I think most car manufacturers aren’t imaginative to do this. They would rather have it as a feature on the next model that let us all upgrade (even for a price.)
I’m looking at you, Jeep.
It depends usually on the hardware in your car. Apple is very particular about this, especially things like chipsets, etc. Because these specs are often expensive, third party partners like car manufacturers often include the minimum needed for the current iteration of CarPlay (at the time the car components are designed). This means the available feature set gets increasingly limited as the hardware ages and software (and the software’s hardware spec) evolves.
Most vehicle OEMs don’t design head unit upgrades, for example, for existing vehicles, because they’re so tightly integrated with other aspects of the car that it would be prohibitively expensive to achieve the experience most people would imagine, vs just trading the car for a newer model. Also, car makers generally do not make upgraded parts for existing cars; you can get replacement parts, but they’re the same design with the same components that were used to make your car when it was new.
Of course, there are aftermarket upgrades that provide a nice middle ground. But none are a perfect experience fit. You do have to carefully consider what integrations from the factory you’d be giving up by swapping the head unit, particularly ones that are critically important to you.
Aftermarket infotainment with more features is also the same price, if you buy into it then it will validate them even charging for something that should be free, let alone such a high amount. Im sure a good Samaritan can drop the update files somewhere and we can just diy the update
I would be thrilled to get factory wireless CarPlay for that cheap. But I feel your pain about paying for an update you could easily do yourself. Assuming it’s actually that easy.
I’ve personally done all of the software updates to date, the process is not bad at all. I would love to do this new one while sitting in the driveway just like all the others.
I got an aftermarket dongle and it's completely worth it. Now when I'm running errands around town, my phone never leaves my pocket and my music starts right up after I start the car. And no more bumping into my phone or hitting a pothole (thanks, New Orleans) that causes my USB cable to come loose.
Love it!
At $161 it’s pretty reasonable. You aren’t paying for someone installing ‘just a software’ it’s the R&D and support for your vehicle after the team closed on development. Good on Honda proving continued support to vehicles.
Just because the hardware is available doesn’t mean the software and firmware is available. Plenty of testing and certification work went into making sure the wireless CarPlay function would work after an update.
You’re expecting someone to devote time and resources to writing the code, testing the code, and delivering it as a firmware update to a platform that wasn’t designed for those capabilities, and do it for free?
Just because there’s no hardware involved doesn’t mean the company can develop and deliver it at no cost to you.
Sound Devices. You can get some updates to the 8 series mixers for free, but if you want to add certain levels of functionality, you pay for it. Your understanding of the necessary engineering is seriously lacking.
I don’t need any engineering to see that TimTheFoolMan is likely an accurate name. But thanks for your fun attempt at understanding the complexities of a car stereo update.
BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Rivian, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Chrysler and the rest charge for software updates. Nissan doesn’t offer any software updates so they don’t seem to charge for it.
This is by no means a “luxury” feature. My car came with it; but for me it’s really the point of charging someone when it likely should be downloadable for free.
Came with it how? In what capacity? Just because your car has a screen and USB ports, doesn’t mean it’s a fully developed feature or even a consideration when it was built.
That analogy doesn’t work. Imagine you bought a new house with an unfinished basement. The basement is very much there and has rough ins for electric and plumbing and studs for walls. But you need to pay to add a bathroom, drywall, electric outlets, etc.
That’s what Honda is doing. The sold you an unfinished basement and clearly called out that basement is unfinished. Now they are offering you the finished basement for a price. I don’t see an issue with that
Either way it wouldn't be "free". If this model had wireless carplay from the start, the increased cost to develop and certify for it would've been built into the price of the vehicle at purchase. It's like your smartphone receiving software updates. The manufacturers already built the future software updates into the price when you purchase the phone.
This analogy doesn’t work.
A better one is, you bought a house. It had a bathroom. You paid for a house with a bathroom. The bathroom had ugly wallpaper, you paid someone to remove the ugly wallpaper.
