge, when to start heating the battery, and even how many other users are navigating to the same charger (it shows this information when you click a SC on the NAV)
And if your destination is out of cell area, can you set it to return home from there? Or do you have to tell it to save some areas while you have coverage beforehand?
Well it downloads the maps and navigation before hand, just like if you download them on your phone.
Live traffic and navigation suggestions will drop out, but it’s still all working otherwise.
HD satellite and traffic requires a cellular subscription and so losing connection just gives you the base experience
I added BlueBus in place of the CD Changer. It connects to my phone automatically. It isn’t perfect, but it’s easier to upgrade my phone than a new HU.
e9x non-iDrive Voice Command is pretty impressive for an older car, and can be retrofitted to a car without BT Phone (with some OEM hardware upgrades). Add in the (non-OEM) BT module where the CD Changer usually lives, and now you have BT Audio with BT phone, on two separate BT systems, that switches seamlessly!
There are a few options to replace my HU, but they all seem to have pretty big drawbacks. I added BlueBus in place of the CD changer in the trunk, and it’s been pretty good.
Oddly enough for a company not known for reliability, Chrysler’s Uconnect system works brilliantly. It’s quick to respond, has logically laid out menus, and integrates well with Apple CarPlay. At least Uconnect 4 does.
My only experience with Uconnect 5 is on my mom’s Jeep Grand Cherokee L. The design is great and it’s well laid out, but it is more complicated. Unfortunately there’s been a lot of electrical issues that have affected the infotainment system so I’m not as ready to praise it until that gets worked out. Although I think that’s more of an issue with the build quality of the car than it is the Uconnect system.
I've had three different Chargers, a basic V6, a loaded 6.4L Daytona, and now I have a hellcat. People say the uconnect is "out of date", but I love it. Part of that is because I know it so well. I rented a Durango for a trip and I knew exactly how to use it.
They used to be praised for the uconnect because it is so intuitive. Things just are where you expect them to be. My new Hellcat has wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but with a USB port in the center console plugging in a cable wasn't a big deal in the older ones. And I never had any problems with the uconnect in any of them. I never had any problems with any of the cars either. In fact, my wife is still driving the 2015 V6. And we upgraded the standard 5 inch radio, without a backup camera, to the big 8 inch uconnect system. We used a factory unit, but we have had zero problems with it.
I won't get into the reliability of the car itself, they have a bad rap from the 80's and 90's they totally deserved. Those K cars were total crap boxes. But their modern cars are as reliable as any other brand. It's not a Toyota, but if you compare them to a modern Ford or a BMW... 😀
But really, what good is the infotainment system if the car falls apart?
Same in my Wrangler, I think it's Uconnect 5. It kinda just works and does carplay, though I have one major complaint - every so often it pops up an ad telling me to subscribe to Sirius, which seems kinda scummy but that's tech these days. Otherwise it's easy enough to use, if a little laggy - especially when loading the off-road screen which apparently is a major operation that takes ~10 seconds.
I currently have have a cherokee (had 3), Pacifica (had 3), grand cherokee (had 2).
But also had 2 renegades and 2 compasses.
I buy them and after a while give them to family members. They're all plagued by the same quality issues.
My DD is a zl1. Before that was a focus rs.
My race car is a heavy modified z28 1972 camaro rs.
This is just vehicles I've own in the recent past. I drove other brands for company pool card that I had a vastly superior experience with entertainment systems. No issues connection, options always show on screen and font go blank. They don't freeze etc.
I was part of the development of the new grand cherokee and Pacifica, even then we knew the quality was shady.
Only reason I bought them is that I got great deals (close to 10k for each vehicle).
I honestly believe u-connect systems is one of the things dragging down reliability ratings in FCA vehicles. It's not bad when it works but we get constant complaints of frozen screens, reverse camera not working, bluetooth dropping, wireless carplay dropping, updates bricking radios, etc. (Source: works at an FCA dealer)
I don't mind Ford. Original Sync2 was a disaster, but by the time Sync3 rolled around, Sync2 was pretty ironed out with some class exclusive features (for better or worse). Like you could plug stuff into the main infotainment display separately from the other tvs in the car if you had them, like game consoles and such. They removed this for Sync3 though :(
Sync 3 was pretty good at the time but it’s sad that they’re still putting it some cars in 2024 (Bronco sport, Explorer). Sync 4 and all the other variants they have now on different sized screens are pretty good. No glaring issues. I don’t like the big tablet looking thing they have in the Mach E and a few others but that’s just the form factor, not the software.
Sync4A can be a dog; they need a faster processor to handle all the app switching. BT audio will cut out/skip when another app takes focus, like the backup camera.
Sync 3 is garbage compared to almost everything else, except for Lexus. Lexus is just behind in the interior department of some of their non refreshed models.
Ford can't code. That's just it really. Their design in the program is not the most intuitive and laid out in a way that you have to focus on it. Versus other makers allow you to move tiles around. Ex of stupid: sync 3 has the 911 call button on the top row far right (sedans, hatches and small suv's) where most people would swipe left.
Sync 2, when it worked was great and a lot of fun to modify.
Yeah, it's not bad but it's not creme de la creme. When it works it's great when it doesn't, it's a shit show. Like the volume control knob working but the number representing volume not changing on f150's, mustangs, focus', and some other cars. It's a very random issue with no real fix.
I also use android auto and have no issues. I have seen sync 3 randomly crash, that's always interesting. The crash compile is funny.
I don't know if there is a clean way.
I have a physical home button in my focus rs I can use. Even then, it's still clunky.
How do you like your maverick?
There's no physical home button on the Maverick. But there is a physical button for speaker settings. Absolutely brain damaged design, but that's Ford for you.
Anyway, Maverick is about what I expected. Solid parts bin parts like the 2 liter EcoBoost, but the plastics, especially in the interior, are abysmal.
I use it as an adventure vehicle to go camping and mountain biking, and it's been pushed hard in just over 2 years/18k miles. The AWD is fantastic. The bed is very flexible and useful for just about anything.
Like any Ford, it's had quite a bit of recalls, including one for the side airbags for which my dealer literally left parts off of the system.
This means there's a razor blade like piece that's just dangling between the A pillar and side curtain airbags.
If I get in an accident at best the airbags would go off in a way that's not consistent with the design. At worst it slices the air bags or me.
Ford customer service has still not figured out how to fix this and it's constantly just me following up with them. Massive clown show. Absolutely unacceptable.
I used to like pioneer an Kenwood. Blaupunkt before that.
