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AirPlay - Tesla falls further behind in Infotainment
- Thread starter Boatguy
- Start date
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- Model S User Interface
wjhepworth
Member
I am totally with you here. Any company with wicked smart geeks like Tesla should be able to knock this out of the park. So far this is more like a bunt.
wjhepworth
Member
What are you talking about? Yugo? Are they still around? I presently have Sirius, an excellent NAV system (I had a Ford, Tesla is 10x better) and my phone integration rocks.
-Bill
wjhepworth
Member
singleview
Member
Thank you for your honest response - very helpful @Gizmotoy!
When you say "USB Drive support" - what do you mean? How does that work on the MS? Thanks again.
Gizmotoy
Active Member
Essentially, if have a FAT-formatted USB drive, you can plug it into one of the USB ports and the S will be able to read media off the drive. I use a low-profile 64GB flash drive that you can barely tell is plugged in. Others use spinning multi-TB hard drives.
The tag support is only so-so, and has broken and regressed several times, but it's passable. Maybe those with 2TB of music would disagree, but I think it's fine for 64GB.
BertL
Active Member
@singleview, there are numerous threads here on USB, but if helpful, check out THIS page on my personal website where I've tried to summarize issues I've encountered and workarounds that I use with Tesla Media Player USB support as it is. IMHO what Tesla has is usable (I listen to it 99.9% of the time I'm in my MS), but very problematic and can be very frustrating for anyone (like me) that may be used to using iTunes, an iPod or an iPhone with various smart playlists -- especially if you have a larger library and come to Tesla from another vehicle where native iPod or M3U playlist support was available.
electric_feel
The Electric Baron
I will add to the oily rags tossed into the corner of the Tesla infotainment garage...
We just replaced our secondary EV, a 2013 RAV4 EV, with a 2016 Kia Soul EV. A number of Kia vehicles built in the last 2 years offered a firmware upgrade of their entertainment system (called Uvo) that offered both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I ran this upgrade on the vehicle, and voila Apple CarPlay.
In this current iteration of CarPlay, you do need to keep the USB cable connected, but at least you get to see all of the Apple CarPlay apps right on your vehicle's screen. Quite nicely, some of the most important features I use in my car while driving, Messages, Apple Music (a lot better once you have an Apple music subscription), Stitcher, and MLB at Bat are available to use. And once you connect your phone via USB, the voice command button on the car instantly summons Siri.
Not perfect by any means, but Carplay on my wife's Kia Soul EV is much better than the "infotainment" setup on my Model S.
So yeah, Tesla got schooled by Kia.
We just replaced our secondary EV, a 2013 RAV4 EV, with a 2016 Kia Soul EV. A number of Kia vehicles built in the last 2 years offered a firmware upgrade of their entertainment system (called Uvo) that offered both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I ran this upgrade on the vehicle, and voila Apple CarPlay.
In this current iteration of CarPlay, you do need to keep the USB cable connected, but at least you get to see all of the Apple CarPlay apps right on your vehicle's screen. Quite nicely, some of the most important features I use in my car while driving, Messages, Apple Music (a lot better once you have an Apple music subscription), Stitcher, and MLB at Bat are available to use. And once you connect your phone via USB, the voice command button on the car instantly summons Siri.
Not perfect by any means, but Carplay on my wife's Kia Soul EV is much better than the "infotainment" setup on my Model S.
So yeah, Tesla got schooled by Kia.
BertL
Active Member
I found THIS ARTICLE today to be very interesting that BMW is taking the approach that CarPlay will be a standlone $300 option on all future models, vs. their making it standard or bundling it with other packages like some other mfgrs are.
As a result, I suspect there will not be a lot of BMW sitting on lots waiting to be sold with this specific option, and CarPlay will be relegated to a smaller number of owners who know exactly what they want, and are willing to wait several months via special order (as I did back in the day.)
As a result, I suspect there will not be a lot of BMW sitting on lots waiting to be sold with this specific option, and CarPlay will be relegated to a smaller number of owners who know exactly what they want, and are willing to wait several months via special order (as I did back in the day.)
Perhaps. Or maybe since it's just software, it can be enabled at the dealership and will be used by dealers to close a sale by "tossing in CarPlay", the way they used to include floor mats.
In either case, Fiat/Chrysler has also begun including CarPlay.
