Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Toyota Spurns CarPlay, Android Auto (PCMagazine)

The world's largest car maker will keep control of its center displays to itself, thank you very much.

5 Things to Know About Apple CarPlay

Toyota won't be integrating Apple's CarPlay or Google's Android Auto into its vehicles anytime soon, according to a New York Times report.
"We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions," John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota's advanced technology communications, told the newspaper.
Toyota's wariness of CarPlay in particular is not new. Last March, the car makerteased drivers when it posted an entry on its official U.K. blog announcing plans to bring CarPlay to its vehicles by 2015, and then quickly backtracked on the promise.
While many car makers are eagerly rolling out cars with dashboard infotainment systems capable of running the new automotive platforms from Apple and Google, others are taking things more slowly.
Toyota, the largest car manufacturer in the world, is the whale in the group by taking a wait-and-see approach. Fiat Chrysler is another company that isn't going all-in on CarPlay and Android Auto, according to the Times, though the car maker is signed up to support the two in-vehicle systems.
"We're confident that our systems deliver a good experience for our customers. But we're not standing still either," Chrysler spokesman Eric Mayne was quoted as saying by the paper, which said a "bit of lament" was detectable in his statement.
The Times noted that some car makers are apprehensive about CarPlay and Android Auto because the two platforms go a lot further than current dashboard systems which link to iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth in a limited fashion. The new software does a lot more than just manage music lists or make calls from your smartphone—it "allow[s] for Google's or Apple's operating system to essentially take over the center screen and certain buttons within the car."
That means iOS and Android can now be allowed to run navigation, maps, traffic updates, and other core tasks provided by in-vehicle systems. The Times report indicates that some car companies are wary about giving over that kind of control to a pair of Silicon Valley giants which could possibly become rivals in the coming years.
Though nothing's official, rumors are swirling that Mountain View and Cupertino harbor their own auto manufacturing ambitions. To wit, Google has been working on a self-driving car for several years and Apple has reportedly formed a 200-strong team to develop an electric vehicle (EV) of its own.

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