Katie Marsal
CarPlay, Apple's forthcoming vehicle infotainment center standard, will feature support for Major League Baseball's At Bat application for iPhone at launch, along with other radio services like iHeart Radio, Beats, Spotify, and Stitcher.
Support for MLB.com At Bat is now listed on Apple's official CarPlay website. In addition to the aforementioned iPhone apps, Apple's "Podcasts" app is also compatible.
The site also lists Alpine and Pioneer as companies that are set to launch aftermarket CarPlay units for older cars. Pioneer will add CarPlay support through updates to its current lineup of NEX infotainment systems, while Alpine will launch entirely new products.
CarPlay will also appear in preinstalled units on select 2014 vehicles from Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Ferrari. Future support has been pledged from a number of major automakers, including Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, BMW, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Land Rover.
In addition to support for select third-party apps, CarPlay will also come with built-in compatibility with Apple's native Phone, Music, Maps, and Messages applications. A "Now Playing" application will also be a part of the default installation.
When CarPlay products launch later this year, they will support the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5. Connection to a head unit is required through a Lightning cable
Christine McKee
Charles Martin
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7 Comments
Hopefully this is just for streaming audio or this will be a major distraction to drivers.
Anyone stupid enough to watch video while driving almost deserves to crash. I say almost because there’s no guarantee they won’t take out someone who isn’t stupid in the process.
Hopefully this is just for streaming audio or this will be a major distraction to drivers.
There's no mention of the MLB.TV component, which is the separate paid streaming video option.
This is likely just audio, so a Yankees fan can drive around Miami and listen to the Yankee home radio feed. You still need to pay MLB for radio coverage, I think it's $20 for the At Bat regular season (which includes GameDay and audio), whereas MLB.TV is $120 and only offers out-of-market games.
So far, sadly, Carplay appears to be a bit of bust. I am truly disappointed with the uptake as reflected in the available choice of car companies thus far.
Car companies tend to deploy new technology very slowly. The slow uptake is likely a more accurate barometer of the auto industry's plodding tendency, rather than a true indicator of CarPlay's potential growth.
Remember, this is a new initiative and auto manufacturers do not release brand new models of all vehicles on a yearly basis. Also, the entertainment system engineers at some companies may be more competent and/or swift-acting than others.
Looking at the feature set of standard factory head units, one should not assume rapid deployment of new technology from automotive manufacturers.