Hi guys.

I stupidly updated to the beta of iOS 10 because I wanted to check out the new maps navigation and how it worked with the Columbus CarPlay. ALl worked fine for a while until one day it started crashing. What happens is a mixture of either being asked if I want to connect my phone to CarPlay, I say yes and then it cycles back to asking the same thing again. Or, if I reset medialink in the settings of the Columbus, it connects the phone but after a few minutes of music the CarPlay iterface seems to freeze. I can see music still playing on my phone but no audio. Eventually it kicks me out, tries to connect the phone by USB and then connects back to CarPlay to go through the cycle of crashing again.

Since moving to the beta I am now on the 3rd release and the issue has been there with all 3 - but I don't know if it is the beta or the Columbus. If it all started going wrong the second I went beta then I'd be more certain but it all worked fine for weeks and then went wrong with no changes or updates. Is anyone else having the same issues or similar?

I sometimes get a freeze or the music coming out of spotify is garbled so I normally disconnect from the lightning cable and close all aps running on iphone and the relink again. Works for me.

Have you tried disconnecting from the car, deleting the connection information from both devices (Settings>General>CarPlay>Forget this car) and performing a hard reset on the iPhone (press and hold the home button and sleep/wake button until the Apple logo appears)?*

 

Of course, all beta releases come with the caveat of 'results may vary'. It will hopefully be fixed before the full iOS10 release next month. It might be prudent to report the problem through the feedback part of the beta programme. After all, it's testing like this that allows Apple to fix annoying bugs in beta releases. 

Failing that, backing out of the Beta programme and restoring to the current iOS 9.3.4 might be the way to go. 

 

*forgive my condescension as appropriate

Thanks guys. All great suggestions. I found the issue in the end and not sure how I got there! I had an app called Onavo which routes all your data through a VPN and compresses downloads to save your data allowance. I noticed one issue with CarPlay was that Siri would not work but worked when disconnected. Knowing that CarPlay is quite reliant on Siri I wondered if this was the issues and it drove me to delete the app and VPN profile. All working great now. Have fed all back to Apple too. Thanks for the help and ideas.

What do people here think of CarPlay?

I have been terribly disappointed and find that it is, in the main, value-subtracted.

It tends to interfere with stuff too much - particularly the interaction between different audio sources (including navigation) - often seems to effectively prevent me from listening to what I want to listen to!

I also find that the Apple navigation is better on the phone than it is on the MMI screen.

Having said that, I tend to use Waze for navigation.

Any zealots here to persuade me it's really good? ;-)

Well, I am not a zealot, but. . . . .

In some ways I agree that CarPlay functionality is redundant because of the excellent functionality of the Columbus system. However, if you spend a lot of time in the car and rely solely on your iPhone to go about your day, then it is incredibly intelligent.

Maps automatically directs you to the next appointment in your calendar, hit Messages and it assumes you want to text your next meeting contact etc etc. I also find the natural language of Siri more useful than the car's voice recognition.

I was also a Waze user but this won't ever be part of CarPlay since Google purchased Waze. Apple Maps is getting better and better though, I don't miss Waze as much as I thought I would.

For Music, obviously you could just stream via Bluetooth or USB and see your phone as another audio device, but via CarPlay you are more connected to your iCloud playlists and podcasts.

It isn't for everybody, but it is excellent if you really embrace it.

@finchbee interesting view on Google Maps instead of Waze. Does Google Maps also alert you for things like vehicles on shoulder or object on road or traffic? I was once told that Google Maps uses real-time information from Waze but not entirely sure of this is true?

All in all the CarPlay experience is pretty good.

ios 10 is what makes the  difference, the CarPlay really becomes super intelligent. Meetings, Apple Maps integration to the whole system and so on. Alerts, when do you need to start driving.

They are making it better with every software update that comes, and hopefully they come fast.

At the moment I see two major problems in the CarPlay concept:

1) Lack of wireless capability to connect to the cars headunit: It gets really annoying to connect/disconnect all the time when you get to the car. I.e for a long drive ofc, its no problem. But for a 10 or 15 min drive? Meaning that it would be super that Apple finally makes available. Im quite sure that the technology in the car already supports it.

2) Navigation software is one-sided. This is a problem that both  the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto share. Android auto atm has two available options, one is Google Maps and the second is Sygic Car Navigation. In my mind both of these are better than Apple Maps is. The overall integration of the Apple Maps is therefore better, but one big limitation arises. Thats the inability to use it while being offline. 

All in all, everythings pretty great. But it can be 10x better .

@finchbee interesting view on Google Maps instead of Waze. Does Google Maps also alert you for things like vehicles on shoulder or object on road or traffic? I was once told that Google Maps uses real-time information from Waze but not entirely sure of this is true?

For a great comparison, have a look here.

http://lifehacker.com/turn-by-turn-navigation-showdown-google-maps-vs-waze-1761550298

The GPS maps on the Superb are pretty good for Australia, so no complains there, but I have Sygic on my iPhone and Apple will not let Sygic use their CarPlay for it.

So you are stuck with iMap....not impressed at all.

I have been using Garmin for years, both private and at work and added Sygic about 2 years ago on my iPhone/iPad. I prefer Sygic any day.

Hopefully in the next 5 years while under warranty and services paid for, apple will finally release Sygic to display theirs via CarPlay and an update will fix that.

 

In the meantime, for my 2nd car I have got a new 2DIN, 7" display radio on it's way running Android 4.4.4, which will get Sygic installed.

This radio comes with the following option package update:  DAB+ radio, Digital (HD)TV, Forward recording camera, reverse camera and lots of other options.

I will update the original speakers in the car and add 2 under seat Subwoofers (not to add the "Boom Boom like the young kids like, but rather to firm up the sound quality).

Then later I will add headrest monitors for the back seats, as this radio can run dual display, eg. GPS on the main screen and movies/games/etz on the rear monitors.

It's a bit of a fun project for me as I am a Telecommunications Technical Officer and the 2nd car was just purchased a few weeks ago quite cheap...so I can add some fun stuff to it.

Still won't be able to compete with the 12 speaker sound system of the Superb (which really is designated as my wife's car) as mine will have no more then 9 speakers including the 2 subwoofers under the front seats.