Apple CarPlay hassles on the 2018 Leaf

[MickM]

I have a 2018 Leaf and was looking forward to Apple CarPlay as a solution to the fact that almost no car company has ever made an acceptably good UI for their touch-screen infotainment page. I must say that the experience with CarPlay on the Leaf has been kind of mediocre:

1. It only works over a wired connection and not over BlueTooth, which is just pathetic given that it's 2018. Can't tell you the number of times I've arrived a little late and raced out of my car only to realize later I left the phone in the car .

2. For the life of me I simply can't get the Contacts icon to show on the CarPlay home page. Am I doing something wrong? I have confirmed that Sync Contacts with the car is enabled on my phone.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[jonathanfields4ever]

CarPlay is a disaster. It's supposed to be all about safety while you drive, so it won't really let you look at Contacts. It also changes the menus a little bit when the car is moving. It's really designed around Siri interaction... Which is a problem because Siri is just plain terrible.

As for requiring a USB connection, that has to do with how CarPlay works. Many iOS and MacOS features use a blend of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (Handoff, Universal Clipboard, Instant Hotspot, Calls from iPhone, etc.). I guess this makes the connection better, but it severely limits the number of compatible cars and head units.

[V8BoatBuilder]

CarPlay by definition is USB only, it's the same on ALL vehicles. What you describe are Apple issues, not Nissan Leaf.

We have three CarPlay equipped vehicles, and they all function the same (Nissan Leaf, Ford F250, VW Golf) .

Maybe try Android Auto.

[jonathanfields4ever]

CarPlay by definition is USB only, it's the same on ALL vehicles. What you describe are Apple issues, not Nissan Leaf.

We have three CarPlay equipped vehicles, and they all function the same (Nissan Leaf, Ford F250, VW Golf) .

Maybe try Android Auto.

Apple CarPlay can be used wirelessly, but it requires a compatible head unit. It works over both WiFi and Bluetooth at the same time.

[V8BoatBuilder]

What OEM deck has WiFi CarPlay?? Any car manufacturers actually implementing it?

[jonathanfields4ever]

What OEM deck has WiFi CarPlay?? Any car manufacturers actually implementing it?

As far as I know just BMW and just on three models, though my information might be out of date. And BMW wanted to charge a yearly fee to use it, which understandably made a lot of people angry. There are apparently a lot of aftermarket decks that support it, but I’ve not looked into them.

It’s a shame CarPlay is so terrible. I love iBooks and I love Apple Music. I thought it would be great. It’s supposed to get much better in iOS12, but I’m on the beta and it doesn’t seem any different.