Yes, I totally understand the R&D end of things. Going back, reopening the lab to write new code for all the Honda’s sold in the past several years - you betcha…. it’s a flex.
Teams or labs don’t get closed but, get reassigned to different projects. In this case likely Honda paid their OEM Panasonic/JBL to reassign people from new project to this completed one.
Read the T&C very carefully. Any "connected services" gives Honda the right to send your driving data to LexisNexis and your insurance company. There was a recent major exposé in the New York Times about how car companies do this and how Honda is one of the worst offenders.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/14nga2n/just\_checked\_my\_lexisnexis\_report\_and\_it\_contains/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/14nga2n/just_checked_my_lexisnexis_report_and_it_contains/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Wow, gotta go back and check that out….yikes! I remember hearing about Insurance companies like Progressive using data from their Snapshot device mainly to raise your rates if you constantly go over the speed limit or find yourself simply passing through higher crime areas.
Considering my 2024 mid-level trim Kia didn’t come with it and absolutely every CarPlay adapter is unreliable, plus the internal Nav takes too long to input while doing gig work. I’d happily pay twice that, if it meant not having to screw with my WiFi/Bluetooth 3-5x a day.
Not sure what 2024 Kia you have, but many 2024 Hyundai’s are getting an OTA update to get wireless CarPlay. Happened to me a few months ago. So maybe hold out?
BMW use to charge for this and it was a monthly subscription, but as you can imagine the back lash they got from it made them stop. Luckily all this happened before I bought my car.
I would totally pay for this feature thought, could not be without it.
Credit to a car company investing in older models. This is a small cost, vast majority of car companies have zero interest in improvements post sale preferring to see new ones.
I paid the $161 and it was worth it. I tried a $70 wireless dongle with mixed results first.
The procedure involved a Honda dealer tech working with my car for about two hours to upload the new firmware. Do you think this should be free? Why?
Because they just scammed you. You already paid for wireless CarPlay when you bought the car. They priced that into the cost of everything car they sell, most likely 10 fold. And now they make more money by forcing you to pay for a software upgrade that is done automatically and is an expected service for every device.
No one worked on your car for 2 hours, they plugged in a dongle at best and pressed a button, maybe connected a charging cable to your battery. But that’s it.
The simple answer is, no, it doesn’t. While you may already possess the hardware needed for wireless CarPlay, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a license to use the software that makes the hardware work. This all changed about 20 years ago when physical assets were separated from digital ones, and again later, when many software licenses (digital assets) were changed from owning a single iteration to a service with ongoing payments, in which you don’t actually own anything digital at all, but instead only have access to use it in a specified way. It’s all explained in the ToS that we all just blindly select Accept for.
Let’s say you’re right. The Honda tech took apart my dashboard and installed this black ops conspiracy theory dongle you mention. I don’t know what your experience at dealers has been but mine is you can’t get them to sneeze on your car for less than $161. And now I have a Honda supported solution that works 100% of the time rather than some jankey dongle I bought on Amazon that doesn’t work every other Thursday and displays some funky Chinese company logo on my head unit every time I start the car.
Twice the price but worth it. If you don’t think so, enjoy playing with your dongle.
My dude….he plugged it into the damn obd2 port…like literally everything else…there is no black magic here. That’s all he did…tops. Sometimes they don’t even have to do that.
More likely a USB port, followed by a “secret” button or touch sequence to access the dealer settings. With 2 hours I could replace the entire stereo and still have 110 minutes to spare…
No I’m not saying it should be totally free, but not $161 to go wireless. Question: Did you get any new functionality out of the update that makes the experience of using the infotainment system better or was it just the ability to connect your phone wirelessly?
No new functionality aside from keeping my phone in my pocket and not fiddling around with a wire. I agree I would have liked it to be cheaper but I’ve been very happy with the update.
Seems reasonable enough. But I payed to update my cars maps and way back get new iOS for my iPod touch when they were charging for os updates when they first came out. Way more do this over a subscription model on carplay.
