Cars and Tech

Twelve years ago, when I bought my car, my decision criteria were simple. I wanted a car that is fun to drive, had good reliability, and was gas efficient; traits that were missing in my prior car. I did not put a lot of weight on the technological innovations the car had; I was happy with a good navigation system, a CD player that held multiple CDs, and a backup camera that made parallel parking easier. At the time, almost all car manufacturers provided undifferentiated versions of these capabilities, with minor tweaks to the user interface, which made my selection a lot easier.

Over the years as the technology advanced, these originally innovative features started to feel obsolete. It was almost impossible to upgrade the hardware with newer and faster components, and software did not have a better story.  Only if either had issues or bugs, did the manufacturer offer an upgrade, through vehicle recalls or maintenance, or through map update CDs on a yearly basis, that captured changes in routes, points of interest, and changes because of new construction.

In the meantime, smart phones became indispensable devices, not only providing the basics of phone calls, text messages, and web browsing, but also the plethora of applications that allowed us to do everything on these small devices from navigation, to listening to music, to watching videos, and playing games. And with the brilliant invention of the car phone holder, I found myself shifting away from the built-in technology systems, to using my iPhone as the primary device for everything in the car.

Sure, it was less convenient to have all the wires hanging from the phone to charge it and connect it with the audio system, interfering with the gear shifter on my manual transmission car, having a much smaller screen than the built-in one, and substituting the on screen controls with the analog ones in the car; but these inconveniences paled in front of the infinite upgradeability of the phone’s software and hardware. There was no need to upgrade maps, or to worry about phone address book integration, to load or unload music CDs, or to worry about what audio book to choose ahead of a long commute or trip. And with the improvement of voice recognition using all these apps while driving became much easier.

I often wondered if it were more convenient for auto manufacturers to forgo building systems for in-car navigation/entertainment, and just have a space in the dash, where you can install or plugin your favorite phone/tablet, and easily integrate with the car’s analog controls. Then both CarPlay and Android Play came on the radar and made something akin to that possible. Car manufactures still build the entertainment and navigation systems but allowed smart phones to use the display and entertainment systems seamlessly.

On a couple of recent trips, I rented cars that supported CarPlay, and even though the car had an up to date navigation system with current maps and points of interest, I found myself using my iPhone and CarPlay almost exclusively, if only for the real-time traffic updates and rerouting, listening to Spotify or my podcasts, and setting destinations through decent voice control using Siri. I believe the trend of forgoing the built-in systems for easily updatable software and hardware platforms such as the smart phone devices will continue, and unless auto manufacturers offer similar capabilities, their built-in systems will become obsolete.