Shane Cole
Ferrari and Apple made their tie-up official Tuesday as iOS marketing chief Greg Joswiak joined Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo on stage at the Geneva Motor Show to introduce CarPlay support in an updated four-seat Ferrari FF grand tourer.
The 80-year-old Italian marque cited Apple as a "key partner for innovation" during their presentation, according to macprime.ch. Ferrari is the last of Apple's three launch partners to show off their CarPlay implementation after Mercedes-Benz and Volvo did so on Monday.
"CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car," Greg Joswiak said earlier this week. "iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we're thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva."
Perhaps fittingly, the FF has marked a series of firsts for Maranello, Italy-based Ferrari. In addition to being the automaker's first CarPlay-equipped vehicle, the 651-bhp coupe was also Ferrari's first all-wheel-drive sports car.
The presence of Apple executives is not unusual for the launch of such a high-profile partnership, though Joswiak's choice as the company's emissary is somewhat unexpected given other high-level ties between the two companies. Apple Software and services boss Eddy Cue, under whom CarPlay is developed, occupies a seat on Ferrari's board of directors.
Apple first unveiled plans for CarPlay, then known as iOS in the Car, during last year's World Wide Developers conference. The rebranded system officially launched this week and will make its way into vehicles from Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo throughout 2014.
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93 Comments
Ferrari finally figures out that if they are going to associate their brand with a computer manufacturer, Apple is the one to go with and Acer only cheapens their brand.
There is much more to CarPlay than I thought. http://www.engadget.com/embed-5min/?sid=577&playList=518144341 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3_eLgKohHw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqgrGho4aYM We may have an iPhone scale revolution on our hands. I think the killer app is SIRI. People will use it a lot more in the car. Imagine asking your car: What is the integral from 2 to 11 of X squared plus 3 X :) And then boom get an answer within seconds. Is the Star Trek era upon us? Time will tell.
[quote name="AppleSauce007" url="/t/162403/apples-greg-joswiak-appears-onstage-with-ferrari-to-introduce-new-carplay-equipped-grand-tourer#post_2481137"]There is much more to CarPlay than I thought. http://www.engadget.com/embed-5min/?sid=577&playList=518144341 We may have an iPhone scale revolution on our hands. I think the killer app is SIRI. People will use it a lot more in the car. Imagine asking your car: What is the integral from 2 to 11 of X squared plus 3 X :) And then boom get an answer within seconds. Is the Star Trek era is upon us? Time will tell.[/quote]My iPhone sits in a cradle (charging) on the dash. I use Siri a lot and i am always impressed how well it works, dictating texts (I am the weak link), or opening apps or pulsing music, or any other question I have. The biggest annoyance so far is that when I want know where a country is located it shows me the capital, not the country on a map. Hardly a deal breaker :)
i hope they sell something that can integrate this to you factory system...
More to it than I thought as well. Looks nice.. however, still not paying massive money just to have a car with it. If they come out with 3rd party car systems with it, fine.. I'll seriously look.. but I'm going with the car I want first, car system second.. I'm getting an Elio from Elio Motors (www.eliomotors.com) in Q1 2015.. maybe some 3rd party options will be available then.. Hard to turn down 84 MPG highway at a sticker price of $6800 new ... At that price, I can afford to add stuff later. ;)