I had my Girlfriend program her voice for the Waze directions, She's from Singapore, but used a real strong Singlish accent on purpose . It really makes the directions entertaining vs annoying, i smile everytime I hear her.

 

To me, CarPlay is worth it because it reduces my desire to smash the entire Lexus infotainment system with a crowbar every time I have to interact with their "menu system"*.

It's as if all the programming was completed by a rushed junior engineer who really, really dislikes people.

Now I plug in the lightning cable and everything audio/mapping/text related works as it should.

I hate that some attorney decided I can be trusted with texts but not email, but that won't go away without tort reform.



*Not quite, I'm not prone to rage, but there have been times with the '14 is350f I traded for the ESh that I thought "Hmmm... could I rip all that out and just sick an iPad in that spot... or even my old Radio Shack boom box..."

 

Thanks for the link! Works great and glad I can still close the lid.

 

For those who use Apple Car Play, how much of a battery drain on your iPhone are you experiencing?

 

None since the phone needs to be plugged in for Apple CarPlay to work.

 

I didn't see this from a quick scan of the thread, but after driving 6 months with my 2019 F Sport, I don't think CarPlay is that amazing, and I'm generally an Apple-products guy. Sure it's great to have a large navigation screen for Waze, Maps, etc., but here's the catch - assume you're listening to music or some other audio while using navigation through CarPlay. At least with Waze, any time it does a voice prompt (e.g., turn left, police ahead, etc.), whatever you're listening too will first have a several seconds-long, drawn out volume dip, then a silent pause, then you get the navigation voice prompt/alert, then another silent pause, and then the volume very slowly ramps back up on whatever you're listening to. Does that make sense? In other words, you're 30 seconds into listening to a song... then a 5 second volume drop... then a couple seconds silence... then "take this exit" ... then a couple seconds silence... then a 5 second volume rise... then back to your song. No joke, the entire process takes about 15-20 seconds to complete. Doesn't seem bad until you learn this happens about a million times during tight navigation or rapid nav app alerts, and then you realize your entire listening experience is totally ruined. Your only option, at least on Waze, is to mute the app's alerts, but then what's the point? I'd rather have the app's audio alerts tell me what to do than to have to keep my eyes constantly focused on the nav screen.

Long-story short: CarPlay to me is largely a gimmick, it doesn't enhance the driving experience at all. Just stick with regular Bluetooth or corded connection to stream your music or other audio apps, and use your phone as regular for GPS.

 

Does anyone know if it’s possible to adjust the volume of the navigation directions while using iPhone Maps thru Apple CarPlay? I’ve read suggestions such as adjust the iPhone maps settings and use the steering wheel volume control, but no luck so far.

 

I would assume any changes would have to be made on the iPhone itself since the infotainment system is merely projecting or mirroring the phone. There is an option to change the volume under settings then selecting maps, driving & navigation.

 

Thanks, but I’ve tried that, no effect on CarPlay other than selecting ‘no voice’ does silence it.

 

Found this on Apple's website:

“You change the CAR'S VOLUME CONTROL during a moment when siri is giving audio voice guidance for map directions.

You must do this during a moment when siri is actually speaking the directions
What changes is the car's volume for siri's spoken navigation directions.
The volume the car subsequently uses for iphone music or audiobooks, for example, is NOT changed.
Just to be clear: CarPlay knows when its speaking navigation guidance instructions and when its playing music, and siri automatically uses the volume level you last chose for each. If its playing music and voice guidance instructions at the same time, siri interprets a change in the cars volume control (at that moment) to be intended specifically for voice guidance”

 

This sounds good but no effect in my ux 200 with iPhone 7. Console volume control and steering wheel volume control only adjust the music volume (radio or music app in use) during spoken directions. If you hadn’t mentioned that it was from the Apple website I would have expected a face full of blinker fluid. Also my dealership tech specialist hasn’t responded to my voicemail on this issue.

 

I agree with most of what you are saying here. If you do not have a factory navigation, then Apple Car Play is good to have...BUT, if you have a factory NAV then Apple Car Play is not as good. What I do not like about Car Play is that all alerts come through the speakers, such an alarm you might of set. You also lose the factory dash turn by turn that starts in the speedometer and moves to the heads up display. I like how Toyota has a 2 mile prompt that a direction is coming. PS. you can set the Apple Maps to pause audio and dim it if you want