Device Advice

bluedyn thought this was worth mentioning said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:04pm ET

I'm considering buying a new car (it's not a cup holder issue), but I'm sad to give up the ability to talk to my car. I have a Ford, which means the car responds when I talk: plays music from my flash drive, makes calls, suggests crap I didn't ask for. But if I get a Mini Cooper, it won't do anything no matter how politely I ask. I'd rather not use my phone, because I want something that I can leave in there. Also, phone battery life is a precious commodity. So how do I solve this? Is there an mp3 player that responds well to voice commands? Or is there some other magnificent aftermarket device I don't know about that will turn my car into Hal?

4 comments, 6 replies
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snapster said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:05pm ET:

I always wondered if those Ford / Microsoft infused things were worth it. Sounds like you're hooked.

I shout at my car all the time but it doesn't respond.

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- While she's occasionally way off the mark when I ask for something, I still enjoy the hands-free power to call up 1 from 100s of songs.
  
  bluedyn said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:08pm ET
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- I bought a Ford Escape last year and love the voice activated everything. Awesome for hands free calling and changing music.
  
  DaveInSoCal said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 8:13pm ET
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snapster said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:15pm ET:

You may be in a slight trough between your Ford early adopter system and a big wave of car automation led by Apple (and presumably followed by Android). Here's the Apple CarPlay info pages: https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

from that site there are a handful of immediately-available car makers it says (and a much longer list of future ones)

Mini Cooper is BMW Group right? So maybe hold out until 2015? (it's on the future list)

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- Oh and naturally the best advice is for you to just go with a Ferrari
  
  snapster said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:18pm ET
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- Ferraris aren't really my cup of tea, but I hear the people at Rolls Royce will customize the hell out of a car for me.
  
  bluedyn said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:57pm ET
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bluedyn said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:56pm ET:

CarPlay looks cool, but am so anti-iPhone that it's not worth waiting for. It's annoying that I've had my Ford three years with this feature, and yet Mini completely revamped inside and out for 2014 without adding this feature. But they did add the ability to use Twitter and FB from the dash. Idiots.

Sadly, once I've experienced a neat thing - like DVR, smartphones, de-meh-litions - I'm never gonna give it up.

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- There's always android auto
  http://www.android.com/auto/
  
  Ignorant said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 7:58pm ET
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- Nice to see Android is keeping up. If only BMW Group were in that list . . .
  
  bluedyn said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 8:08pm ET
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bluedyn said Wed, Jul 23rd 2014 at 8:10pm ET:

So with the coming of CarPlay and Android Auto, should I take that to mean car manufacturers aren't going to bother adding it native anymore? Did I hit some sweet spot that's about to come to an end?

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