Were you on the Apple Maps screen or the summary screen that shows a portion of Maps and music, etc?
The CarPlay Thread
- Thread starter gregatron5
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Were you on the Apple Maps screen or the summary screen that shows a portion of Maps and music, etc?
I don't remember, but I think it was both. I might rent it again for my next trip, and if I do I'll take some screenshots.
There's an Ioniq 5 nearby I can Turo, too. Too bad it doesn't have the same integration. I've rented both, and I'm not sure which I like better. I know my boys really liked the button to open the doors on the Mach-e.
I've not driven an EV with Carplay in a couple of years, at this point. My son hates the summary screen because it doesn't tell him minutes until we get there which prompted the question. It may be that things change in an EV with the latest version. I wouldn't know.
How's the lag - that's the one thing that gets me with wireless carplay right now. It's not terrible but having used wired carplay for so long it -constantly- makes me feel like shit is slow or broken. >_<
In some setup of wireless CarPlay, my third party adapter at least, it seems like the audio stream is handled by AirPlay, which has a built in lag for buffering. So for example when you hit the Play button in the Music app, it takes a second or two before the music actually starts to play, and when you try to skip a song it takes a second or two for the song to skip. The input is handled immediately and the UI changes as soon as you tap or click, but the lag for the audio to catch up is slightly maddening.
I don’t think I’ve experienced that. At least not that I’ve noticed.
Spotted this deal on cultofmac.com. What do you all think of this? Worth it? Wanting to upgrade my 2012 CRV.
My third party wireless carplay adapter has a settings screen I can access with the phone's browser when it's connected and one of the options is that lag. I reduced mine to the minimum and it's more responsive now. There will always be a bit of a lag, but it's better and I have not noticed any drawbacks to the change.
I just got this unit from Amazon and also a Jensen (one of which will be installed Wed). I'm having a car stereo installer do it as they'll pull power behind the dash and make everything neat. They installed a version of the Carpuride in a Jaguar about a month ago and the owner loves it, so I'll probably go with that one.
Literally everything if you’re using a third-party wireless adapter. Like there’s half second or longer delay going through the box. Phone conversations, clicking the skip button, etc.An easy way to see it is try to scan through a song by holding the button down. It will not work, and will only skip.
The box is some sort of device that mimics a phone to the system so it takes the signal from the phone over WiFi then relays it.
I have a similar 10 inch screen varient from Aliexpress. (to be fair, not all aliexpress models are the same, on aliexpress, this would be closer to $60-70).
1) I'm assuming that the screen on this would be better, but be careful with the quality. For audio, you're looking at either an AUX connection or FM. Each will have drawbacks and weaknesses. I have used it in a 2005 BMW Z4 and it's overall meh. But it also was only $40.
However, they will all get you Carplay and it is easily portable, with no pulling of panels.
2) You're going to lose steering wheel audio controls with something like this. I have a Sony XAV-6000 in my 2012 Civic and it's a superior setup all day long. Retains steering wheel controls, wireless Carplay, no audio cutouts, and no wires dangling about. Even added things like USB C and HDMI to the car.
But also, it is way more expensive (most Japanese cars require a Maestro in addition to the aftermarket stereo) and you either have to be comfortable doing the installation or getting someone to do it for you. The Maestro does add some neat features, depending on car model, like tire pressure monitoring, climate controls, engine stats (plug an adapter into the OBD port).
The Carupride unit is in my Lexus and is working well. Audio over 3.5 mm is flat, but it actually had a feature I missed. BT to the car from the Carupride unit. I got full audio quality back.
There IS a lag, I wouldn't qualify it as an interface lag, the interface responds promptly, it just takes a second or two for the audio on the car itself to switch. I assume, as mentioned previously, as it the unit is a middle man that tells the phone what to do, the unit gets it, then passes the audio via BT to the car head unit.
Has anyone here tried the Grom VLine2 CarPlay adapter module thingy?
I have a 2011 RX 450h (3rd Gen). It has factory nav, instead of a touchscreen it has this annoying joystick/joypad thingy that literally moves a mouse pointer on the screen, because everyone should be looking at a tiny mouse pointer instead of at the road.
Most YT results for "2011 RX Grom" are about installation, and not about function. There are a few videos showing a Grom in a Lexus, but they don't specify what year or model, and most of them show a touchscreen, so I can't see the lag between action and response.
I care about 2 features only--wireless CarPlay and the factory backup camera. Well, a 3rd-feature would be "unhorrible lag." And maybe a 4th feature of "doesn't suck."
