Earlier this week, Apple premiered a different way to use your iPhone in your car — introducing Apple CarPlay! CarPlay will give iPhone users an intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access their messages with just a word or a touch.
The cars will come equipped with a built-in display (which I feel most cards these days have anyway) where certain features of your iPhone will display. Siri’s along for the ride so you can control what you want to do using your voice. You can also use your car’s controls or the touchscreen on the display. So far Apple apps such as Maps, Phone, Messages and Music are the four that you can utilize, but other third party apps have jumped on board and will be supported by CarPlay.
CarPlay will be available in select cars in 2014. Such models from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo all will come equipped with CarPlay later on in 2014. However, there are a fair amount of other car makers who have committed to being CarPlay partners: BMW, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Subaru and Nissan — to name a few.
Hopefully CarPlay will encourage more people to stop looking at their phone while driving and provide a safer, hands-free option for the road. I’m honestly surprised it took this long for Apple to partner with major car manufacturers and introduce this as a new feature in card. I know I’d be psyched to have it!