Apple, Google Bring Smartphone Functions To Car Dashboards

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer, San Antonio Express-News: World
Thu, 09/03/2015 - 12:12pm

With the 2016 model year, Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto will turn cars as affordable as a base model Chevy Spark into rolling robotic assistants that give directions to nearby restaurants or play the latest hits with commands as simple as "Play Ellie Goulding." Both CarPlay and Android Auto should give drivers more time to keep their eyes on the road compared with the automakers' own voice systems, which can require multiple steps and looking at on-screen menus. For the last few years, drivers of most new cars have been able to speak to their phones and have audio stream through a car's speakers using the nearly ubiquitous Bluetooth wireless standard. Volkswagen's entry level 2016 Jetta 1.4T at $17,680 offers CarPlay and Android Auto as part of a $995 technology upgrade that includes a larger touch screen and rearview camera. General Motors stands alone in offering CarPlay and Android Auto as standard equipment on cars as inexpensive as the Spark — the 2015 version retails for upward of $12,170 — and as high-volume as its Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu sedans and Silverado trucks. Chevrolet marketing director Steve Majoros calls the decision "revolutionary," and one the automaker hopes will improve its market share. On a quick demo of a fully-loaded, coffee-colored 2016 Accord Touring, the Android Auto voice assistant helped me play songs from artists like Adele, Sting and Ellie Goulding but would not recognize "U2" as anything other than "YouTube." In the demo, Apple's notoriously quirky maps app directed me to drive to Honda's American headquarters in Torrance through the research and development back way, bypassing the front driveway and visitor parking lot even though it was a more direct route.

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