Perhaps not surprisingly, given our target audience, the most-read news item on just-auto this week was about a Geneva new product roll-out, but it wasn’t a new car.
While news of the new 650S from British home team McLaren (who apparently helped our winter Olympians with their bobsled designs) certainly attracted eyeballs, the one that really drew the crowd was Apple’s simultaneous launch of CarPlay (‘iOS in the car‘) with Volvo, Ferrari and Mercedes. The latter was also at some pains to stress that an Android alternative was in the works and would be launched as soon as possible.
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As most smartphone addicts now know, many new cars on sale these days have at least a basic Bluetooth connection so, after a bit of faffing about, you can ‘pair’ up the phone, make hands-free calls and, if you’re lucky, play music files direct from the phone. Even if there’s no Bluetooth, there may be a USB port that connects iPhone or Android to much the same effect. I’ve sampled quite a few of these systems and they mostly work well but you do run into the odd glitch due to phone and car system incompatibility.
Having a full blown iOS (or, later, Android) operating system in the car, so the dash display pretty much mirrors what’s on the home screens of your smartphone or tablet really moves things to a new level. The three images we included in the CarPlay launch story show the different approaches the three launch automakers have taken to style, presentation and usability (including voice and steering wheel control). Volvo’s new portrait display, combining both the CarPlay icons and separate car information courtesy of the carmaker’s latest software, shows just what can be done. I also suspect app developers are salivating at the additional opportunities opening up in this latest ‘connected car‘ development.
As to actual new cars and other news from Geneva, as usual, we have combined our coverage into one handy take-home pack here. The two most interesting cars, pour moi were the new rear-engine Renault Twingo (because it shares its new platform with Daimler’s redesigned Smart and BMW’s first front-driver, the 2 Active Tourer, an ideal Roberts Familymobile.
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Sadly, I’m old enough to remember earlier, rear engine Renaults all the way back to the 4CV (1947-61), and the 60s and 70s Dauphine, 8 and 10. So the wheel has turned full circle but, thankfully, weight distribution, suspension design – and rust proofing – technology have all moved on a bit over the decades…
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By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