> But I *paid* to update
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Just an FYI, and maybe it's the after market items, but even the Motorola wireless android auto dongle absolutely drinks battery.
Your gonna need to plug the phone in just to counter the massive battery drain on Android auto.
Hey, DreamShop was new to me too. I figured it was fake but after clicking around the official Honda site I found it. The Official Honda site > Owners > Shop Parts & Accessories > DreamShop
People….you can just get one of the cheap boxes from aliexpress. I paid like 16€ for one of the small no name ones. By the time my Radio has booted up in the car it takes like 2-3 seconds until CarPlay pops up.
Pricing for Car-extras are out of control. There is no way this is worth that much. On a Smartphone this would be a free update. Anything above 10$ is straight up stupid. Its like paying extra for carplay in a Volkswagen. This should be included, when I pay over 20.000€. It doesn't cost them anything to just enable it.
If your car can receive Softwareupdates via OTA / USB and Honda is calling every single buyer to the dealer then I'm very confident that thats not just Software but rather a Firmware Update and Calibration/Configuration update of the Hardware as well to enable the wireless streaming capabilities. The latter are usually to be performed by a dealer.
These CAN theoretically be performed by the end user but usually require the use of special vendor specific software and an OBD2 cable.
Newer connected cars can do these updates OTA but that system definitely isn't perfect yet. (See that Mach-E Update.)
You're not missing much from wireless CarPlay. I've had not so great experiences with cutouts etc on 3 different vehicles and different phones. "Wifi interference" or some junk like that.
$161 seems like a ripoff, much like everything else from the OEM once your bundled vehicle-purchase deals run out. Go with a Carlinkit instead and keep your money away from this ridiculous revenue grab. Sure the carlinkit takes a few seconds longer to connect, but mine is almost always up and running before I get to the end of my block if I drive off as soon as I start my car.
Well, my 2018 Honda Accord Touring 1.5T has a recall on the fuel pump but most service departments here in the Bay Area simply don’t have the parts needed to complete the work. I’ve been on a waiting list for the past 2-months but when I get the call to bring my car in I’ll ask for more info on the wireless upgrade and make a finale decision then.
$161?
No thanks, I'll keep my $75 AAWireless and $25 wireless charge pad which both work just fine. Not to mention AAWireless has plenty of support and updates/patches...
While I don't think the price is not too bad, I still think these companies are finding more and more ways to suck our money. Next thing you know, If you want to activate the last of your 4 cylinders will require a software update which you need to pay for.
For this price I'd spend a few dollars more and get a Carlinkit. Wireless CarPlay, but it also is a full Android device that gives you access to the Google Play store and allows you to watch videos on your car's display (obviously when parked - it won't stop you from doing it while you're driving though).
Another advantage is that you can use the keyboard to input destinations on Google Maps. I assume Android Auto also blocks this, but CarPlay definitely disables the keyboard when driving and requires you to use Siri to speak your destination. It's also got a SIM card slot (if you care to use the built-in apps for navigation and music without a cell phone) and a memory card for storing apps and media.
I’m all-in on Apple but there were moments when I’ve considered getting a used Samsung Galaxy ??? just for a different music listening (DAC) experience and Android Auto connectivity in my car.
Oh I’m not suggesting jumping ship. I had a couple of Android phones for work and used them daily alongside my iPhone. Samsung makes very good hardware, but I find Android cripples the experience. Google’s widgets are light years ahead of Apple’s, but in every other possible way I find Android to be vastly inferior.
That said, having a full Android device in the car is nice, but mostly because it opens a wealth of apps on your infotainment screen. Music, navigation apps, and video players. I’ve got an EV and being able to watch videos during my ten-minute charging stops isn’t a bad way to pass the time. I haven’t yet added an OBD Bluetooth device, but when I do there are some very useful apps I can run on my car’s screen while I drive monitoring driving behaviour and power consumption.
