Here at DiscoverAuto, those of us who use an iPhone love Apple CarPlay and the slick way that it integrates our smartphones into our car infotainment units – just look at the 12.3-inch screen in the Nissan Qashqai above to see what we mean.
Every year, Apple adds new features to CarPlay when it releases its annual major update to iOS – the software that powers the iPhone – and with Apple’s WWDC (worldwide developer’s conference) mere hours away, Apple is sure to preview iOS 17 and the changes it will bring to the CarPlay experience. With that in mind, we thought we’d put together a list of things we’d love added to CarPlay.
Voice Messages
Siri is great, but sometimes struggles when dictating a message in CarPlay. Having to re-dictate over and over to get a message that is complex or has specific jargon that Siri struggles with is frustrating. It would be a great addition to messages if, like on the iPhone, users could instead record a short voice message and send instead of dictating to Siri.
Expanded Siri Functionality
Right now, there are a lot of things Siri can’t do in CarPlay. Just two examples would be the ability to use Siri to change between different focus modes while in the car and for Siri to be able to tell users if a message has been read by a recipient (and when).
Apple Maps GPS-Based Current Speed
Apple recently added speed limits to it’s mapping service for Australia which is great for driving in unfamiliar areas, or places where the speed limit changes a lot. We’d love to see Apple following Waze’s lead and adding in a current speed reading to warn drivers if they are going above the limit.
Apple Maps Speed Limit Signs as Default
It would be great if the current speed limit of a road was displayed regardless of whether a navigation route was in progress – there are times when speed limit signs are far between and having the speed limit displayed is very helpful.
Live Directions to a Person’s Location
Anyone who has been tasked with picking someone up from an unknown location will know this can be a difficult task to coordinate. For those of us who share our location with friends through Apple’s ‘Find My’ service, this could be made easier by allowing for a friend’s location to be a destination, with the ability to automatically re-route in the case that the friend moves. For those who don’t want to permanently share their location, this feature could also work on a one-off basis.
Ringing a Business Without Interrupting Navigation
Currently while navigating, using Siri to ring a business listed in Apple Maps will end navigation, which is frustrating. A simple fix would be to allow for Apple Maps to be searched either manually or by Siri, without ending navigation.
Reorder Stops in Apple Maps
iOS 16 added the ability to add stops to navigation routes in Apple Maps, which was a long overdue, but very welcome feature. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the order in which each stop is added to the route. We’d love if stops could be rearranged while navigation is in progress. Another useful feature would be a option to intelligently order a variety of stops in the most time or distance efficient order to make driving multiple places as organised as possible.
More Widgets
We’d love to see Apple add more widgets into the dashboard section of CarPlay – for example weather widget for the current location and navigation destination would be great – as would a find my section that displayed which AirTags and devices are currently in the car.
These are just some ideas for feature additions and improvements that we’d like to see – let us know in the comments if you have any ideas of your own and make sure to check back tomorrow night to see what Apple announces.
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