Apple’s CarPlay system mirrors your phone’s interface on your car’s infotainment screen. You can access your music, make and receive calls, dictate messages and connect with Siri

Mirroring your phone’s interface on your car’s infotainment screen, Apple’s CarPlay is easing how we manage our phone while driving. Recently I have driven a lot of cars that feature Apple’s CarPlay mobile connectivity system. The cars range from the Maruti-Suzuki Baleno to the new Audi A4 and the Skoda Superb. The Hyundai Elantra I drove over the past week was the first Hyundai India car to feature CarPlay. Now, there is no need to fiddle around Bluetooth to connect your device, all you need is a lightening cable and give one-time approval on your device.

The cable charges your phone while it is plugged in, and you can access your music, make and receive calls, dictate messages and connect with Siri.

Though the first vehicle I experienced CarPlay on was the new Audi Q7, when I was invited on the international drive of that vehicle in Sion, Switzerland last May, it was extremely surprising that the first manufacturer to licence CarPlay in India was Maruti-Suzuki on the Baleno late last year. It was very surprising to interact with your phone on the main screen, and Audi has also (sort of) integrated CarPlay onto their amazing Virtual Cockpit. But Audi, even on the new A4 has not launched CarPlay with a touchscreen, which is what Maruti and now Hyundai have done.

Of course, there is a good reason for that because Audi offers a formidable information and display system in your line of sight and fairly intuitive controls on the steering, and while Skoda’s system is not as good, it follows the same principles. Maruti went down the touch-screen route, and while I have concerns about the quality of the touchscreens used as regards their responsiveness as well as their legibility in strong sunlight, if you are an iOS user, you understand the screen immediately. There is no need to learn a new infotainment system, you can immediately climb into a car with CarPlay and know what to do if you understand iOS.

However, there are a couple of issues with CarPlay. What we see in India is not the full “licence” CarPlay because Maps have consciously been kept out of it. Every vehicle where I have used CarPlay has come with its own navigation interface.

I can only speculate that this is because Apple Maps are not confident enough with regard to their maps in India, Skoda and Hyundai actually load their own app onto the CarPlay screen (not your phone however) which allows you a certain amount of car feature control. But the number of apps you can actually use are fairly limited in India.

Interestingly, TuneIn Radio is one of the few third-party apps that can be used on CarPlay in India. And now with data connections improving, Siri works better. Well, as long as you avoid too many desi terms.

All these cars are not linked only to Apple. Maruti offers a “Smartphone Mirror” tech, other cars offer tech to directly play music and as previously mentioned most cars have their own navigation software. But the fact remains that car companies are spending a huge sum of money on developing more and more modern infotainment systems and related software. But unlike your smartphone, you can’t really update the software. CarPlay removes that impediment, as the version of CarPlay you are running depends on the version of your iOS. The more people who use CarPlay and Android Auto, the less tension on spending money on the infotainment arms race.

Oddly, other than the Skoda Superb, Android Auto, which in my opinion requires a bit of refinement, is still to make it mainstream onto Indian cars. But we can expect 2017 to be a major breakout year. Also, while the car companies are busy integrating CarPlay and Android Auto, one does feel that they could be Trojan Horses in a way as Google and Apple work towards their own autonomous cars.

That said, I enjoy these systems, and oddly enough, complete car integration systems such as CarPlay are actually safer than lifting up your phone and talking. In fact, CarPlay actively prevents you from typing on your phone while it is plugged in to your car, so no messaging apps at all. So as far as distraction goes, things could be better but as long as you can forward your music from the steering wheel, you don’t really care.