APPLE’S widely anticipated CarPlay software is making its mainstream debut this summer in models from Hyundai and Chevrolet, but Apple is already looking ahead to leverage its potential in a way that could turn the automotive industry’s current approach to connected cars on its head.
Aimed at streamlining the welter of apps from smartphones that play on some dashboards into a more cohesive — and less distracting — arrangement, CarPlay combines iPhone-based programs, including maps, messages and music, into a single interface. It makes adroit use of Siri voice commands and familiar touch controls.
But it cannot control standard car functions, like switching FM radio stations or checking a vehicle’s engine status. To use those features, drivers will have to switch out of CarPlay.
“Any user interface jump within a single display is a hard thing for people to reconcile,” said Parrish Hanna, Ford’s global director of human machine interface. Switching between different sets of controls, even between digital and physical control buttons, can be confusing and potentially distracting, he said.
So at its developers’ conference last month, Apple proposed that rather than following the traditional route of simply having technology companies create apps for cars, automakers should do a U-turn and write apps for the technology company’s software.
Ford, for example, could write an app for gauging fuel efficiency to run under CarPlay, giving iPhone owners a more seamless experience. But it would also raise issues about safety and privacy, and essentially turn automakers into Apple developers. (Google has a similar option in its competing Android Auto software.)
So will automakers start creating software for Apple’s program?
With its OnStar system, G.M. already has apps for smartphones to perform tasks like remotely starting or unlocking vehicles. Furthermore, G.M. will allow Apple’s CarPlay maps to use onboard GPS data directly from the car, Mr. Abram said.
But with the G.M. ignition switch recall looming in the background, the automaker is taking pains to emphasize safety, and is not going to take the risk of allowing another company — Apple or Google — access to critical components like the electronic stability control and braking systems.
Still, if automakers were to begin developing apps for CarPlay, it could open a new avenue for hackers, experts say. And there are already potential vulnerabilities, as the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has demonstrated in experiments showing how a criminal could remotely take control of a connected car.
Read the original article at The New York Times.
