Apple CarPlay wants to repeat this new Android Auto characteristic
A saying I’ve heard is that when you drive an electrical automobile, it is onerous to return to a fuel mannequin. That is very true in my expertise. Gasoline autos are method noisier, require extra upkeep, and may’t produce the identical torque. Even the 2018 Nissan Leaf I leased in Texas was able to out-accelerating gas-powered sports activities vehicles, if solely when its Eco mode was off.
Each Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are tailored to the EV world, however CarPlay does appear to be lagging behind barely. The issue really lies with the platform’s built-in navigation software program, Apple Maps. I am anticipating Apple to play catch-up within the subsequent few months — for now, although, Android Auto is briefly within the lead.
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Google
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Tensor G5
Android Auto’s lead in EV journey planning
Extra information, higher driving
On the floor, the CarPlay/Apple Maps and Android Auto/Google Maps combos are largely equal in the case of planning longer EV journeys. In both, when you set a vacation spot, you may get urged charging stops based mostly in your present and anticipated cost ranges, with ETAs adjusted accordingly. This issues as a result of whereas vary and charger entry are enhancing yearly, a 20-minute cease remains to be thought-about “quick,” and you’ll’t assure a suitable station shall be proper across the nook whenever you want it.
The place Google is pulling forward is its use of AI. If you join Google Maps to Android Auto, it is not simply extracting battery information out of your automobile. It is also integrating Google’s information on the load and battery sizes of over 350 EV fashions. As soon as you’ve got recognized the automobile you are driving, that information is analyzed towards a large number of things, together with not simply site visitors and obtainable stations, however issues like climate and elevation. These final two gadgets can have a serious influence on vary. Excessive warmth or chilly decreases it. Steep roads have the same impact, however declines will really lengthen mileage, particularly with regenerative braking.
Apple really does have related information evaluation occurring. Google’s tech appears to be extra constantly obtainable, nevertheless, and that will make all of the distinction. You should not should personal a selected EV mannequin to get a practical appraisal of your journey itinerary. Apple’s estimates are conservative sufficient that you simply’re unlikely to finish up stranded — however vary anxiousness is an actual factor, and nobody likes discovering that the leeway they thought they’d is non-existent. Alternately, it might be that you have sufficient vary to cut back the variety of stops you want, and you are not being informed so.
One of many methods I do know CarPlay might do a greater job is what’s coming with iOS 27, anticipated in September 2026. That would be the first model of iOS to help route sharing, permitting autos to instantly provide station waypoints and battery estimates based mostly on a route you’ve got plugged into Apple Maps (or one other navigation app). Which may not be needed with information much like what Android Auto already consists of.
That is ignoring Google’s best benefit: the sheer quantity of information integrated into each aspect of Google Maps. The corporate’s AI fashions can consider exercise patterns at charging stations, and can even modify voice steerage based mostly on person opinions, serving to you find chargers which may in any other case be troublesome to trace down when you’re onsite. We might see these two issues come to CarPlay because of Siri AI and Apple Intelligence — but it surely’s not formally within the playing cards but.
Must you purchase an Android cellphone for higher EV driving?
A private resolution
Strictly talking, you’re going to get improved EV journey planning with Android Auto. However CarPlay is already ok for many circumstances, and it is solely going to enhance from right here on in. In the event you’re already an iPhone proprietor, it is seemingly not value dropping $800 or extra on the hope that you simply would possibly higher optimize your charging on lengthy roadtrips. Inside your native metropolis, you will not use this tech in any respect until you actually cannot plug in at residence.
One other elephant within the room is that with some EVs, it is wiser to make use of their first-party navigation programs. These will mechanically be optimized for the automobile you are driving and the charging tech you want, presumably even together with station standing. They’ll have interface quirks that make them extra awkward to make use of, but when accuracy is a very powerful issue, solely Google Maps comes near difficult them. Certainly, some EVs (like Rivians) are based mostly round that app already.