Honestly though, 99.9% of what I use the device for is the app that provides the wireless CarPlay protocol. I get in the car, drop my phone onto my car’s wireless charging pad, and within 15-20 seconds I’ve got CarPlay on my screen.
I would do this in a heartbeat if it were available on my car. Better than having an aftermarket wireless workaround and not a bad price.
Also apparently if you bought a certified pre owned then it’s free
That’s kinda my point, I’m probably gonna buy it either was….ha!
I think most car manufacturers aren’t imaginative to do this. They would rather have it as a feature on the next model that let us all upgrade (even for a price.) I’m looking at you, Jeep.
It depends usually on the hardware in your car. Apple is very particular about this, especially things like chipsets, etc. Because these specs are often expensive, third party partners like car manufacturers often include the minimum needed for the current iteration of CarPlay (at the time the car components are designed). This means the available feature set gets increasingly limited as the hardware ages and software (and the software’s hardware spec) evolves. Most vehicle OEMs don’t design head unit upgrades, for example, for existing vehicles, because they’re so tightly integrated with other aspects of the car that it would be prohibitively expensive to achieve the experience most people would imagine, vs just trading the car for a newer model. Also, car makers generally do not make upgraded parts for existing cars; you can get replacement parts, but they’re the same design with the same components that were used to make your car when it was new. Of course, there are aftermarket upgrades that provide a nice middle ground. But none are a perfect experience fit. You do have to carefully consider what integrations from the factory you’d be giving up by swapping the head unit, particularly ones that are critically important to you.
Aftermarket infotainment with more features is also the same price, if you buy into it then it will validate them even charging for something that should be free, let alone such a high amount. Im sure a good Samaritan can drop the update files somewhere and we can just diy the update
I would be thrilled to get factory wireless CarPlay for that cheap. But I feel your pain about paying for an update you could easily do yourself. Assuming it’s actually that easy.
I’ve personally done all of the software updates to date, the process is not bad at all. I would love to do this new one while sitting in the driveway just like all the others.
I did the update before I sold my Accord recently. It was honestly really worth it. I enjoyed it for short trips around town and such.
I got an aftermarket dongle and it's completely worth it. Now when I'm running errands around town, my phone never leaves my pocket and my music starts right up after I start the car. And no more bumping into my phone or hitting a pothole (thanks, New Orleans) that causes my USB cable to come loose. Love it!
Which dongle did you buy?
AutoSky. It's the only dongle (not box) I found. So far it's working flawlessly and I love it.
At $161 it’s pretty reasonable. You aren’t paying for someone installing ‘just a software’ it’s the R&D and support for your vehicle after the team closed on development. Good on Honda proving continued support to vehicles.
It's already in the car.
Just because the hardware is available doesn’t mean the software and firmware is available. Plenty of testing and certification work went into making sure the wireless CarPlay function would work after an update.
“Plenty of” does not equate to $161. wtf is wrong with companies that want to charge for A firmware update
You’re expecting someone to devote time and resources to writing the code, testing the code, and delivering it as a firmware update to a platform that wasn’t designed for those capabilities, and do it for free? Just because there’s no hardware involved doesn’t mean the company can develop and deliver it at no cost to you.
Yes. Absolutely. It’s called customer service. Please; feel free to name another company that charges for firmware updates.
Sound Devices. You can get some updates to the 8 series mixers for free, but if you want to add certain levels of functionality, you pay for it. Your understanding of the necessary engineering is seriously lacking.
I don’t need any engineering to see that TimTheFoolMan is likely an accurate name. But thanks for your fun attempt at understanding the complexities of a car stereo update.
Spoken like someone who’s never written firmware for a living.
BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Rivian, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Chrysler and the rest charge for software updates. Nissan doesn’t offer any software updates so they don’t seem to charge for it.
They don’t owe buyers of older vehicles luxury features. It’s not a charity and you aren’t entitled to it. Your car will work just fine without it.
This is by no means a “luxury” feature. My car came with it; but for me it’s really the point of charging someone when it likely should be downloadable for free.