Anyone knowledgable about these in a car like mine?
I have a 2011 RX 450h (3rd Gen). It has factory nav, instead of a touchscreen it has this annoying joystick/joypad thingy that literally moves a mouse pointer on the screen, because everyone should be looking at a tiny mouse pointer instead of at the road.
Most YT results for "2011 RX Grom" are about installation, and not about function. There are a few videos showing a Grom in a Lexus, but they don't specify what year or model, and most of them show a touchscreen, so I can't see the lag between action and response.
I care about 2 features only--wireless CarPlay and the factory backup camera. Well, a 3rd-feature would be "unhorrible lag." And maybe a 4th feature of "doesn't suck."
Anyone knowledgable about these in a car like mine?
Well, I bought the VLite2 version and had it professionally installed.Has anyone here tried the Grom VLine2 CarPlay adapter module thingy?
I have a 2011 RX 450h (3rd Gen). It has factory nav, instead of a touchscreen it has this annoying joystick/joypad thingy that literally moves a mouse pointer on the screen, because everyone should be looking at a tiny mouse pointer instead of at the road.
Most YT results for "2011 RX Grom" are about installation, and not about function. There are a few videos showing a Grom in a Lexus, but they don't specify what year or model, and most of them show a touchscreen, so I can't see the lag between action and response.
I care about 2 features only--wireless CarPlay and the factory backup camera. Well, a 3rd-feature would be "unhorrible lag." And maybe a 4th feature of "doesn't suck."
Anyone knowledgable about these in a car like mine?
My original mini-review, right after installation:
My local Al & Eds Autosound installed it for <<$400 in about 3.5 hours. I've only had it for 48 hours, so take this all with a grain of salt for now:
- The Grom is connected to the Lexus's USB "slot," meaning you select it by choosing your USB audio option from the standard factory UI or from the USB/Aux dashboard button:
- That puts you into the Grom UI, from which you can then select CarPlay.
- The Grom UI and CarPlay UI use the same pseudo-mouse joystick thingy and button(s) that I so loathe on my Lexus, but that's the only option, since there's no touchscreen. But it works well.
- Overall latency and responsiveness of the UI is good. This was a concern I'd had, because I hadn't seen any videos of it online, but it's as good or better than the factory UI.
- It uses the factory screen, so everything looks factory original. The actual unit, a little metal box, is installed near the passenger's left calf, but it's not really visible unless you look for it.
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- The factory screen is from 2011, so it's not nearly as bright or crisp as the screen on my iPhone 15 Pro, but it is at least 3 times bigger.
- Of course this has nothing to do with Grom, but it's worth noting if you're accustomed to navigating from your phone.
- The size and central location of the screen definitely makes up for the inferior screen qualty, and navigation is much nicer now with the bigger, centered screen.
- I only wish the screen weren't recessed from the dash so much. Why did Lexus do that?
- I set the Grom up to launch CarPlay every time I turn on my car.
- It does this, but intermittently. Sometimes it launches automatically, and sometimes I have to click CarPlay to get it to load.
- Either way, sometimes CarPlay loads quickly, within 5 seconds, and sometimes it says "Connected, Waiting for CarPlay UI . . . " for up to 30 seconds.
- Audio output has been Ok.
- No better or worse than my regular BT audio connection to the Lexus stereo, except for some occasional dropouts that are maybe 1/20 or 1/10 of a second long, once every 4-5 minutes. But not all the time. On some drives I never hear them, and on others it's every 4-5 minutes.
- Definitely audible every time they happen, but not crippling, but I would also like to get that fixed if possible, if a firmware update is available.
- On that note, you should "forget" your iPhone's BT connection to your Lexus before you pair your iPhone with the Grom, as otherwise sometimes your music shows that it's playing on the CarPlay UI, but there will be no audio. I believe this is because it's connected to both devices simultaneously, but sending audio to the Lexus BT instead of to the Grom, because after I forgot the Lexus from my phone, this stopped happening.
- Steering wheel buttons work as expected, for volume, prev/next track, answer/hang-up, etc.
- I really, really wish that Lexus had put a dedicated Play/Pause button the steering wheel.
- Sometimes you want to stop/pause the music for a few seconds, and there's just no convenient way to do that.
- It's become even less convenient in CarPlay mode because, unlike the Lexus factory Audio mode, there's no play/pause button the screen to click. You have to switch to Music to find it.