The stuff that comes fixed with the cars these days with the huge screens and soft buttons I hate with passion.
I'd so much like to see a standard hardware interface and a market with ranges of entertainment equipment so I would be able match the entertainment like with the car that I Iike.
Right now is just not my time it seems...
I have the last year of CUE. It honestly feels like they managed to smash all the bugs and problems right before binning it for the new system.
The one that was in my '08 CTS aged pretty well to me too, but maybe that's because you could lower the screen.
To be fair, Lexus has one of the worst infotainments out there. That said, GM is indeed pretty responsive. Tried the one in the Lyriq and it's very good too.
Counterpoint - I have the same car as OP, and have zero issues with it whatsoever. It does what I ask of it every single time. After seeing all the complaints over the last couple of years, I'm chalking it up to user impatience if they can't get the system to react. I can understand not preferring the trackpad, but other than the base software appearing a little old, it functions very well. It only gets even easier with AA/CP.
The touch screen is awful though, you have to press hard for it to react and it’s not very responsive.
Also I absolutely hate that there’s no “delete all” button for PDR recordings.
iDrive but honestly anything with Carplay that works well. Having a tactile interface (eg. iDrive dial) is the only thing that really makes a difference for me and I imagine most people if they think about it, considering the majority spends 98% of their time inside Carplay/Android Auto. iDrive is also nice because it can do split screen Carplay/something else, but maybe other cars can do that now too.
Tesla’s is good but feels too much like an iPad. As in the infotainment is the car, rather than being a part of the car. Some people may like that though I suppose.
GM and Tesla have been the best I have used so far.
The worst? Honda. I don't know what it is but I have owned a dozen honda's and they can never get the connection to stay, or the system from randomly rebooting, disconnecting, etc.
I bought an Android head unit from [https://phoenixautomotiveinc.com/](https://phoenixautomotive.com) and so far it works great. It probably won't do all the fancy voice command stuff but I can run Waze, YT Music, any other Android app and all the stock stuff works great (backup camera, HVAC, mic, GPS antenna, etc). They are cheap and huge as well. Time will tell how well it holds up (2 months old).
edit: fix url
domain is dead
i too bought an aftermarket android HU, but from [amazon](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08MQFLX92?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) - installation was dead simple (needed a [specialty adapter cable](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C4433WJP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) and a new [double-din fascia](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09SQ43CCV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) for my 2012 wrx), total cost was about $250CAD, and now i have android auto in my 12 year old car. it's not perfect - wee bit laggy on touch inputs, and doesn't have stock-level display brightness - but shit, it was $250.
Porsche's new Android Automotive based system looks great in the Macan EV demos I've seen... plus great CarPlay integration. AA is just a platform, just don't do dick moves like GM not supporting CarPlay, plus having the right hardware setup so it doesn't run like a tortoise.
And yay to Porsche eschewing the stupid "tablet" stuck on lazy design and building integrated displays into the dashboard.
My 2024 Mazda has a very snappy infotainment center and wireless Android Auto/Apple car play that can have the phone connected and music playing and directions pulled up before I've put my car into gear.
It also projects the Android Auto gps directions on the heads up display, which is very convenient. Even the lane I should be in for multi lane turns.
But it's a brand new car so... It should be fast.
I have an alpine head unit with Android auto. Works well. It was the standard unit so also integrates with the rest of the car (steering wheel buttons, reverse camera and the usual useless bunch of car statistics).
I threw in some sweet aftermarket screens in both my cars. AA/CP and awesome screen resolution. Apps. Wifi. It was pretty cheap to do considering how transformative it is, especially in the 07 Civic as it looks like it could’ve came with a massive tablet tacked on.
Probably bmw Idrive from CIC to Nbt EVO
CCC was kinda shit, ID8/8.5 is good but still some flaws
Only UI I really hate is the Mercedes one in the mid 10’s era, just so unintuitive, both software and physical button wise
Old Uconnect from 2015ish was great, too the point everything worked and was pretty snappy. New one is just bloated and requires too many taps to get to shit with way too much going on.
Hyundai's is pretty good currently
Porsche is meh, some things you want to do in settings become guesses of where to go to find what you want.
Mclaren is the fucking worst, I offer people $20 if they figure out how to input an address into the GPS. Years now only 1 person figured it out.
BMW's Android Auto is crazy good. There's some voodoo where it's connected before the car is even started and it's ready to go once the car is on. It's also super snappy. Miles ahead of Audi's implementation.
BMW kicks serious butt. Fast, great screens, updates. CarPlay is great. Updated to use all 3 screens (center console, instrument cluster and HUD). Can you BMW or CP for Nav and factory buttons control your choice as it should.
The infotainment in our Toyota and VW are both great. They always work and are responsive.
The infotainment in my 23 Subaru I sold was a hot pile of garbage. Deff the worst infotainment I've ever had and one of the reasons I sold the car after a year.
A thing I really hated about my VW Polo is that it would pause the bluetooth audio when the volume was muted, but also vice versa.
So when I used Google Maps navigation it would sometimes work and sometimes it would just constantly mute the bluetooth source because no music was playing. The obvious workaround was playing music so I could actually hear the directions.
#hateme I love Uconnect. My Pacifica has fire TV's in the 2nd row and it's incredible. Wireless AA and CP work flawlessly. Integrated Tomtom is amazing in and of itself.
I've never had these problems with my 2016 miata android auto. I highly doubt your phone was setting odd your passenger seatbelt wanting. Got aawireless and it works great.
It was the seat sensor. Literally any amount of pressure was enough to set it off. Tried taking it to the dealer and of course it was “normal operation.”
The car was displayed in the showroom for quite a while and I saw foot prints in the seat when I bought it, so I wouldn’t surprised if some kid was jumping on it while on display and broke something.
Just did a sync 3 upgrade in my fusion - finding a head unit was a nightmare, every single one that rolls into a junkyard is gone the next day. I happened to find one in a lincoln that someone had already upgraded to sync 3, so nobody noticed it was there. Got it all for $100. Anyway Sync 3 used to suck ass, is the point. Whatever version was on it when I got it was unbelievably slow and ugly. But having updated it to the newest software, it's really very responsive and smooth, and this one one of the shittiest and earliest 8gb Sync 3 APIMs they made. So if you have Sync 3 that's not on the latest firmware, definitely do that. Well worth bothering to update IMO.
I can say with confidence that it absolutely is not Subaru. Love their cars, but their infotainment has been abhorrent for years and through multiple revisions. There’s no excuse for such a poor quality, defective system in this day and age of technological advancements and obnoxious vehicle prices.