Ulmo
Active Member
I had a Ford Expedition sent back from the future (from 2017) by Enterprise Rent a Car a few days ago, and it had CarPlay. It also had a note that CarPlay can be disabled at any time by Ford. I used it extensively, and it had surprisingly very few bugs. I was impressed with the lack of bugs. Usually things like that are loaded with bugs. Nope.
Ulmo
Active Member
I put my order in already for a Model S, and ONE OF THE CONSIDERATIONS I seriously had was having to deal with the poorly supported sound systems. I know that I will be slowly dealing with that the entire time I own that car. But at least I knew it and accepted it before ordering. So, I won't be complaining about it very much, but it is a cost. I forgot if it even has an aux cord jack; I sure hope so. Oops -- nope. Seems it has a USB port? So, I will have to turn everything into a play file. Ok dokie. I wonder if my podcasts will work from my iPhone. It is what it is. I might be getting an upgraded third party audio system if finances allow. That's certainly my best case situation. I won't be waiting for Tesla to make it right. Of all things, that's not the worst thing to have a problem with. I just want to have a nice safe clean ride.
Unless and until Tesla adopts CarPlay, I suspect you'll be frustrated with Tesla's solution.
The good new is that with an iPhone and "Hey Siri" (properly trained), it's fairly easy to use Bluetooth without even looking at the iPhone.
At least your iPhone remembers the last thing it played (Podcast, music, video stream, etc). So, when you get in the car, it'll simply start playing that once you select it as a source (dumbly, you have to re-select it as a source most - but not all - of the time).
From a glass-is-half-full perspective, there's now some upside in getting a rental car (despite the annoyance of downgrading to ICE and gasoline) -- you often get to use a superior infotainment system (as long as they have CarPlay).
No options for a third party audio system to deal with the source and control issues. The iPhone is frankly your best option.
(As an aside, there's virtually no way to tell the difference between a direct FLAC USB source and a Bluetooth FLAC/AAC source. Yes, Bluetooth introduces a bit of compression. However, you are in a moving car with tire noise, etc. You can't hear full range anyway.)
The good new is that with an iPhone and "Hey Siri" (properly trained), it's fairly easy to use Bluetooth without even looking at the iPhone.
At least your iPhone remembers the last thing it played (Podcast, music, video stream, etc). So, when you get in the car, it'll simply start playing that once you select it as a source (dumbly, you have to re-select it as a source most - but not all - of the time).
From a glass-is-half-full perspective, there's now some upside in getting a rental car (despite the annoyance of downgrading to ICE and gasoline) -- you often get to use a superior infotainment system (as long as they have CarPlay).
No options for a third party audio system to deal with the source and control issues. The iPhone is frankly your best option.
(As an aside, there's virtually no way to tell the difference between a direct FLAC USB source and a Bluetooth FLAC/AAC source. Yes, Bluetooth introduces a bit of compression. However, you are in a moving car with tire noise, etc. You can't hear full range anyway.)
Gizmotoy
Active Member
The reports I read seemed to indicate that the additional cost was because of a hardware difference. Most of the supported BMWs use iDrive, and as such do not have a touchscreen. The $300 includes an upgrade to a touchscreen.
Still a bit of speculation at this point, but does seem plausible given their current vehicle line-up.
My wife has a golf that cost a measly $17k last year. The CarPlay works perfectly and has been for more than a year. Meanwhile, the "most innovative company in the world" can't seem to connect in a meaningful way to my phone.
Basically CarPlay is to the tesla infotainment system as the model S is to an ICE car.
Basically CarPlay is to the tesla infotainment system as the model S is to an ICE car.
Would pretty dumb on BMW's part but not exactly shocking given their investment and commitment to iDrive. When a feature becomes standard on 90% of the other vehicles in the base package, it is time to get with the times and simply include it as standard.
Agreed - the lack of Android Auto and CarPlay is embarrassing for Tesla at this point.
ldgrmnmc
Member
I rented a cheap car (?Chevy Malibu?) a couple months back that had Apple CarPlay, and it was great. The integration of total voice control for texting alone was awesome.....why doesn't my Model S compete with this technology?
I had Carplay in my aftermarket stereo in my '01 M5. It's certainly an improvement above what my Tesla has, but it still has some weird bugs/quirks. Sometimes the phone doesn't detect that it was plugged in, sometimes when you unplug it, the phone freezes for a few seconds then continues playing whatever music/podcast was playing in the car into your pocket. It will think it's still in Carplay mode which makes it difficult to pause.
Nothing major, just minor bugs that I'm sure Apple will fix over time.
Nothing major, just minor bugs that I'm sure Apple will fix over time.
