I have the Pioneer AVH-4000NEX (one of the first CarPlay-capable radios) in my old Jeep. Honestly, CarPlay is already far superior to the media player built into the Model S in my limited experience. I plug in my phone, tap OK, and I have 100% access to and control over:
- All my music, including playlists, cover art (though this was done terribly), searching, next-up, etc.
- Easy access to texting via voice (not that useful, but still nice)
- Apple's Maps—This would obviously be a lot less useful on the Tesla, given the built-in mapping, but I often find Apple Maps are better than Google Maps for some things.
- A fantastic phone interface—I haven't used the one built into the Tesla, so I can't say much here
- Additional apps as they become available
- And it's all amazingly fast, no syncing contacts or music over bluetooth, no looking anything up remotely
The main thing is the media player. Using my phone over bluetooth in the Tesla is a joke. It provides almost no functionality, as far as I could tell, just basic transport controls and listing out the current track info. And it looks the cover art up online (seriously?), so it's wrong a lot. And, of course, bluetooth is OK sounding, but not stellar.
As for how it works: the phone does all the work. It renders an image that is displayed by the head-end, and receives control feedback (in the case of my NEX, touch inputs and the physical button presses). I'm 90% certain Android's solution works the same way.
I think offering CarPlay would be a huge improvement over the current player. I don't really want to have to maintain a completely separate collection of music and playlists on a USB drive just so I can use that huge 17" screen. My phone is my central hub for information and media. I already have it synchronized the way I want, and it always comes with me (in the house to sync, or on the road for music).
Anyway, I can't see why anyone would be
against CarPlay or Android Auto