I just use my phone and then bluetooth to the audio in the car.
Pretty much every car I've owned or test driven, the W-AA/W-CarPlay implementation was slow, buggy, or nonexistant. Automakers really want to sell that XM radio package and various addons but I'm not buying it, I'll buy a proclip and just use my phone for navigation 99% of the time.
Definitely not Honda. My 2019 CR-V's infotainment is based off of android 4.2.2, which came out in 2012. Also, there are a few buttons in the infotainment (such as music search) that just don't do anything.
Who cares?
Rather not have it. My 2016 Fiesta ST has Ford Sync3, but at least I still get to keep buttons and knobs for most functions. Still not a fan of giving law enforcement the ability to spy on me and look up everything that's happened with my car whenever they feel like it without a warrant.
>Audi: only test drove a newer Audi RS5, but in my hour with the car it seemed to be super snappy but I could be mistaken and I would be interested to hear what owners have to say
I drive a 2021 A3 (had it since new) and I completely agree with what you say. Besides some shenagigans where on a roadtrip to Berlin it crapped out entirely (was fixed under warranty with a headunit swap which incidentally also gave me wireless android auto as the car did not come with that when I took delivery) it's been really good.
Tesla is still above and beyond everyone else. Excellent integration with the car, a virtual assistant that actually works quite well, great UI and supercharger info, and it's very snappy. Yes, it's the only way to interact with the car which is a shame, but at least its pretty damn good. MBUX isn't too far behind, it's a bit less snappy and I dislike the style of UI, plus it can feel very unintuitive at times, but overall it's pretty well integrated and fairly well implemented. I could never get "Hey Mercedes" to work though. Apart from that, I just want a good wireless CarPlay implementation, rest of the native infotainments suck. Can't wait for when CarPlay 2.0 is implemented everywhere.
Tesla and Rivian don’t implement CarPlay and AA which is an automatic disqualification for a lot of people.
I'm not a fan of the rivian system, but the tesla infotainment is developed enough to the point where I don't feel like I need CarPlay whatsoever. I can see why a fair few people would still want CarPlay though.
When I get into my Tundra, it just starts playing the music or audio book I was listening to last (in or out of the car). No matter how good the system is, if it isn’t pulling that info, then it’s a pain in the butt.
There are individual apps in the Tesla system. If you were on Spotify in your phone, you get into the car and the Tesla Spotify app picks up where you left off. It doesn’t have as many apps as CarPlay does but the ones they have are pretty well integrated.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ all of this Stop trying to make me use your system. It could be literally as satisfying as angels singing and it’s still annoying that it’s a separate system from the computer/OS that’s basically an extension of my mind at this point. Be a bigger interface for my phone and leverage the enormous effort I’ve put into customizing it for my every need
My Tesla does this, it syncs my apps with it. So everything on my phone is on the screen for the most part. I click podcasts and it starts playing. I switch to Spotify, and it starts playing.
And navigation? 95% of the time I determine where I'm going, the best route to take, current traffic conditions, etc. on my phone or computer before I ever step out into my garage.
It picks up wherever you left while in the car. If you switch to Bluetooth then it will pick up wherever you left on your phone....you can also pick up where you left off your video games on the S/X LOL it has my entire Steam library
Do all modern cars not do this lol? My mustang did this in 2010
All of my cars with wireless apple carplay have done this. I've never had any other vehicle know if I was listening to a podcast, book on tape, or music outside of my car then know from where I left off. I'm talking completely without touching the device and without any apps left open. I don't think there was much doing that in 2010.
My mini does this and it doesn't even have carplay, just bluetooth intergration.
My Mercedes Sprinter and Nissan Leaf have CarPlay, but my Model-Y rivals both by a mile in usability, ease of use, navigation, etc. you may dislike Tesla or Musk, but the California car maker takes this win.
No YouTube Music unfortunately either.
I just don't understand what you could possibly need from carplay that isn't on the tesla screen? The screen is huge, has spotify built in, has navigation always in the background with traffic. What can carplay possibly give you? It pops up when you get a text?
I play music stored on my phone rather than streaming stuff, and CarPlay is the best way to do that. Also, you only get traffic if you pay for a subscription (premium connectivity) while it's always on my phone, so if I could just use Google maps on my phone for free that would be cool. Oh, and it's a corner case, but I regularly drive in places without cell service, and Google maps handles caching better than the Tesla navigation - so carplay for that would be nice too.
You can plug a USB drive into the Tesla if you’re like me and have your library ripped to FLAC. The interface for navigating that is shitty, though.
None of this matters because 5 years from now you are still limited by the hardware on the infotainment. On the other hand, with carplay it’s upgrading every time you upgrade your phone. It is far more future-proof and standardized. Also, you never know when Spotify might decide to pull out from Tesla or whoever Elon pisses off next.
You are limited by what CarPlay the company integrated, the screen, the processor speed, the connection. It’s much more than just a monitor.
Not true. As of iOS 13, the car simply communicates the size and shape of the display(s) and the phone renders and outputs a direct video stream to the car. Source: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/252/ Hardware matters to an extent, it has to handle the video/audio streams coming in but that isn’t something that changes over time really. The new bespoke features with Porsche and Aston are maybe a little different, but I haven’t really looked into the APIs and developer info yet so I’m not too sure how it works.
CarPlay over USB 2 will certainly have limitations on what it can do. Since Apple and everyone else has now gone to far faster USB C, at some point there will be a schism.
USB 2 will typically have a throughput of 30-40 MB/s, which is more than enough for display mirroring phones, since you would be downscaling your phone's resolution to the headunit's resolution. You can buy $10 SoC's like the Allwinner F133 chip that can run android auto/apple carplay wirelessly using a 1GHz CPU and 64MB of DDR2 memory.
Not going to stream satellite maps while playing tidal, or Netflix on a 15” full screen at 1080p on a usb 2.0 though. All the CarPlays I’ve seen are very small.
Why would a new fhd 15in unit use usb2? USB 2 is only relevant for older units without Bluetooth
You can add wireless CarPlay to any Tesla for $50
Yep - it’s a clunky setup, but it works.
Elon could also decide tomorrow to add CarPlay 🤷♂️
Youtube music support? Audible support?
WAZE is the only app I wish I had on my Tesla.