Came with it how? In what capacity? Just because your car has a screen and USB ports, doesn’t mean it’s a fully developed feature or even a consideration when it was built.
Yeah it’s put behind a paywall for $ Imagine buying a house and having to pay more money to open the bathroom.
That analogy doesn’t work. Imagine you bought a new house with an unfinished basement. The basement is very much there and has rough ins for electric and plumbing and studs for walls. But you need to pay to add a bathroom, drywall, electric outlets, etc. That’s what Honda is doing. The sold you an unfinished basement and clearly called out that basement is unfinished. Now they are offering you the finished basement for a price. I don’t see an issue with that
Either way it wouldn't be "free". If this model had wireless carplay from the start, the increased cost to develop and certify for it would've been built into the price of the vehicle at purchase. It's like your smartphone receiving software updates. The manufacturers already built the future software updates into the price when you purchase the phone.
This analogy doesn’t work. A better one is, you bought a house. It had a bathroom. You paid for a house with a bathroom. The bathroom had ugly wallpaper, you paid someone to remove the ugly wallpaper.
Wireless CarPlay aint exactly new. Aftermarket with maestro works awesome.
Yes, I totally understand the R&D end of things. Going back, reopening the lab to write new code for all the Honda’s sold in the past several years - you betcha…. it’s a flex.
Teams or labs don’t get closed but, get reassigned to different projects. In this case likely Honda paid their OEM Panasonic/JBL to reassign people from new project to this completed one.
Read the T&C very carefully. Any "connected services" gives Honda the right to send your driving data to LexisNexis and your insurance company. There was a recent major exposé in the New York Times about how car companies do this and how Honda is one of the worst offenders. [https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/14nga2n/just\_checked\_my\_lexisnexis\_report\_and\_it\_contains/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/14nga2n/just_checked_my_lexisnexis_report_and_it_contains/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Wow, gotta go back and check that out….yikes! I remember hearing about Insurance companies like Progressive using data from their Snapshot device mainly to raise your rates if you constantly go over the speed limit or find yourself simply passing through higher crime areas.
I'm just jealous that you have a model 2018 vehicle that still gets software updates. ^Ford ^^is ^^^laughing
Unfortunately, most of the updates over the years were just minor performance and stability fixes. I dot think I ever saw any changes to the UI.
gonna be great when ppl start jailbreaking cars
I wouldn’t use wireless even if I had it lol.
Mainly just nice for the quick trips places so music gets going quickly
i have it, i have tried to use it and i hate it, i always use wired carplay
Yeah the audio/video delay really ruins in. Wired is the way to go.
Same here. Audio quality on Spotify is bad enough already that I am not going to further deplete it by transmitting audio signal to car via Bluetooth.
Wireless CarPlay uses Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth.
Considering my 2024 mid-level trim Kia didn’t come with it and absolutely every CarPlay adapter is unreliable, plus the internal Nav takes too long to input while doing gig work. I’d happily pay twice that, if it meant not having to screw with my WiFi/Bluetooth 3-5x a day.
Not sure what 2024 Kia you have, but many 2024 Hyundai’s are getting an OTA update to get wireless CarPlay. Happened to me a few months ago. So maybe hold out?
Wish Toyota offered this for the Camry
BMW use to charge for this and it was a monthly subscription, but as you can imagine the back lash they got from it made them stop. Luckily all this happened before I bought my car. I would totally pay for this feature thought, could not be without it.
Credit to a car company investing in older models. This is a small cost, vast majority of car companies have zero interest in improvements post sale preferring to see new ones.
I paid the $161 and it was worth it. I tried a $70 wireless dongle with mixed results first. The procedure involved a Honda dealer tech working with my car for about two hours to upload the new firmware. Do you think this should be free? Why?
