Apple announced Monday that Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari will unveil CarPlay, the renamed iOS in the Car system first announced last June.
The car makers will show CarPlay at the Geneva Auto Show in Switzerland this week. Other car makers including BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota will also debut CarPlay in the future, Apple affirmed Monday.
CarPlay lets you push and hold the voice button on the steering wheel to activate Siri, which then lets you use Apple Maps, listen to music and access messages. You can also access CarPlay from the radio’s interface.
Apple claims CarPlay makes navigation and other tasks easier because it can look at your emails and calendar to anticipate a future appointment and suggest directions to that destination. It provides traffic info and spoken turn by turn directions along with Apple Maps on the car’s display.
Once an iPhone is connected to a car with CarPlay, Siri also helps you access your contacts, make calls, return missed calls or listen to voicemails. You can respond to incoming messages by voice.
With CarPlay you can ask Siri to access music on iTunes Radio or your own stored music and it can also access podcasts and audiobooks. Or you can do all of this through the car’s built-in controls. CarPlay also supports select third-party audio apps including Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Apple said CarPlay will be available in select cars shipping in 2014.
The cars themselves won’t run CarPlay, notes CNET, as an iPhone 5, 5S or 5c will actually run the software via a Lightning cable connection to the car’s infotainment system.
Original story posted on CE Outlook, Source: Apple