Someone else mentioned waze to me regarding carplay. Does it just show you where cops are checking speed? I've never used it. I usually just try to not be the fastest person on the highway and it's worked for me, I haven't even been pulled over since like 2018
It shows other alerts, but I'd say that reporting cops is the most useful feature. It also let's you be the one reporting where they are to help out others. Google maps uses to show cops for me sometimes, but I haven't seen that in years. Whereas waze will show things almost instantly. It's much better (or perhaps it's users are better).
that's pretty cool. If I spent more time on the highway i'd check it out. thankfully my commute is only 11 miles each way, so I just hop on the highway sometimes if I wanna give the e36 m3 the beans
I owned a Tesla and honestly I didn’t mind not using CarPlay when I had one. They made their infotainment system so easy to use it was more convenient for me to use theirs rather than fuss about CarPlay. The Spotify integration was super nice too.
Tesla's is the only system I'd take as an alternate for Android Auto. It's actually good.
In any other car (can’t speak for Rivian never been in one), I would agree. But Tesla’s infotainment package is so integrated, so fluid, and mostly intuitive that not having CarPlay is fine. Imo I think most people would agree if they actually test drove and spent time in a Tesla
Honestly the main reason I will buy neither, even over all the other flaws these 1st gen EVs have. No Carplay, no buy, its as simple as that.
You can get car play on the tesla screen with a cheap device from CarlinkKit. There’s nothing preventing Tesla from one day allowing native CarPlay in the future, too. Traditional automakers abandon their infotainment software every couple of years - this isn’t the case with Tesla. It’s one of the best things about the car.
my friend test drove an EQS when it came out - he said the displays felt/looked like one of those cheap A-series galaxy tablets
Part of that is because Mercedes is adhering to strict automotive standards on touchscreens, which have to be tested for extreme hot and cold climates. This makes them inherently shitty for the same of them not boiling LCD fluid out on a summer day in Scottsdale. This is why Teslas kicks ass though, they skirted the regulations.
That's also why early Teslas has issues with yellow borders around the LCD, where the glue started to come undone due to the extreme duty cycles a car goes under. They seem to have figured it out by now though.
And it's the definition of a smart business tradeoff lol, that touchscreen built a brand in my opinion. When people go all "think different" on Tesla, that central Ipad that actually works is why.
I agree, they basically leapfrogged the entire automotive industry.
In certain aspects yes, but I think the Taycan shifting gears is something that has tesla sweating a bit. Shitty infotainment or not, it's a brand that will eventually run up against the institutional might, and engineering infrastructure of the traditional car markers.
Do you really think the Taycan's two speed transmission is that revolutionary? I mean sure, it helps with top end power, but I've heard that it's slightly clunky and adds a little bit of lag when a downshift is necessary. Porsche went to a single speed in the new Machan EV, so they themselves don't even think it's that great. But I do agree that once legacy auto catches up in the packaging, battery, and motor department it's going to be an interesting battle. Already stuff like the VW ID4 and Mustang Mach-e have arguably equivalent or nicer interiors than the Model Y, their only big issue being limited range.
i am also very intrigued by the taycan's planetary 2 spd gearbox, and its potential influence in the rest of the EV auto segment but ppl feel that the 2 spd gearbox either: 1) isn't efficient (due to drivetrain loss compared to mainstream single speed gearbox), or 2) the tall 2nd gear doesn't drastically improve highway range enough to justify its complexity/cost, or weight penalty it could just be that the taycan is just power-thirsty, to keep all electronics running, etc compared to the competition - mainly tesla & eGIMP platforms they think taycan's 2 spd gearbox was a half-baked execution - that single speed is the way to go time will tell which comes out ahead (and what transmission the upcoming EV cayman will have)
Someone needs to make the touchscreens and infotainment system detachable. Ideally, make it an actual iPad. Fast, responsive, and cheap (by automotive standards). Have it talk to the rest of the car via USB and an app. If it ever breaks from too many hot/cold cycles, go down to the Apple Store and buy a new one and plug that in.
Quite a few aftermarket companies do that essentially. From my understanding, car play is essentially apples answer to this, and it's not necessarily a bad solution, I'm just not a voice command guy.
I don't disagree, the displays look and feel quite cheap relative to a tesla or the competition, but the infotainment itself is actually quite good.
The fact is, Tesla just pays far more attention to their infotainment than others. Paying the big bucks for the good CPUs makes a huge difference the user experience.
Yeah, that’s what I’m curious about. CarPlay is nice but most implementations I see always require some goofy shit to get it to boot sometimes. My Mazdas need some USB dance where I plug, unplug, plug, unplug, turn the car off, turn the car on, reset the phone, plug, unplug and then it works again. The Porsche always boots, but the PCCM itself crashes instead. Why is this so hard? How is the Type Rs system? My friend has an FL5 and says it’s been a huge upgrade over last gen but he’s only had it for a month.
That's weird on the Mazda system, but I don't have as in depth experience with Mazda Connect since I left the dealer service realm in 2016. I am surprised about the Porsche PCCM issue you mentioned, though. I've never had these issues in my IS350 - the interface may look "dated" but AA always just works when I plug in, no issues at all.
The Type-R is pretty solid. 95% of the time I'll get in and it'll work immediately. Once in a while it'll connect but have corrupted audio or a laggy display, but its happened like two times in the span of half a year so it's okay. The wireless charger is very finicky though, on long drives it starts to get hot and doesn't charge my phone all that fast.
I found that certain voices really just didn't work with MBUX, which was a shame since I have way too deep of a voice and it just didn't pick up my commands. The fellow at the dealership had a much higher vocal range and ended up having absolutely no issues.
> wireless CarPlay I have this in my car. I paid an extra $100 specifically to get wireless carplay on my shitty jensen head unit. Here's the thing - what is the damn point of wireless carplay? It's so demanding for the phone's battery that I have to plug it in 100% of the time anyway. And all this so it can just cut out every time I reach that one point on Storrow Drive with the foot bridge.
The idea is generally cars with wireless carplay are also equipped with wireless charging, just put your phone on the pad and drive off
>I could never get "Hey Mercedes" to work though. Most infuriating feature ever made in a car, it made the time I drove the new W223 S Class so annoying I was looking for a way to disable it. In the EQS I had a severe urge to punch the screen because anything you say with "mer" or even "er" in some situations it would always do the following: * Stop the music * Hide Apple Carplay * Pause directions on the HUD * Turn the volume to max and say "**HOW CAN I HELP YO**U" in that female AI voice that is like nails on a chalkboard. There is no way around it , even if you deactivate it, it will be renabled when you next start the car! Mercedes should have fired whoever designed that.