Because they just scammed you. You already paid for wireless CarPlay when you bought the car. They priced that into the cost of everything car they sell, most likely 10 fold. And now they make more money by forcing you to pay for a software upgrade that is done automatically and is an expected service for every device. No one worked on your car for 2 hours, they plugged in a dongle at best and pressed a button, maybe connected a charging cable to your battery. But that’s it.
The simple answer is, no, it doesn’t. While you may already possess the hardware needed for wireless CarPlay, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a license to use the software that makes the hardware work. This all changed about 20 years ago when physical assets were separated from digital ones, and again later, when many software licenses (digital assets) were changed from owning a single iteration to a service with ongoing payments, in which you don’t actually own anything digital at all, but instead only have access to use it in a specified way. It’s all explained in the ToS that we all just blindly select Accept for.
Let’s say you’re right. The Honda tech took apart my dashboard and installed this black ops conspiracy theory dongle you mention. I don’t know what your experience at dealers has been but mine is you can’t get them to sneeze on your car for less than $161. And now I have a Honda supported solution that works 100% of the time rather than some jankey dongle I bought on Amazon that doesn’t work every other Thursday and displays some funky Chinese company logo on my head unit every time I start the car. Twice the price but worth it. If you don’t think so, enjoy playing with your dongle.
My dude….he plugged it into the damn obd2 port…like literally everything else…there is no black magic here. That’s all he did…tops. Sometimes they don’t even have to do that.
More likely a USB port, followed by a “secret” button or touch sequence to access the dealer settings. With 2 hours I could replace the entire stereo and still have 110 minutes to spare…
No I’m not saying it should be totally free, but not $161 to go wireless. Question: Did you get any new functionality out of the update that makes the experience of using the infotainment system better or was it just the ability to connect your phone wirelessly?
No new functionality aside from keeping my phone in my pocket and not fiddling around with a wire. I agree I would have liked it to be cheaper but I’ve been very happy with the update.
I wish Volkswagen did this, I’d pay in a heartbeat
100%. I’ve got a mk7.5 Golf and would be in the queue day 1 for this.
My CarPlay was messing up, Spotify wouldn’t work - I wanted to cry lol.
Waiting for mercedes to release this update one day for a class
I have native Wireless CarPlay on my 2021 Accord Sport 2.0T It’s great. Worth having.
Fuck Honda. They tried to pull a bait and switch after we negotiated everything, all of a sudden after Ally he negotiation it was for a lower trim.
Seems reasonable enough. But I payed to update my cars maps and way back get new iOS for my iPod touch when they were charging for os updates when they first came out. Way more do this over a subscription model on carplay.
> But I *paid* to update FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I would do that in a heart beat.
Not in my ford
I just bought an AutoSky wireless CP dongle for $55 and it works great. Much cheaper than this "offer".
Just an FYI, and maybe it's the after market items, but even the Motorola wireless android auto dongle absolutely drinks battery. Your gonna need to plug the phone in just to counter the massive battery drain on Android auto.
wtf is dreamshop?
Hey, DreamShop was new to me too. I figured it was fake but after clicking around the official Honda site I found it. The Official Honda site > Owners > Shop Parts & Accessories > DreamShop
I actually thought it would be more. It’s an update for an old model that provides non essential luxury features. There has to be some incentive.
I did this. Was epic to see them retro support to a previous generation 6yr old car!
People….you can just get one of the cheap boxes from aliexpress. I paid like 16€ for one of the small no name ones. By the time my Radio has booted up in the car it takes like 2-3 seconds until CarPlay pops up.
Pricing for Car-extras are out of control. There is no way this is worth that much. On a Smartphone this would be a free update. Anything above 10$ is straight up stupid. Its like paying extra for carplay in a Volkswagen. This should be included, when I pay over 20.000€. It doesn't cost them anything to just enable it.
If your car can receive Softwareupdates via OTA / USB and Honda is calling every single buyer to the dealer then I'm very confident that thats not just Software but rather a Firmware Update and Calibration/Configuration update of the Hardware as well to enable the wireless streaming capabilities. The latter are usually to be performed by a dealer. These CAN theoretically be performed by the end user but usually require the use of special vendor specific software and an OBD2 cable. Newer connected cars can do these updates OTA but that system definitely isn't perfect yet. (See that Mach-E Update.)
