As of the time of writing, we are still 12 days away from the end of 2023. Various apps are pushing us year-end reviews, and everyone and every industry are also making round after round of annual summaries.
At the same time, there is really not much time left for Apple to officially launch the next generation of CarPlay (hereinafter referred to as "CarPlay 2").
At the WWDC conference held in June 2022, Apple announced CarPlay 2 for the next generation of human-car interaction, completely innovating the original CarPlay interface and triggering heated discussions and expectations around the world with a 3-minute demonstration.
According to Apple's original plan, CarPlay 2 will be officially launched in the fall of 2023. However, in August this year, Apple announced a "delay" in advance on the CarPlay introduction page of the official website:
The new generation of CarPlay will be launched at the end of 2023.
plans to launch at the end of 2023, picture/Apple
However, there are less than two weeks left before the end of 2023, and there is still no news about Apple’s launch of CarPlay 2 in the industry. But not only is there not much time left for the launch of CarPlay 2, we can even say that is being rolled out in various car manufacturers and the interactive experience is being rolled out. There is not much time left for Apple to get on the car.
CarPlay 2 was first shown in 2022, which slapped all car companies in the face
Apple is not a car company, but for a long time, CarPlay has been the best operating system in cars.
CarPlay was originally launched as "iOS in Cars" as part of iOS 7 and was renamed CarPlay shortly thereafter. But CarPlay's interface hasn't changed much since the rebrand. The biggest design change came in iOS 13, when Apple introduced a new interface design with different "cards" for apps like Maps, Music, and more.
To a certain extent, screen size "limits" Apple's performance. In fuel vehicles, the shape and size of on-board screens have basically formed a fixed tradition. Even on the Apple CarPlay introduction page, you can see the old-fashioned car-computer interaction design full of physical buttons and small-size screens.
Picture displayed on CarPlay introduction page, picture/Apple
You see, Apple also knows that CarPlay is designed for these "old cars and machines". But this also means that it is difficult for CarPlay to adapt to a new era in which car screens are getting larger and more numerous, and car systems are becoming more and more important:
That’s why CarPlay 2 was created.
When Apple first demonstrated CarPlay 2 in 2022, in addition to adapting to the new era of large-size central control screen design, the most intuitive and core change was the ultra-wide display that extended from the driver side to the passenger side. It can be said that Apple has cleared the technical obstacles for compatibility with various screen forms of future cars in advance.
Zhiji LS7, picture/Zhiji
To this day, many people are not surprised by this design. After all, many new models have adopted similar designs, such as the Zhiji LS7 that has been launched and the Galaxy E8 that will be launched soon. But in mid-2022, when Apple first introduced CarPlay 2, everyone was still surprised by Apple’s bold design, and even thought it was “exaggerated.”
But not only the interface design, the more critical change of CarPlay 2 is the deep integration with car hardware.
Prior to this, Apple CarPlay could play music, videos, or use maps and instant messaging applications, but in essence it was all "input" from the iPhone, and it was impossible to obtain data on the car, such as interior/seat temperature and cruising range. , vehicle speed, etc., not to mention interaction/control on this basis. As some netizens commented:
"CarPlay currently only has Play, not Car."
When it comes to CarPlay 2, Apple has drawn a big "pie" - on the basis of allowing car manufacturers to customize the appearance design, CarPlay 2 It will take over most of the vehicle data and control. Not only can you see the vehicle speed, battery life information and control the temperature in the car on the display, but it can also automatically stop charging and perform various remote operations.
CarPlay 2, Picture/Apple
But are any car companies really willing to let Apple access most vehicle data and completely take over the in-car experience? This is what many people will think after watching the introduction to CarPlay 2.
In April this year, General Motors publicly announced that it would abandon support for Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto in future electric vehicles and fully switch to its own operating system. As for Tesla, China's new car manufacturing forces and other car companies, they will not abandon their own systems and embrace Apple CarPlay.
However, according to information previously announced by Apple, many well-known car brands have signed up to support CarPlay 2, including Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Lincoln, Audi, Volvo, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Ford, Jaguar, Acura, Polestar, Infiniti and Renault. Some of these brands have also officially announced plans to release new models supporting the CarPlay 2 system in 2024.
Today in 2023, CarPlay 2 is neither leading nor smooth
If in 2022, the smoothness and interactive experience of Apple CarPlay can still be praised by some car users, then in 2023, with Tesla and There is a clear gap between the OTA upgrades of major new car-making brands in car-machine systems and CarPlay.
Even based on the current display of CarPlay 2, Apple’s lead may not be large.
CarPlay 2, Picture/Apple
On the one hand, new electric car companies generally have no historical baggage. As the screens continue to become larger and more numerous, they are rapidly iterating the car system and improving the interface and interaction design. This also includes Understanding of ultrawide screens in scenarios.
On the other hand, whether it is Geely's direct acquisition of Meizu or large-scale poaching of people from the smartphone industry, car companies are strengthening their understanding and development capabilities of operating systems.
Not to mention, Apple may not be able to fully realize the design and functionality demonstrated in 2022.
Technically, it is not difficult for CarPlay 2 to be compatible with the screens of all car models, but the real difficulty is how to convince car companies to open up data and permissions to connect to Apple's system. Although it was mentioned earlier that many car companies have announced that they will support CarPlay 2, there is still a lot of unknowns about how much permission each car company will actually open to Apple and CarPlay.
After all, Apple still lacks control over the underlying hardware.
After CarPlay 2 debuted in 2022, He Xiaopeng made a preliminary judgment on the new generation of CarPlay: "CarPlay is a very good solution for this generation of cars, and the next generation of smart car solutions requires more comprehensive full-stack self-research." and ecological construction."
Picture/Weibo @夏一平
Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue Automobile, also agreed with this at the time and pointed out that CarPlay is to solve the intelligence of non-intelligent cars, but future smart cars will have to rely on software Hardware is becoming more and more deeply integrated, which is the biggest change in the smart car era.
This is the path that smartphones have taken.
iPhone is the best representative of software and hardware integration in the smartphone industry. Apple has mastered key links from chips to operating systems to application distribution platforms, and has used this to create the smoothest, unified and constantly updated product experience. But in the face of the trend of intelligent cars, Apple no longer controls the hardware, and naturally there is no possibility of creating the best car-machine experience through vertical integration.
Of course, Apple may have been aware of this problem for a long time, but the key point is that Apple, which is already preparing to enter the next era of spatial computing through Vision Pro, may not have much energy to devote to the cause of self-developed Apple cars.
CES (International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA) 2024 is about to open grandly. Lei Technology will send a reporting team led by "Yi Tianming" to cover the entire CES 2024 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. ,stay tuned.
title picture comes from Apple
