Moving from my CarPlay car to new Model 3

[Apone]

This isn’t a solution for everyone, but if you really want CarPlay (like I do), you can use this, along with a cheap Android tablet and a car mount to get CarPlay. I’ll try to remember a take a pic of my setup later today if anyone is interested.

Tons of negative reviews on that dongle, interested to see your setup working in a Tesla. I do miss parts of Carplay, including "Hey Siri" (which kinda works now if she can hear me) and the eyes free text support. The pure google maps is better in Carplay but the Tesla version is working.

 

[Adam3]

I prefer the CarPlay in our Mazda over the Tesla infotainment. But Tesla wins in every other category.

 

[gern]

Tons of negative reviews on that dongle, interested to see your setup working in a Tesla. I do miss parts of Carplay, including "Hey Siri" (which kinda works now if she can hear me) and the eyes free text support. The pure google maps is better in Carplay but the Tesla version is working.

I guess I am not surprised there are a lot of negative reviews. I would only recommend this solution if (a) you _really_ want CarPlay in your Tesla, and (b) you are “tech-forward” and not afraid of a few rough edges. In fact, I’d actually recommend staying away from the WiFi-based CarPlay dongle and going with the cheaper wired-CarPlay dongle (although the WiFi one also supports wired CarPlay). I find that about 1 in 3 times I get in my car I have to reboot my Android tablet to get the WiFi CarPlay to connect. (But I continue to use the WiFi CarPlay setup for the convenience of not having to plug anything in; go figure.)

Here are a couple of pics of my setup. The glare in the photo seems a lot worse than it really is. I don’t even notice the glare, so I am surprised it seems so pronounced in the photos.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

@jmatero , I have CarPlay in my Tesla center screen via “Tesla Android Project”. I made my own raspberry pi 4B setup & own the bundle they sell but if you have a car older than 2021, you’ll need to buy the bundle they sell or make something similar with external WiFi antenna. www.teslaandroid.com .

 

[traubgator]

yea, at first I thought it would be a tough transition going from carplay to tesla.

95% of my driving is local with no use of navigation -- i have the Spotify app opened and it absolutely destroys carplay
I do miss waze, but when navigating on road trips, i'll just keep in on my phone to make sure tesla's nav isn't missing any traffic detours.
The biggest problem with carplay in my mind is when using your maps of choice, you can't use the maps app on your phone at the same time -- can't zoom in, assess alternative route easily etc.

but i don't really care much for my iphone integrating with the car -- i use airpods for phone calls vs the cars system, and I don't care about texts while i'm driving that they can't wait until i have chance to read them etc.

wish I had xm built in, the worst carplay app on the planet is XMs, its slow and very painful to navigate -- its only good for staying on a single channel, so its just as easy to bluetooth xm when i do feel like i have to have it. XM has a few djs on spectrum that are pretty entertaining to listen to, that's my biggest miss right now --- wish all tesla's had a baked in xm tuner or tesla xm app

 

[jmaddr]

For me, if Tesla would fix group SMS/mobile messaging, I would be happy. Last I "heard" it was a Message Access Profile limitation in the spec, but I haven't read it.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

For me, if Tesla would fix group SMS/mobile messaging, I would be happy. Last I "heard" it was a Message Access Profile limitation in the spec, but I haven't read it.

Heck beyond supporting group messaging with mixed devices, Tesla needs to support voice commands like CarPlay in my Tesla. Example, “hey siti read my messages (or from one person)”. Siri reads them and asks if I want to respond & then reads my response and allows me to edit before sending. All via voice. Because Tesla doesn’t even support Siri Eyes Free via Bluetooth (no CarPlay), you need to use a CarPlay system in the Tesla just to issue voice commands, unless you want to keep unlocking your phone while driving.

 

[traubgator]

actually after driving a tesla for a few months now and having to spend a week with carplay out of town.

car play sucks!! not being able to easily zoom in and out on maps while navigating is so frustrating. you also can't do anything on your phone as well, it's so limited since it basically locks your phones app in use with the carplay.

 

[WilliamG]

actually after driving a tesla for a few months now and having to spend a week with carplay out of town.

car play sucks!! not being able to easily zoom in and out on maps while navigating is so frustrating. you also can't do anything on your phone as well, it's so limited since it basically locks your phones app in use with the carplay.

CarPlay has been rubbish for years. I’ve truly never understood why anyone would want to use such a limited and child-like display. The next generation CarPlay hopefully addresses this.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Carplay in my tesla center screen is an awesome enhancement and coexists without issue with my Tesla ecosystem. When text messages come in I hear the notification via Tesla speakers and can say “hey siri, read my messages”. I am able to reply via voice. Siri reads back my message and allows any changes before sending too. CarPlay can handle group chats mixed with iPhone users set to use iMessage and android users who are not.

Basically CarPlay unleashes the power of the Siri voice assistant and offers a gui designed to not be distracting but has big buttons to use in the case where voice commands are not available.

Siri has tons of power when using apple music too. The tesla apple podcast app is lacking in features currently. I find my CarPlay podcast app to,offer all the features.

The day Tesla’s voice assistant can really handle the infotainment duties & tesla podcast app starts working better (it won’t sync all shows even if they are not subscriptions) is the day I stop using CarPlay in my Tesla.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Another benefit of CarPlay, it can use the media saved on my phone’s local storage or try to stream media via cellular. Tesla’s apps can only stream data from cellular. I’m often in areas with no cellular connection so I can’t listen to Apple Music or podcasts when using tesla eco system. However, no issue when I use CarPlay in my Tesla center screen since my phone often downloads media locally automatically.