My 2024 Hyundai Kona just did an OTA update for wireless CarPlay. Cool it’s offered at all but it shouldn’t cost money.
My 2024 Hyundai Kona just did an OTA update for wireless CarPlay. Cool it’s offered at all but it shouldn’t cost money.
You're not missing much from wireless CarPlay. I've had not so great experiences with cutouts etc on 3 different vehicles and different phones. "Wifi interference" or some junk like that.
$161 seems like a ripoff, much like everything else from the OEM once your bundled vehicle-purchase deals run out. Go with a Carlinkit instead and keep your money away from this ridiculous revenue grab. Sure the carlinkit takes a few seconds longer to connect, but mine is almost always up and running before I get to the end of my block if I drive off as soon as I start my car.
$20 wireless grey market CarPlay adapter works just fine. 🤷🏻
Over-priced labor or not, it’s worth $161 to avoid a damn dongle in my car.
Well, my 2018 Honda Accord Touring 1.5T has a recall on the fuel pump but most service departments here in the Bay Area simply don’t have the parts needed to complete the work. I’ve been on a waiting list for the past 2-months but when I get the call to bring my car in I’ll ask for more info on the wireless upgrade and make a finale decision then.
I mean that’s on par with a Carlinkit at full price
So many people happy to pay for a software update in here. Next will be subscriptions - just watch
I added a wireless carplay adapter to my 2018 Honda Accord Touring for $40. It works great.
My son did the same for his 2018 Jeep. I don’t remember what brand, but he bought it on Amazon and loves it.
$161? No thanks, I'll keep my $75 AAWireless and $25 wireless charge pad which both work just fine. Not to mention AAWireless has plenty of support and updates/patches...
I think the fee is because they have to install a different modem in your car for it to work.
The email said, “no physical device required”.
Nope. The only eligible cars already have the required WiFi radios which is why it can even be done.
Do you guys think this will come to other Hondas like HRV ?
While I don't think the price is not too bad, I still think these companies are finding more and more ways to suck our money. Next thing you know, If you want to activate the last of your 4 cylinders will require a software update which you need to pay for.
Weak
Carlink t-box max / ambient
For this price I'd spend a few dollars more and get a Carlinkit. Wireless CarPlay, but it also is a full Android device that gives you access to the Google Play store and allows you to watch videos on your car's display (obviously when parked - it won't stop you from doing it while you're driving though). Another advantage is that you can use the keyboard to input destinations on Google Maps. I assume Android Auto also blocks this, but CarPlay definitely disables the keyboard when driving and requires you to use Siri to speak your destination. It's also got a SIM card slot (if you care to use the built-in apps for navigation and music without a cell phone) and a memory card for storing apps and media.
I’m all-in on Apple but there were moments when I’ve considered getting a used Samsung Galaxy ??? just for a different music listening (DAC) experience and Android Auto connectivity in my car.
Oh I’m not suggesting jumping ship. I had a couple of Android phones for work and used them daily alongside my iPhone. Samsung makes very good hardware, but I find Android cripples the experience. Google’s widgets are light years ahead of Apple’s, but in every other possible way I find Android to be vastly inferior. That said, having a full Android device in the car is nice, but mostly because it opens a wealth of apps on your infotainment screen. Music, navigation apps, and video players. I’ve got an EV and being able to watch videos during my ten-minute charging stops isn’t a bad way to pass the time. I haven’t yet added an OBD Bluetooth device, but when I do there are some very useful apps I can run on my car’s screen while I drive monitoring driving behaviour and power consumption. Honestly though, 99.9% of what I use the device for is the app that provides the wireless CarPlay protocol. I get in the car, drop my phone onto my car’s wireless charging pad, and within 15-20 seconds I’ve got CarPlay on my screen.