Apple CarPlay

What hackers pick instead

• Android AutoRecommended for bringing familiar phone maps, audio and apps to the car, including older models. Critics most often report flaky connections and breakage after updates.69recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 307 comments. Each links to the original.

1. So instead of trying to look at a tiny screen that's clipped onto an air vent, I can use the screens and integrated controls, keeping my hands on the wheel and my eyes more in the road.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

2. I have them on my motorcycles too. It's way better than a phone, in that the user interface is designed to be less interactive and more focusses with larger buttons.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

3. I've used my phones with 3 different cars regularly using CarPlay every single time I drive for literally a decade without ever experiencing that.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

4. CarPlay integrates with the voice-assist button on the steering wheel as well as prevents you from doing unsafe stuff like browsing/sending texts

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “GM to Offer Apple CarPlay After Shift Away from the System”

5. The ability to just get in your car and have the phone-powered interface right there without having to take your phone out of your pocket

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

6. CarPlay is a great solution because the non safety critical stuff (music, navigation) gets offloaded to a competent software company.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

7. CarPlay enables a car-friendly interface with big buttons, shortcuts to navigation/music/communication, and minimal distractions.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

8. it makes the usually junk infotainment system in cars (especially older ones) irrelevant, so they still seem modern.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

9. I hop into my car and CarPlay just automatically puts up the route I already have in my phone and starts working.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

10. Both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are better experiences than any first party car interface I've experienced.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “My car's OTA update broke Android Auto, and it's a indictment of modern software”

11. For people that wish to keep a vehicle for a long time, carplay/android auto isn't just a convenience anymore.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

12. Outside of Carplay, Android Auto and Tesla (and maybe a few other very recent models), they're all shit.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

13. Sometimes you plug your phone into the USB port (unlocked) and it refuses to connect for several minutes

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

14. CarPlay is additive to the experience, but also is something that provides me a degree of consistency

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

15. if it hadnt been for carplay and its android equivalent, legacy auto would have been cooked long ago

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Car touchscreens are cheap, not good”

16. It's good, it's consistent, it's the same everywhere, it's up to date, it uses data from my phone.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

17. If you have a car you are forced to because you can’t use Apple Car Play if you don’t enable Siri.

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage”

18. CarPlay/Android Auto is how you can get a modern infotainment system on a car that's a decade old.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020”

19. I can't find one instance of a car UI being as good or easier to interact with than CarPlay.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

20. CarPlay is preferable to a small phone screen that tempts you to review your notifications.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Drivers Are Taking Extreme Measures to Avoid New Car Technology”

21. I do not think I could ever go back to using the infotainment systems that ship with cars.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app”

22. If you are browsing around in third party carplay apps, and ready to tap your selection, but instead press the accelerator first, it truncates the list

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence”

23. CarPlay seemingly still suffers from a (sometimes deadly) issue of covering the entire map on your dashboard

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Last Year on My Mac: Look Back in Disbelief”

24. Oh great, it requires USB. Well my phone is 4 years old and the port is toast, so that doesn't work for me.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

25. CarPlay still feels like it's worth risking my life every time someone calls me while I use the navigation.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Apple, What Have You Done?”

26. You can’t use CarPlay without Siri enabled, so you can’t use CarPlay without doxxing your friends to Apple.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27”

27. amount of times I thought I have selected "Go", but it's actually "Back" that is selected. Drives me crazy.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “No more icons in every menu by default”

28. There is a noticeable delay from pressing a button on the display in your car and your phone reacting.

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “The EU made Apple adopt new Wi-Fi standards, and now Android can support AirDrop”

29. Apple provide basically zero information about what information carplay collects about your vehicle.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Removing the Modem and GPS from My 2024 RAV4 Hybrid”

30. I didn't like that I couldn't switch between different music apps without exiting the entire system

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

31. having a HUD (your tesla will never get one because Elon is an idiot) and 2. having carplay/android auto sync your turn-by-turn directions into that HUD

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

32. Is it unreasonable to have this functionality built in to the car? I can't see any good reasons not to have it from the consumer's point of view.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

33. A few other new/much improved features since 2010 that come to mind: backup/turn signal cameras, carplay, hybrid engines.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “The auto industry is building for a past that's never coming back”

34. We use CarPlay with our Mazda. The heads up display on the windshield displays the next turn information from Apple Maps.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020”

35. The main dashboard screen of CarPlay lets you navigate, manage music, and view the calendar and take calls all at once.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

36. Carplay's a better fix for the map issue, since then I don't have to update them whenever I find an error.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “CarPlay Is Additive”

37. given that I use CarPlay on literally every drive, it's probably the single most important feature to have

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020”

38. In a perfect world they wouldn't collect it either, but I'd rather Apple have it than the car manufacturer

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Removing the Modem and GPS from My 2024 RAV4 Hybrid”

39. one thing that consistently worked was starting the navigation on the phone before it connected to the car

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Removing the Modem and GPS from My 2024 RAV4 Hybrid”

40. CarPlay does this on my F150 Lightning. It manages state, preconditioning when routing to a charging stop

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “General Motors Is Assisting with the Restoration of a Rare EV1”