While some car makers have delayed the release of Apple CarPlay for iPhone 5/5c/5S with Hyundai on target, Ferrari delivered the first car in the world with Apple’s CarPlay on September 8.
The first Ferrari FF with CarPlay was delivered to a buyer in Italy. The delivery was a day before the announcement of the new iPhone 6 and 6+.
Since iPhone 5/5c/5S are all compatible with iOS 8 that is due out on September 17, we hope that all CarPlay infotainment systems will work with iPhone 6/+. In the past, when Apple changed connectors there was a problem with in-car systems especially BMW. However sometimes software upgrades especially iOS have the same core functionality and updates work with older apps and configurations. We will be contacting our CarPlay contacts to see when/if CarPlay will work with iOS 8.
Ferrari FF’s with CarPlay are bound for Germany, Great Britain, France and Switzerland. Others have been exported to the US and Japan.
CarPlay will display on the Ferrari head unit touchscreen. The Ferrari FF prices start at $298,750 but the model does fit four passengers and has a large trunk. Ferrari showed off CarPlay at the Geneva Auto Show in March. The Ferrari uses an Alpine system suggesting that aftermarket infotainment systems may be coming soon from Alpine.
CarPlay lets iPhone users make calls, navigate, listen to music or get messages with a word or a touch. iPhone functions are controlled from the cars’ controls and Siri can be activated with a steering wheel button.
We recently were given a demo of CarPlay on a Hyundai Sonata that was almost fully functioning. The feature that reads text messages out loud was not receiving text messages which could be due to the phone network or due CarPlay integration.
Audio apps Spotify Stitcher, Podcasts, Beats Music and iHeartRadio work with CarPlay. When CarPlay was announced it worked with iOS 7 lets hope it works with iOS 8, also.
A new feature in iOS is Handoff which lets users start writing an email of text on an iPhone and finish it on an iPad or Mac. Handoff is not to be confused with GM’s new hands-free and feet free semi-autonomous Super Cruise driving.
iOS 8 also features iCloud drive to store and use files.