[gk1234]

So, the WWDC ‘18 is underway, and the most eagerly awaited session is the keynote announcements made by Apple itself on the first day of the event. Although this year’s event wasn’t very different from the previous iterations of the conference, what with the usual iOS and Mac OS updates catching up with their rivals in terms of feature offerings, the one big announcement was the bit about CarPlay. Apple’s Android-Auto rivalling in-car entertainment platform will now support third-party navigation apps, although, to be honest, there’s only one we are most interested in - Google Maps. The introduction of this long-awaited feature has great significance, vis-à-vis road safety and driver alertness.

You can find The Verge’s write up on this feature here:https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/4/17...maps-wwdc-2018.

Honestly, this couldn’t have come sooner. Apple Maps is useless in India, and workarounds to use Google maps or Waze with CarPlay was never satisfying, nor even entirely useful. Although in-car entertainment unit screens have been getting bigger and better, the inability to use Google maps with your iPhone’s CarPlay UI was becoming too big an annoyance to overlook. Heck, there were times I thought of shifting to Android just so I could use Google Maps safely and properly, while driving. Now, we have to see whether Apple will make searching for routes on google maps through Siri, although I doubt that will come as a launch feature. Here’s to hoping!

Mods: I didn’t find a dedicated thread regarding navigation apps on CarPlay, so I thought it fit to create one. Do merge this with an existing post/thread, should it be necessary.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by gk1234

Apple’s Android-Auto rivalling in-car entertainment platform will now support third-party navigation apps, although, to be honest, there’s only one we are most interested in - Google Maps.

Very obviously an example of a stubborn company finally placing its 'users' over its own ego / interests. This positively affects hundreds of thousands of car owners.

Apple might benefit too - it might make some users switch from Android to iOS.

[sandeep.k]

I installed the iOS 12 Developer Beta 1 today.

CarPlay still doesn't show Google Maps/Waze. Looks like Apple's either holding this out till the public release in September or maybe the public beta release this month end. Or wait, maybe the onus is on Google/Waze to update their apps to support CarPlay.

FWIW, the developer beta is pretty stable ( couldn't wait till September, had to install it ). I don't notice any crashes/bugs yet. Will probably stay on the Beta.

[venks]

Great news, thanks for sharing. I was planning to replace one of our iphones to android just for google map car navigation. Hope this will be integrated with Siri. Glad that Apple is dropping its ego and thinking about what consumer wants.

[gk1234]

Originally Posted by GTO

Apple might benefit too - it might make some users switch from Android to iOS.

Sure, Apple stands to benefit, but the real beneficiary is going to be Google. GMaps and Waze are the two most popular navigation apps, with the former being the more popular one in India. Google offers its Maps service because it can collect data for targeted advertising, and since Waze is owned by Google, Waze users' data is useful for this purpose. Local businesses benefit from this, especially when a user is driving by their localities, and location - based ads generated are useful to these enterprises, although in a restricted UI like CarPlay, displaying such ads might be difficult, and for good reason too, vis-à-vis driver safety. But that needn't stop Google from collecting data from CarPlay users when they launch GMaps, to be used later on. So yeah, more data for search/ad giant to crunch.

Originally Posted by sandeep.k

I installed the iOS 12 Developer Beta 1 today.

CarPlay still doesn't show Google Maps/Waze. Looks like Apple's either holding this out till the public release in September or maybe the public beta release this month end. Or wait, maybe the onus is on Google/Waze to update their apps to support CarPlay.

Yup, its for Google to develop a CarPlay interface for GMaps/Waze now. In fact, it looks like Apple's already released a CarPlay Framework for navigation app developers to incorporate into their existing apps. Looks easy, but hey, what would I know about coding? Here's the link I came across while sifting through the Apple Developer site: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/carplay


So yeah, you're right in guessing that its for app developers to provide for CarPlay support to their apps. Remember when WhatsApp updated their app by adding SiriKit earlier this year? Goes to show the ball's in Google's Court to do the needful. Unless Google does its part, no point in upgrading to iOS 12 later this year, 'coz that's not going to ensure that you get Google Maps when you use CarPlay. Here's hoping, though.


Interestingly enough, I didn't come across anything to show that Siri will take commands to search for navigation on third-party apps. I suppose that has to occur at a more fundamental level, and might necessitate changes to the roots of iOS itself. Maybe someone could confirm this? As far as I can see, unless we can do voice search for places/destination/routes within Google Maps on CarPlay, its functionality could be greatly limited, and users may have to resort to looking at their phones while driving to change/modify route searches on the go. Pretty sure Apple isn't gonna let Google Assistant take over inside GMaps in CarPlay mode, at least not yet, so it'd be interesting to see the in-app interaction for third-party navigation apps in CarPlay, going forward.

[lionell]

This is a relief. I never researched about these options before buying my iPhone SE and was sad to see that Carplay didn't support navigation in my Polo. A year down the line and I was just about thinking to switch to Andriod again.

Will wait till the full public release in September.

[caramit]

google maps/ waze on iOS is symbolic of Apple's acceptance of Google maps as the default navigation platform. It had fired Apple Maps chief a few years back but the program hasnt got the push it wanted.
Also car ICE- Navigation is the next big battle after phone. With more and more self driving features just round the corner, and customers looking at car ICE and extension of their phones, nobody knows what way the battle will turn and what trend will catch on.
Maybe we are sitting at the cusp of another pathbreaking product launch. Exciting times to be in!

[morecrap]

The public beta is out. Anyone tried if it’s working yet? Google Maps also had an update a few hours ago.

[magikrider]

This is great news for us Apple users! Now can buy any good system with Apple carplay and it’ll support google maps too! No crapy local nav maps like map my inida etc. now! No offence but google maps is way better! I am using both so know the difference.

[extreme_torque]

Perhaps this is the reason why.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/ap...the-ground-up/

Here in Melbourne especially with the new residential estates, new address can be found on Apple maps but not google maps. Also, the experience of using navigation (walking especially as google maps for the most part does not know your orientation or is not smart enough) using Apple's own navigation app is much more streamlined. As an example, you can turn the screen off while navigating and yet if you have to take a turn soon, the phone will wake up and display the prompt on the lock screen. Then is the integration with Apple watch which gives you subtle taps on your wrist telling you whether to turn left or right.

[sharathjeppu]

Originally Posted by morecrap

The public beta is out. Anyone tried if it’s working yet? Google Maps also had an update a few hours ago.

It's not working with the GA version of iOS 12

[deepakchan]

Anyone has got this working yet? Is iOS 12 a requirement to use Google Maps on Car Play?

[morecrap]

It's working if you have the Testflight access to Google Maps. For everyone else, it's just a matter of time I guess. Maybe a day or two at the maximum.

[manishk123]

I just installed IOS12 on my iPhone and tried out Apple CarPlay in my BMW. Google maps is not showing, hence i guess they blocked this too for India.

[bsdbsd]

Originally Posted by manishk123

I just installed IOS12 on my iPhone and tried out Apple CarPlay in my BMW. Google maps is not showing, hence i guess they blocked this too for India.

No, its not like that. Google Maps has not been updated to support iOS12 Carplay. Its still in beta. We may need to wait 2-4 weeks.

India Apple website clearly shows Google Maps, Baidu and Waze are supported in CarPlay for India.

Over to Google now.