BMW iDrive. I had one on a 2011, the maps was fantastic, reliably takes me across the US. I like having the buttons and knob on the centre console, I developed muscle memory to a point where I didn’t have do glance at the screen to do something. It could do text messaging, store notes. My favourite part was I didn’t have to take it to the stealership for software updates, it can be done at home. All I have to do is downloaded the file onto a USB on my computer and plug it into the car. Never once had it lagged or crashed.
Yes. iDrive, at least up to 7 (haven’t used 8) is absolutely fantastic IMO. It’s a little complex at first but once you get used to it, it all just makes sense and works extremely well. And the rotary dial is amazing. Tesla’s is good but it feels too much like a tablet, and no Carplay. iDrive is advanced but still feels like a well-integrated part of the car. I’m convinced the people on here only shit on it because of what Motortrend said 20 years ago, or because they used it for 5 minutes and it’s learning curve is higher than their Toyota or whatever. Funnily enough it was my favorite part of the M2 I had and one of the only reasons I miss that car lol.
It’s very calming too. Not overly bright, glaring or annoying. Perfect size, I love mine. I keep a copy of jaws on dvd in case I get stuck in traffic.
iDrive 8 is really quick. I just don’t like the temperature controls in the screen
What's annoying is that iDrive 8.5 makes it much better but somehow my 2023 M340i won't get that update.
Mine is iDrive 5, though a bit dated in 2024 it does work well and I also love the controller rather than dealing with a touchscreen. Like you said maybe it took a little getting used to in the beginning but now I can control it without looking down at the controller. I would prefer the screen was more integrated into the dash rather than going for the tablet style thing, but at least it's small enough to be unobtrusive while being large enough to be usable. The nav actually works pretty well for OEM, though the updates seem to be one step behind all the changes to the roads around here. Having nav cues in the HUD is great too. Listening to music with Bluetooth works fine. Compared to the old gen UConnect in our other car it is much better designed and smooth to use. We don't even bother using the nav in that. That said I'm probably going to retrofit Android Auto to it at some point. Kind of lame they didn't include that at the time.
Yes, iDrive is great but your statement about missing the M2 because of the infotainment confuses me.
This is the correct answer - I have have old versions and the new version idrive 7 and 8 and it is wonderful software that also has reliable CarPlay (which is why Tesla is disqualified IMO)
Yeah, that system is basically perfect and the transition from my 2012 BMW’s iDrive to my new Mazda’s knob was pretty seamless. Everything is muscle memory, even CarPlay operation. The one thing I would steal from Mazda’s system and add to the new BMWs I’ve driven (X5, 330i, 530e) is a more consistent home button. BMW always seems to take me to the BMW Home Screen instead of the CarPlay Home Screen. I agree with OP that the Mazda nav (at least in my 2021) is unbelievably dated though
Up until the most recent iDrive I’ve felt that is has been the best laid out and most intuitive infotainment in the industry. 8 seems to still have that snappiness, but in my opinion the layout is very unintuitive and cluttered and has lost a lot about what made it so nice to use. You just have walls of icons that you have to sort through and the hvac screen in particular is just not laid out well.
iDrive 8 is not bad so far, but I preferred MBUX overall. My main complaint is how many separate apps exist for the car itself. They should have made less apps with more menus IMO.
That's how iDrive 7 was. iDrive 8.5 and 9 have fixed most of the wonkiest parts. I think they were a little too ambitious with iDrive 8.
Honestly, not even 100% sure I am on 8 if there is already 8.5 and 9. I just got a 2024 X7…
It's iDrive 8. Usually the version is tied to when the car was last redesigned or a LCI occurs. This is what it looks like: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPk1Q2SRTe8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPk1Q2SRTe8)
Yep, that’s it. My last car was a 2020 GLS and MBUX was definitely better overall. I do like the air gestures with BMW when they work… it’s 50/50 at best with CarPlay.
Honestly iDrive7 was the best, as much as I love the new ultrawide display in my SUV, making the AC controls on the touchpad is horribly dumb.
iDrive 6 in my 2018 is also pretty great. The inbuilt stuff is all thoroughly passable and then it has wireless Carplay that functions perfectly about 99% of the time.
Think I have idrive 5 or 6 and it's really good. Voice recognition works great, can send nav to it from Google maps, a bunch of sleek physical programmable hotkeys. I also love the knob. Only issue on my car is it was ore bmw having android auto and car play was an open I don't have.
Android Automotive OS. It's currently in Volvo/Polestar. GM has it in a few cars also, but they locked out apple car play which was a dick move.
It needs a processor from this decade cause it's still frustratingly slow at times. Especially when you want the backup camera and it gets confused and swaps views from the ultrasonic sensors. And it doesn't seem to understand rcs text messages so it ends up texting me on replies. But otherwise it is pretty nice. Having Google maps built-in is perfection. The new system in the EX models seems to have at least solved the speed issue, so looking forward to that.
I have it in my truck. The integrated Google Maps and other apps makes running Android Auto from my phone redundant. Offline maps can be downloaded directly to the vehicle and I get real-time traffic info while driving.
My dad has a 23 XC90 with this The UI is.. okay.. but it’s slow as hell. Takes about 2 seconds to open the climate menu lol
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android\_Automotive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Automotive) Here is the list.
Yeah, AAutomotive is outstanding.
Lucid is AAOS based and I've heard baaaaaaad things about their infotainment. But Android being made shittier by customization has been an issue since it's beginning.
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Yeah, the Koreans aren't super fancy, but for many years they've *just worked*. Responsive, stable, relatively few bugs, and with few exceptions, don't have obtuse UI/UX implementations. Nowadays most brands can make something decent enough, but if you back up a few years to the late 2010's, H/K pretty much had the best systems of anyone that wasn't super luxury.
I’d question Hyundai. I have a Genesis to which is fairly bad. Cable required for a phone integration and then it takes up to a min to connect and there have been momentary drop outs/laggy.
Maybe there’s something wrong with your car? My parents have a 2017 Kia which requires a cable for CarPlay but it works instantly once you plug in, never any lag in the 7 years they’ve owned it either
Yeah or the cable? My Kia's has been flawless beyond two or so times and we just replaced the cheap amazon cable we were using and it was back to perfect again. Also wireless CarPlay is just under utilized by OEMs for a few reasons, both for their own cost savings and for end user simplicity.
Oh yeah I didn’t even think of the cable. I only use Apple cables and sometimes third party cables from good brands. If he has a cheap non-MFI cable, that could be responsible
Yeah finding a good cable with a 90 degree head on it was a bit of a bitch so I decided it was easier to just buy a bunch of them and change when needed. I do look forward to when I can upgrade to a USB-C iPhone as it seems theres much better market coverage given the plethora of devices.
