Good news for Apple iPhone users: CarPlay, the system that reduces distraction using your smartphone in the car, now works wirelessly on some new cars and more are on the way.
BMW’s new 5-series, and most of the automaker’s other 2017 models, now offer CarPlay’s benefits via their Wi-Fi hot spot. Until now, all vehicles that had CarPlay required the phone to be hardwired into the vehicles’ USB port.
CarPlay allows the driver to do web searches for directions, phone numbers, find gas stations, play music, send and receive text messages and use some apps hands-free. It also displays some of the phone’s features on the vehicle's dashboard.
Fiat Chrysler said on Friday that it would modify around 100,000 diesel vehicles to try to reach a settlement with United States regulators, as separate academic studies provided mounting evidence that the carmaker had installed software meant to evade emissions standards.
The move came a day after the company said it was in talks to resolve a Justice Department investigation.
The case bears striking similarities to a Volkswagen scandal in which several executives have been investigated or charged, with the German carmaker paying tens of billions of dollars in fines, penalties and settlements.
Ford is making Android Auto and Apple CarPlay software support available to model-year 2016 vehicles equipped with SYNC 3.
Customers with model-year 2016 Ford vehicles can update to the new SYNC 3 version 2.2 by downloading to a USB drive, visiting a dealership or automatically through a Wi-Fi connection.
“Our SYNC 3 software platform was designed to be easy to update so we can get our customers the latest and greatest features, functionally and security enhancements,” said Don Butler, executive director, Ford Connected Vehicle and Services.
In the latest Kontos Kommentary, Tom Kontos, Chief Economist at KAR Auction Services, provides his insight and updates regarding used vehicle market conditions. To read the entire Kontos Kommentary for April 2017, visit https://www.adesa.com/kontos-kommentary.
By Art Liggio, President, Driving Dynamics
I still can remember the first time I got “high” in a car.
I was 16, had just passed my driver’s license test and when I got home, my dad surprised me with the keys to my very first car—a green 1958 English Ford Cortina. Oh boy was that car ugly, but it was mine! I dialed up my buddy (yes, using a rotary telephone) and together we cruised over to the local ice cream parlor in my new ride. The goal, of course, was to impress the girls, and while that didn’t go quite as hoped, it was still a memorable day because it was the first drive in my car. The excitement of owning a car, the independence to go anywhere and the pride of being more grown up gave me an elated feeling—it’s a “high” I’ll never forget.
Today, however, when you hear a story about driving “high” unfortunately it all too often means something very different and much less innocent, and that’s —driving under the influence of drugs.