nobbyv

Edit: I should have read ahead.

billmac

I agree with the previous post, it will be very interesting to see how CarPlay is implemented, specially in the A6 with its current non-touch screen.

Apple mentions CarPlay will pretty much mimic the way we currently interact with iDevices... in other words, your car's dashboard entertaining system will become an iDevice of sorts.

Maybe this means the A6 series will be getting a touchscreen in a year or two.

snagitseven

I/m not a fan of touchscreens while driving. Car Play will fully integrate with Siri as part of the operating system which may alleviate the need for a touchscreen or at least as an option.

MikeD612

According to Apple's carplay website http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/?ci...g-features-com the interface will work with "*****, buttons or touchscreen" so doesn't sound like a touchscreen will be required...Audi are in the process of rolling out a new MMI in the A3, A7, A6 and TT with upgraded software, internals and LTE but no touchscreen; I think it's pretty unlikely that they'd add one to support Carplay and\or Android Auto or redesign the MMI again this quickly. Knowing Audi I'm not expecting it to be supported in the current models (though that would be great) but based on the announcements I would be surprised if the 2016 A6\A7 refresh coming next year didn't support both.

Like everyone I'm glad to see Audi support both platforms and I think this'll be the norm - given how similar the solutions seem to be I can't imagine why any major car company would ignore either the iOS or Android market. The real question is, will the manufacturers offer it separately from multi-thousand-dollar nav packages or tech package bundles...it's pretty clear that this would kill a big part of that revenue stream.

billmac

Yes, Apple says that CarPlay and its apps will support Siri, touch and *****/buttons. While it's true that this means a touchscreen will not be a requirement, it would be - IMHO - a good option to have.

In my own experience:

Touch* = fastest / distracting
Siri = least distracting
****** = slowest / distracting

* touch and ***** being most accurate vs voice

CarPlay appears to be designed so that having a least two of the options above would give the user a positive, desirable experience. But having all three options available would probably be best.

Audi and others seen to be moving away from touch screens, but I guess that was part of the QNX roadmap before touch based interfaces like iOS became so popular.

joebird

Longer wait for US market according to Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewd...rting-in-2016/

snagitseven

Not everything published by Forbes (or elsewhere on the internet for that matter) is accurate. We'll just have to wait and see.

NightCrawler

I'm happy with it. I'm an iphone user and although it wouldn't effect my car buying decision it seems like it will be a valuable feature. 2016 will very likely be the year of my next purchase.

u2jrmw

I am also happy, I am an Apple fanboy, and although I have purchased Audi's for the last 15 years or so, if they did not support this, it could have been enough for me to switch car brand.

joebird

Another recent article. On the Google side, says software only (at least for Honda/Google). We'll just have to wait for these integrated solutions to start coming out to see how they will be implemented by the various manufacturers.

http://time.com/2941556/apple-carplay-android-auto/