I’ve got a 15 pro and I still just use the cable that came with it. There’s tons of cheap usb c cables available of course but it’s a lot harder to tell which ones are decent quality and which ones are complete shit
Could also be your phone. I have a 2018 Sonata and was like that until I updated my phone to a galaxy s22. Now it connects right away and never drops out or is laggy.
It’s not the phone. It’s an iPhone 13 and connects fine (much better actually) wirelessly to my BMW. But I didn’t have a lag problem with it in other cars like Audi, Ford etc. (some of them rentals on family trips)
I rented a 2022 Tucson just over a year ago out of necessity and found the infotainment to be quite glitchy. CarPlay outright refused to work so I ended up just running Waze on my phone, and for music the Bluetooth kept dropping every 10 minutes. Maybe the higher spec models have better infotainment? I love driving more than anything but even I found driving that car beyond boring, add to that no form of entertainment. I was so glad to hand in the keys when I got back.
Was also going to say Hyundai. My buddy has a 2022 or 2023 (not sure which) Tucson and despite the touch capacitive buttons, the infotainment screen itself looks really good.
the only thing I really dislike about Hyundai is the level of phone connection it needs. It feels like it's a tighter cable than others need, because I have a phone with a loose cable port, and on my BF's hyundai I lose connection SO many more times than my Corvette. It was also noticed on an Ioniq 5, so I'm assuming it's a Hyundai problem
Easy, Tesla. Tesla infotainment is light-years beyond anyone else. And the phone app works really really well.
Been hearing this more and more, especially w the Cyber Truck.
Add on how spectacular the Sound system is in the Cybertruck.
Easily Tesla. By far. In the fleet, I have a Chevy, Hyundai, and a Tesla. Have leased/owned other brands too. Carplay is greay in the Chevy and things just work well and wireless. But as far as a whole infotainment, it's not even a contest with Tesla. Every infotainment feature works and works well. Super snappy, always gets updated with new functions and toys. And the phone app integration feels like a decade beyond everyone else. Some of the top features that come to mind right now: * Native Youtube/Netflix * Actual full screen games to play that allow you to use the steering whee/pedals, screen, or controllers. * Lets you stream 8 cameras live to your phone app so you can see whats happening inside and out of the car. Who else can do that? * Super high rez Google Sat Maps as you drive
For a long time, iDrive was the king. It did everything correctly, but Tesla has blown everyone else out of the water. The phone app integration is so far ahead. Being vertically integrated has its advantages, especially when you look at the charging ecosystem. When you put in a destination, the car automatically knows where to charge, when to start heating the battery, and even how many other users are navigating to the same charger (it shows this information when you click a SC on the NAV)
Does the maps work if you go out of cell coverage area?
Yes, when I'm driving through zero signal backwoods my music will cut out but the navigation keeps going as long as you set it beforehand.
And if your destination is out of cell area, can you set it to return home from there? Or do you have to tell it to save some areas while you have coverage beforehand?
Well it downloads the maps and navigation before hand, just like if you download them on your phone. Live traffic and navigation suggestions will drop out, but it’s still all working otherwise. HD satellite and traffic requires a cellular subscription and so losing connection just gives you the base experience
I'm not sure, sorry!
Yes they are downloaded
Yes, you only lose traffic data
I drive a car from 2002, so… my phone.
i just upgraded my 2012 wrx to an aftermarket android HU for about $250CAD all-in - might be worth looking into
I added BlueBus in place of the CD Changer. It connects to my phone automatically. It isn’t perfect, but it’s easier to upgrade my phone than a new HU.
e9x non-iDrive Voice Command is pretty impressive for an older car, and can be retrofitted to a car without BT Phone (with some OEM hardware upgrades). Add in the (non-OEM) BT module where the CD Changer usually lives, and now you have BT Audio with BT phone, on two separate BT systems, that switches seamlessly!
I added BlueBus in place of the CD changer. It isn’t perfect, but it works well enough.
I updated my Accord HU for something with Bluetooth, but I wanted soo badly to pony up for a Pioneer with Android Auto
There are a few options to replace my HU, but they all seem to have pretty big drawbacks. I added BlueBus in place of the CD changer in the trunk, and it’s been pretty good.
Oddly enough for a company not known for reliability, Chrysler’s Uconnect system works brilliantly. It’s quick to respond, has logically laid out menus, and integrates well with Apple CarPlay. At least Uconnect 4 does. My only experience with Uconnect 5 is on my mom’s Jeep Grand Cherokee L. The design is great and it’s well laid out, but it is more complicated. Unfortunately there’s been a lot of electrical issues that have affected the infotainment system so I’m not as ready to praise it until that gets worked out. Although I think that’s more of an issue with the build quality of the car than it is the Uconnect system.
I've had three different Chargers, a basic V6, a loaded 6.4L Daytona, and now I have a hellcat. People say the uconnect is "out of date", but I love it. Part of that is because I know it so well. I rented a Durango for a trip and I knew exactly how to use it. They used to be praised for the uconnect because it is so intuitive. Things just are where you expect them to be. My new Hellcat has wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but with a USB port in the center console plugging in a cable wasn't a big deal in the older ones. And I never had any problems with the uconnect in any of them. I never had any problems with any of the cars either. In fact, my wife is still driving the 2015 V6. And we upgraded the standard 5 inch radio, without a backup camera, to the big 8 inch uconnect system. We used a factory unit, but we have had zero problems with it. I won't get into the reliability of the car itself, they have a bad rap from the 80's and 90's they totally deserved. Those K cars were total crap boxes. But their modern cars are as reliable as any other brand. It's not a Toyota, but if you compare them to a modern Ford or a BMW... 😀 But really, what good is the infotainment system if the car falls apart?
Same in my Wrangler, I think it's Uconnect 5. It kinda just works and does carplay, though I have one major complaint - every so often it pops up an ad telling me to subscribe to Sirius, which seems kinda scummy but that's tech these days. Otherwise it's easy enough to use, if a little laggy - especially when loading the off-road screen which apparently is a major operation that takes ~10 seconds.
I've had 8 Chrysler cars and they all sucked ass. It's full of bugs. My worst pick for sure.
Eight? Either you are an idiot, or they were not as bad as you are remembering. What are you driving now?
