emmgee

I ordered a 2017 sight-unseen rather than buy a 2016 for one major reason – I wanted CarPlay. In my 2013 A4 I used the MMI map to see where I was and for general directions, but I always used my iPhone for turn-by-turn directions. I used my iPhone via Bluetooth for music and podcasts. MMI was basically not that useful to me. I assumed that CarPlay would be a great extension of the device I used in and out of the car. (I am an iPhone fan but if I had an Android phone I would have wanted the 2017 because it supported Android Auto.)

I have found it to be a mixed blessing. With iOS 9, many of the apps were pretty buggy and there was no flexibility for the interface. iOS 10 was a decent upgrade. The two features I like are the ability to rearrange icons (and delete unused icons) and improved Apple Maps. Many non-Apple apps still seem buggy.

My biggest complaint is that often I will insert the cable into the phone before I start the car or after I start the car and before I start moving and this happens: The CarPlay display appears and is usable, but the sound comes out of the phone speakers. I have to disconnect and then reconnect the cable, then the sound comes from the car speaker. As far as I recall, I've never had this issue if I connect the phone after the car is moving.

Has this happened to you? Any other CarPlay observations?

drewba

I was excited about having CarPlay when I got the car, but just over a week in, I've pretty much moved away from it already. I really don't like how CarPlay takes over for MMI. Thus, I can't use CarPlay for phone and the MMI for navigation for example. I also don't like that it doesn't leverage the virtual cockpit at all.

I suppose that if I actually liked the CarPlay interface, the above items would be easier to live with, but I really don't like it. I find that most of the apps are too simplistic and aren't configurable. For example, the music app is really just three giant buttons with a small amount of text. Even the screen art isn't featured, it is just turned into a blurry background behind the giant buttons. I will grant that Apple Maps is decent, but even that could use more detail. For example, it shows traffic on the map, but nothing in text about how many minutes of delay there are and when the delays start. My guess is that CarPlay was optimized for use on a touchscreen, not with a controller like we have in the A4, hence the big buttons and limited configurability.

It is unlikely that I will purchase the Audi Connect data plan when my 6 month trial expires, so I may find myself using Apple Maps more to get real-time traffic and online location searching in the future. For now, I've disabled the smartphone interface so that I can connect the phone via USB and maximize sound quality, but still use the native MMI.

During my limited time using CarPlay, I did experience the sound coming out of the phone speakers once, but I don't recall the scenario in which it happened.

emmgee

I do use CarPlay for phone and MMI for map viewing pretty successfully. But the major challenge seems to be that there is no hard button for launching CarPlay the way there is a hard button to launch, say, the MMI map. If there was, it would be easier to toggle between MMI and CarPlay.

I find this somewhat puzzling because there are hard buttons to move the "pointer" around the screen, to go back, select, etc. I agree that a touchscreen interface would be better, but overall Audi obviously favors buttons and wheels. I was initially excited by the little touchpad in the center **** but other than initially playing with it, I have never used it. The MMI user interface doesn't take advantage of it to speak of.

There are a few user-definable buttons but none can be configured to launch CarPlay. The little asterisk button on the steering wheel would be an obvious choice. Oh well...

bob m

I guess I like it, but for the life of me this is something I just don't get. It's there to basically put your Iphone, with its functions on the screen, but when the Iphone is connected and charging, you can't avail yourself of the Iphone's most basic function - making a call - without switching over to MMI.

emmgee

I make calls all the time via CarPlay. You can dial from your contacts list or you can use Siri.

oesman

I use carplay every day with my iphone. I use navigation over the cockpit view and then just treat the main display like an ipad.

VM

I played with CarPlay for a day or two... and honestly, the fact that you have to use CarPlay for phone operation instead of the far better Bluetooth interface in the MMI/virtual cockpit was a major issue for me. I want to be able to answer calls with the phone button on my steering wheel!!

drewba

As soon as I enable CarPlay, I can no longer use the MMI navigation. Virtual cockpit just shows a compass in the navigation tab. Am I misunderstanding what you're doing?

bugout

That's odd.. I can be connected to carplay listening to music and use the MMI Nav just fine. If I activate maps in carplay then it kills the MMI Nav.

s_Fanous

It looks cool and is handy when it works as intended. The reason I say this is because I've come across 3 odd issues and I'm not sure if I'm the only one affected or if they are common across all A4 owners.

1. Calls will not transfer smoothly. I start a call before getting in the car. I get in the car and connect the phone. Carplay picks up the phone but there is no audio coming in. I have to reach to the phone and reset the audio output to speakerphone then back to the MMI!!! This issue doesn't always happen (i.e. Sometime the call gets transferred smoothly)
2. Spotify opens and i can browse with no issues but trying to play any track results in nothing. I just get the Rewind, Play, and Forward buttons for a few seconds then the screen goes back to the playlist. Only way around this is to disconnect Carplay (Either remove the cable or from the Connection Manager then connect it again and try the whole thing again)
3. If the Spotify issue above doesn't happen, occasionaly the music will play at a very high tempo as if you're listening to it in fast forward mode!!! Solution is similar to the above.

What I would love to do is connect my iPhone directly to the MMI via BT (No issues there) but also connect an Android device via Android Auto which I have found to be a lot more stable and which will be getting Waze very soon. Unfortunately I have not found a way to do that. As soon as the second device is connected the first device is disconnected.