At first I didn't see much benefit to using Apple CarPlay on my 2017 model but then I discovered the interaction with Apple Maps. On my 2013 FFE I use to use MyFordMobil to find charging stations and then send the address to the car using Sync Services. The 2017 doesn't even use Sync Services and I was having a hard time figuring out how to send an address from my phone to my car.
Then I plugged my phone into the USB port on my car and activated Apple CarPlay. I found that I could access ANY charging station in PlugShare, open up the map for that charging station, ask the map to direct me to the station and the map and directions show up on the monitor in the car center console. Any app on your iPhone that accesses Apple Maps, like Yelp, automatically sends the map to the car.
Apple CarPlay doesn't use the same map as the navigation map and the user interface of Apple Maps is different. One thing that Apple Maps does not do that I miss is interface with the budget cup so you can see what surplus you have to your charging destination. An experience EV operator should be able to overcome the loss of the budget cup feature by comparing the budget range with the distance to destination shown on the map.
I tried several ways to get the navigation map on my 2017 to give me my destinations including manually entering the address, voice locating the Point-Of-Interest, voice entering the address, etc. all of which seem cumbersome. And it always seemed like I was looking up the POI on my iPhone first. It's really nice to just be able to look up the POI on the iPhone and just point and click the map location onto the car center console.
I'm still not a big fan of most of the features in Apple CarPlay but if you find a particularly useful application for Apple CarPlay I would like to here about.
Then I plugged my phone into the USB port on my car and activated Apple CarPlay. I found that I could access ANY charging station in PlugShare, open up the map for that charging station, ask the map to direct me to the station and the map and directions show up on the monitor in the car center console. Any app on your iPhone that accesses Apple Maps, like Yelp, automatically sends the map to the car.
Apple CarPlay doesn't use the same map as the navigation map and the user interface of Apple Maps is different. One thing that Apple Maps does not do that I miss is interface with the budget cup so you can see what surplus you have to your charging destination. An experience EV operator should be able to overcome the loss of the budget cup feature by comparing the budget range with the distance to destination shown on the map.
I tried several ways to get the navigation map on my 2017 to give me my destinations including manually entering the address, voice locating the Point-Of-Interest, voice entering the address, etc. all of which seem cumbersome. And it always seemed like I was looking up the POI on my iPhone first. It's really nice to just be able to look up the POI on the iPhone and just point and click the map location onto the car center console.
I'm still not a big fan of most of the features in Apple CarPlay but if you find a particularly useful application for Apple CarPlay I would like to here about.