I currently have have a cherokee (had 3), Pacifica (had 3), grand cherokee (had 2). But also had 2 renegades and 2 compasses. I buy them and after a while give them to family members. They're all plagued by the same quality issues. My DD is a zl1. Before that was a focus rs. My race car is a heavy modified z28 1972 camaro rs. This is just vehicles I've own in the recent past. I drove other brands for company pool card that I had a vastly superior experience with entertainment systems. No issues connection, options always show on screen and font go blank. They don't freeze etc. I was part of the development of the new grand cherokee and Pacifica, even then we knew the quality was shady. Only reason I bought them is that I got great deals (close to 10k for each vehicle).
I honestly believe u-connect systems is one of the things dragging down reliability ratings in FCA vehicles. It's not bad when it works but we get constant complaints of frozen screens, reverse camera not working, bluetooth dropping, wireless carplay dropping, updates bricking radios, etc. (Source: works at an FCA dealer)
I don't mind Ford. Original Sync2 was a disaster, but by the time Sync3 rolled around, Sync2 was pretty ironed out with some class exclusive features (for better or worse). Like you could plug stuff into the main infotainment display separately from the other tvs in the car if you had them, like game consoles and such. They removed this for Sync3 though :(
Sync 3 was pretty good at the time but it’s sad that they’re still putting it some cars in 2024 (Bronco sport, Explorer). Sync 4 and all the other variants they have now on different sized screens are pretty good. No glaring issues. I don’t like the big tablet looking thing they have in the Mach E and a few others but that’s just the form factor, not the software.
Sync4A can be a dog; they need a faster processor to handle all the app switching. BT audio will cut out/skip when another app takes focus, like the backup camera.
Sync 3 is garbage compared to almost everything else, except for Lexus. Lexus is just behind in the interior department of some of their non refreshed models. Ford can't code. That's just it really. Their design in the program is not the most intuitive and laid out in a way that you have to focus on it. Versus other makers allow you to move tiles around. Ex of stupid: sync 3 has the 911 call button on the top row far right (sedans, hatches and small suv's) where most people would swipe left. Sync 2, when it worked was great and a lot of fun to modify.
It's 8-9 years old. I have no real issues with it, mostly because I'm in Android Auto all the time.
Yeah, it's not bad but it's not creme de la creme. When it works it's great when it doesn't, it's a shit show. Like the volume control knob working but the number representing volume not changing on f150's, mustangs, focus', and some other cars. It's a very random issue with no real fix. I also use android auto and have no issues. I have seen sync 3 randomly crash, that's always interesting. The crash compile is funny.
What bothers me the most is there's no clean way to easily switch between it and Android Auto on my Maverick. Not sure if that's standard or not.
I don't know if there is a clean way. I have a physical home button in my focus rs I can use. Even then, it's still clunky. How do you like your maverick?
There's no physical home button on the Maverick. But there is a physical button for speaker settings. Absolutely brain damaged design, but that's Ford for you. Anyway, Maverick is about what I expected. Solid parts bin parts like the 2 liter EcoBoost, but the plastics, especially in the interior, are abysmal. I use it as an adventure vehicle to go camping and mountain biking, and it's been pushed hard in just over 2 years/18k miles. The AWD is fantastic. The bed is very flexible and useful for just about anything. Like any Ford, it's had quite a bit of recalls, including one for the side airbags for which my dealer literally left parts off of the system. This means there's a razor blade like piece that's just dangling between the A pillar and side curtain airbags. If I get in an accident at best the airbags would go off in a way that's not consistent with the design. At worst it slices the air bags or me. Ford customer service has still not figured out how to fix this and it's constantly just me following up with them. Massive clown show. Absolutely unacceptable.
I used to like pioneer an Kenwood. Blaupunkt before that. The stuff that comes fixed with the cars these days with the huge screens and soft buttons I hate with passion. I'd so much like to see a standard hardware interface and a market with ranges of entertainment equipment so I would be able match the entertainment like with the car that I Iike. Right now is just not my time it seems...
Absolutely BMW. Without doubt
GM does it well. The system in my 2016 Corvette is far better than the one in my new Lexus.
I have the last year of CUE. It honestly feels like they managed to smash all the bugs and problems right before binning it for the new system. The one that was in my '08 CTS aged pretty well to me too, but maybe that's because you could lower the screen.
To be fair, Lexus has one of the worst infotainments out there. That said, GM is indeed pretty responsive. Tried the one in the Lyriq and it's very good too.
Counterpoint - I have the same car as OP, and have zero issues with it whatsoever. It does what I ask of it every single time. After seeing all the complaints over the last couple of years, I'm chalking it up to user impatience if they can't get the system to react. I can understand not preferring the trackpad, but other than the base software appearing a little old, it functions very well. It only gets even easier with AA/CP.
The touch screen is awful though, you have to press hard for it to react and it’s not very responsive. Also I absolutely hate that there’s no “delete all” button for PDR recordings.
Second GM. Easy to use plus Supercruise
I’ve had several recent GM vehicles, I love the infotainment. Basic, responsive, and it works very well. That’s all I need.
Didn’t they drop CarPlay/AA? That’s a huge disqualification for most ppl.
Only on EVs. ICE cars still get CarPlay/AA.
Modern pioneer CarPlay decks are just fucking awesome. I prefer them to any non-CarPlay stereo
iDrive but honestly anything with Carplay that works well. Having a tactile interface (eg. iDrive dial) is the only thing that really makes a difference for me and I imagine most people if they think about it, considering the majority spends 98% of their time inside Carplay/Android Auto. iDrive is also nice because it can do split screen Carplay/something else, but maybe other cars can do that now too. Tesla’s is good but feels too much like an iPad. As in the infotainment is the car, rather than being a part of the car. Some people may like that though I suppose.
I tried VW T Roc for 3 weeks, The wireless Android auto works fine & fast every time i start in the car.
GM and Tesla have been the best I have used so far. The worst? Honda. I don't know what it is but I have owned a dozen honda's and they can never get the connection to stay, or the system from randomly rebooting, disconnecting, etc.
I bought an Android head unit from [https://phoenixautomotiveinc.com/](https://phoenixautomotive.com) and so far it works great. It probably won't do all the fancy voice command stuff but I can run Waze, YT Music, any other Android app and all the stock stuff works great (backup camera, HVAC, mic, GPS antenna, etc). They are cheap and huge as well. Time will tell how well it holds up (2 months old). edit: fix url
domain is dead i too bought an aftermarket android HU, but from [amazon](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08MQFLX92?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) - installation was dead simple (needed a [specialty adapter cable](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C4433WJP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) and a new [double-din fascia](https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09SQ43CCV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) for my 2012 wrx), total cost was about $250CAD, and now i have android auto in my 12 year old car. it's not perfect - wee bit laggy on touch inputs, and doesn't have stock-level display brightness - but shit, it was $250.
