A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece suggesting that I don’t want to see automakers revoke access to Apple CarPlay — not unless they come up with a better smartphone-mirroring system.
I still stand by that — but three separate instances of CarPlay going bye-bye when I needed it suggests that the universe is trying to tell me something. Or, at least, it’s laughing in my face.
It started two weeks ago in semi-rural Tennessee on a Nissan event (story coming soon). Nissan had arranged for us to drive ourselves from lunch near its Decherd engine plant to the Nashville airport on our own, using one of their press vehicles — in this case, a Pathfinder. I punched BNA into Apple Maps, left lunch — and promptly missed a turn.
OK, my fault. I got it straightened out, got on the main road out of town, and as I rolled past the standard American suburban retail sprawl, I thought I was headed the correct way.
Until I looked down and saw my spot on the map was stuck miles back. Sigh.
I tried Google Maps. Same problem. Waze was no better. At least this rig had factory nav — I searched that out, pulled over and punched in the airport, and boom, success. It even translated it back to Apple Maps so I could go back to using CarPlay.
I’d have written this off as a nothing burger until, a few days later, I was taking a Lexus LX tester to meet up with a friend. This time, I was in my home city of Chicago and I’d been to this particular establishment before, but I still punched it into Apple Maps so I could find the fastest way and avoid Chicago’s unpredictable traffic. I knew how to get there, but did I know the fastest route? Apparently not — the way I’d have gone if left to my own devices would’ve taken a few minutes longer.
Well, a few miles into the drive, the map once again showed I was in the wrong spot — it was as if I’d never left home, because that’s where the GPS thought I was. This time I had to shut my phone off and on, and when that did not work, I needed to pull over and cycle the key.
Finally, just this past weekend I was running an errand while behind the wheel of a Toyota. I didn’t punch in directions — I’ve driven this specific route countless times. It’s straightforward and memorized. But on the way home, I noticed that once again, the map was showing me in the wrong spot — in its mind, I had never left the store’s parking lot. And once again, it happened with Apple Maps, Google Maps, and Waze. Except one of them, I can’t remember which, still showed me at my house, several miles away.
The most logical explanation is that my phone wasn’t getting a good signal, but in two instances I was in a major city and in the first instance I was on a main surface road dotted with retail and restaurants. I was not in the middle of nowhere. Unlike the Subaru Crosstrek launch where I really did struggle for signal before heading to PDX, because we were deep in the woods of Washington State.
It could be a bug — I see iOS will be updating soon — but whatever the cause, it’s not good. In my case, the inconvenience was minor, though I did risk missing a flight. But map problems could get someone seriously lost, perhaps in an unsafe manner. I can understand if signal is weak, and sometimes urban high rises can mess with signal, but there’s no excuse for maps to fail when the phone is otherwise showing full bars.
Since the issue occurred across multiple car brands and using mapping software from rivals Apple and Google, I am not quite sure what the cause was — again, signal seems the most logical, although maybe there was a issue with a satellite — but I am sure that tech is never 100 percent reliable.
I am still a CarPlay person until proven otherwise. But I’ve now seen from first-hand experience that OEMs have an opportunity to offer something better.
Maybe, bugs like this aside, CarPlay will remain the best option. But it’s not perfect — and my defense of it now has a hole.
Let the best smartphone-mirroring system at the best price win.
[Images: General Motors]
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