- I really, really wish that Lexus had put a dedicated Play/Pause button the steering wheel.
- Audio input on phone calls is too quiet. My callers have a hard time hearing me.
- I'm going to swing by the installer's next week and see if there's anything they can do about that.
- Meantime I'LL JUST TALK LOUDLY.
- The unit crashed on my commute this morning.
- The CarPlay UI froze, and wouldn't respond to anything.
- I pulled over and shut off the car for 30 seconds, but it seems like the unit stays powered up for longer than that, so I switched to regular Lexus BT audio for the rest of my drive to work.
- By lunchtime the Grom had truly shut off, and when I turned the car back on everything was working fine again.
- The backup camera works as normal, except that there's now a different indicator overlay for your parking sensors.
- This means that the Grom unit is actually handling the backup camera feed, not just switching over to it. I didn't realize they needed to do that.
- The latency to turn on the backup view is very, very slightly longer than before. Not too annoying, but noticeable.
- The big plus for me on this unit is that I finally can initiate phone calls via Siri.
- This worked fine when I first bought the car, used, in 2014. But somewhere along the way this stopped working, presumably because of something Apple did in iOS, since the Lexus firmware hasn't changed. If I said, "Hey Siri, call Sofia Vergara," the phone call would initiate and then immediately end.
- Now, through CarPlay, it works properly again.
- I haven't tried out any of the other Grom features, because wireless CarPlay is literally my sole reason for this upgrade.
After a couple of weeks, I had the following additional feedback:
- I'm going to upgrade my review of the general sound quality to "Better than factory BT."
- I don't know if this is just placebo effect or real, but I've had a few instances listening to my collection of Al Di Meola tracks where I thought, "Hey, this sounds really good!"
- But I'm still getting periodic audio dropouts.
- I set my iPhone to Do Not Disturb mode for awhile, which suppresses all notifications and alerts, and I still got dropouts.
- Then I turned DND off, and sent myself a bunch of messages and emails, and the incoming alerts and notifications did not trigger audio dropouts.
- So I don't think the dropouts are related to alerts and notifications.
- I finally found the microphone gain setting (in the Grom settings, NOT the CarPlay settings!), and it's better now, but not as nearly as good as my factory BT was for phone calls.
- The installer tech fiddled with the placement and direction of the mic, but could not get any improvement.
- The installer tech said that the Grom unit uses the Grom-supplied mic, and that connecting to the factory mic was not an option. Is that true?
- Does Grom sell an upgraded mic?
- I connected my Grom unit to my home WiFi and checked the firmware versions, and I'm current.
- But I haven't had any more crashes, so maybe that was just a one-time problem.
- The delay between shifting into reverse and seeing the backup camera display is more annoying than I'd originally thought.
- Try a 3-point turn or a 5-point parallel park, and you'll see that the extra 1-2 seconds to see the display is actually meaningful.
- I hope this is something that can be improved with some software optimization, because I'm guessing that the vast majority of people shift into reverse when they start their car, so this is literally one of the very first things they'll see out of the Grom unit, every single day, so it's important that it be a good experience.
- Is there any way to overlay the current audio volume over the CarPlay display?
- Right now there is no visual indicator of the current audio volume setting.
- Is there any way to overlay the climate control temperature settings over the CarPlay display?
- Right now there is no visual indicator of the climate control temperature settings.
I upgraded to the latest release firmware last week, over WiFi, and I haven't had any serious problems since then, but my main gripe remains the latency when displaying the backup camera. That's probably my main source of dissatisfaction with the product right now, and it's actually a safety issue when I have literally a decade's worth of muscle-memory that expects the rear view to show up earlier than it does.
I have the MMI Prime for my 10-year-old BMW i3. It has similar issues, the worst being the audio delay, especially when using the phone. Sometimes the latency can make phone calls almost impossible. Often, people can hear themselves a second or two after they speak, which is really annoying. (It just happened to me when my wife called me while she was using my car.)
The MMI Prime can switch between its CarPlay UI and the native UI by holding the Option button. It somehow notices when the car switches to reverse and switches back to the native UI almost instantly for the camera, and when the camera shuts off it switches back to the MMI Prime UI.
The MMI Prime can switch between its CarPlay UI and the native UI by holding the Option button. It somehow notices when the car switches to reverse and switches back to the native UI almost instantly for the camera, and when the camera shuts off it switches back to the MMI Prime UI.
If it makes you feel any better I have that issue often enough on my Tesla Model 3 with the OEM camera and software.