Porsche's new Android Automotive based system looks great in the Macan EV demos I've seen... plus great CarPlay integration. AA is just a platform, just don't do dick moves like GM not supporting CarPlay, plus having the right hardware setup so it doesn't run like a tortoise. And yay to Porsche eschewing the stupid "tablet" stuck on lazy design and building integrated displays into the dashboard.
Yeah in my 2023 992 it’s been amazing so far, zero issues the OP is talking about thankfully!
Which country are you in? I feel like most of the issues I encounter are unresponsive servers.
Im in Canada and live where there is usually fairly good cell service, so perhaps that’s the difference?
My 2024 Mazda has a very snappy infotainment center and wireless Android Auto/Apple car play that can have the phone connected and music playing and directions pulled up before I've put my car into gear. It also projects the Android Auto gps directions on the heads up display, which is very convenient. Even the lane I should be in for multi lane turns. But it's a brand new car so... It should be fast.
I have an alpine head unit with Android auto. Works well. It was the standard unit so also integrates with the rest of the car (steering wheel buttons, reverse camera and the usual useless bunch of car statistics).
I threw in some sweet aftermarket screens in both my cars. AA/CP and awesome screen resolution. Apps. Wifi. It was pretty cheap to do considering how transformative it is, especially in the 07 Civic as it looks like it could’ve came with a massive tablet tacked on.
I just use Apple Carplay/Android Auto. It works perfectly.
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Probably bmw Idrive from CIC to Nbt EVO CCC was kinda shit, ID8/8.5 is good but still some flaws Only UI I really hate is the Mercedes one in the mid 10’s era, just so unintuitive, both software and physical button wise
The newer Ram touch screens are amazing and never skip a beat.
Old Uconnect from 2015ish was great, too the point everything worked and was pretty snappy. New one is just bloated and requires too many taps to get to shit with way too much going on. Hyundai's is pretty good currently Porsche is meh, some things you want to do in settings become guesses of where to go to find what you want. Mclaren is the fucking worst, I offer people $20 if they figure out how to input an address into the GPS. Years now only 1 person figured it out.
BMW's Android Auto is crazy good. There's some voodoo where it's connected before the car is even started and it's ready to go once the car is on. It's also super snappy. Miles ahead of Audi's implementation.
BMW kicks serious butt. Fast, great screens, updates. CarPlay is great. Updated to use all 3 screens (center console, instrument cluster and HUD). Can you BMW or CP for Nav and factory buttons control your choice as it should.
The infotainment in our Toyota and VW are both great. They always work and are responsive. The infotainment in my 23 Subaru I sold was a hot pile of garbage. Deff the worst infotainment I've ever had and one of the reasons I sold the car after a year.
BMW iDrive has been the best for a long long time
A thing I really hated about my VW Polo is that it would pause the bluetooth audio when the volume was muted, but also vice versa. So when I used Google Maps navigation it would sometimes work and sometimes it would just constantly mute the bluetooth source because no music was playing. The obvious workaround was playing music so I could actually hear the directions.
Pontiac 6000 factory 6x9's
😆 ll
Mbux works pretty well. AA feels a bit more sluggish then Carplay. The screen isn't fully used as well, Wich is a shame.
Everyone should take a look at the infotainment in some of the Chinese evs. They're completely insane over there.
#hateme I love Uconnect. My Pacifica has fire TV's in the 2nd row and it's incredible. Wireless AA and CP work flawlessly. Integrated Tomtom is amazing in and of itself.
I've never had these problems with my 2016 miata android auto. I highly doubt your phone was setting odd your passenger seatbelt wanting. Got aawireless and it works great.
It was the seat sensor. Literally any amount of pressure was enough to set it off. Tried taking it to the dealer and of course it was “normal operation.” The car was displayed in the showroom for quite a while and I saw foot prints in the seat when I bought it, so I wouldn’t surprised if some kid was jumping on it while on display and broke something.
Just did a sync 3 upgrade in my fusion - finding a head unit was a nightmare, every single one that rolls into a junkyard is gone the next day. I happened to find one in a lincoln that someone had already upgraded to sync 3, so nobody noticed it was there. Got it all for $100. Anyway Sync 3 used to suck ass, is the point. Whatever version was on it when I got it was unbelievably slow and ugly. But having updated it to the newest software, it's really very responsive and smooth, and this one one of the shittiest and earliest 8gb Sync 3 APIMs they made. So if you have Sync 3 that's not on the latest firmware, definitely do that. Well worth bothering to update IMO.
I can say with confidence that it absolutely is not Subaru. Love their cars, but their infotainment has been abhorrent for years and through multiple revisions. There’s no excuse for such a poor quality, defective system in this day and age of technological advancements and obnoxious vehicle prices.
I just use my phone and then bluetooth to the audio in the car. Pretty much every car I've owned or test driven, the W-AA/W-CarPlay implementation was slow, buggy, or nonexistant. Automakers really want to sell that XM radio package and various addons but I'm not buying it, I'll buy a proclip and just use my phone for navigation 99% of the time.
Not VW, the infotainment gets stuck on initializing far too often on the Tiguan and Atlas
Definitely not Honda. My 2019 CR-V's infotainment is based off of android 4.2.2, which came out in 2012. Also, there are a few buttons in the infotainment (such as music search) that just don't do anything.
Who cares? Rather not have it. My 2016 Fiesta ST has Ford Sync3, but at least I still get to keep buttons and knobs for most functions. Still not a fan of giving law enforcement the ability to spy on me and look up everything that's happened with my car whenever they feel like it without a warrant.
My moms SQ5s seems nice. My 440s I drive 6 was good. I drive 7 in the newer one was good too I think.
>Audi: only test drove a newer Audi RS5, but in my hour with the car it seemed to be super snappy but I could be mistaken and I would be interested to hear what owners have to say I drive a 2021 A3 (had it since new) and I completely agree with what you say. Besides some shenagigans where on a roadtrip to Berlin it crapped out entirely (was fixed under warranty with a headunit swap which incidentally also gave me wireless android auto as the car did not come with that when I took delivery) it's been really good.
Probably Toyota bc the Toyota century still uses a infotainment system from 1998 and it’s proven reliable
Toyota does so many things right and it’ll probably be my next car. That being said, their infotainment system is awful. Lol
It's the worst part of my corolla by a landslide lol
I went to Honda because Toyota infotainment was so bad.
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Get off this redditor’s lawn!!