2021 CarPlay vs Android Auto! 3 x head-to-head tests & walkthrough
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00G'day, I'm Paul. Today we're doing something a little bit different. Some of you may know that
00:04I'm a bit of a tech nerd. I've been a tech nerd for years. In fact, I found our first computer
00:08receipt the other day. It's quite comical to see some of those numbers that were high end back
00:12then. What I wanted to do today is a comparison between Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This
00:17technology is now fitted to so many new cars on the market, I thought it'd be worth investigating
00:21which system is better than the other and how they both work. Today we're going to do a comparison
00:26of these two bits of software using the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max and then the Samsung Galaxy S20
00:33Plus. Each have their respective new versions of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto installed,
00:38and we're going to be using the Skoda Superb which offers both of those platforms. So a caveat here,
00:43yes, I use an iPhone, but I have owned Samsungs before and I just love playing with technology,
00:49so I'm going to keep this as fair as I possibly can. Now this is how it's going to work. I'm
00:52going to run you through the features of CarPlay and Android Auto, then I've got a set of tests
00:57lined up to compare the two. If you do want to skip directly ahead to the tests, you can use
01:01the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just use the chapters below,
01:05and if you haven't done so already, make sure you hit subscribe and press the bell icon. That'll
01:08tell you every single time we sit down to play with some tech. Let's kick things off with Android
01:14Auto. This is available on your Samsung phone or a phone with Android. Just to be 100% sure,
01:20just double check before you buy your phone whether it comes with the Android Auto technology.
01:25Likewise with your car, some cars will do Android Auto, some will do Apple CarPlay,
01:29or some will do both. We have put a link in the description below where you can find out more
01:33details about the next car that you want to buy or whether your phone is compatible. Now Android
01:38Auto works on wired and also wireless as well, and I'll step you through the process of getting
01:43everything connected. So USB goes into the car and then the other end plugs into the phone. Now
01:48you may already know this, but I think it's worth going through it anyway. Continue, grant it
01:52permissions to connect. It'll make a few noises, and Bob's your uncle, Android Auto is now connected
01:58and running. So you'll see here on the main screen, all of your apps are configured in rows
02:03like this, and then you scroll up and down. The good news here with Android Auto is that you have
02:08a whole lot more freedom in terms of the applications that you can run on this system.
02:12So Google allows a whole lot more than you would perhaps in the Apple system, and that means you
02:16have a lot more connectivity and a lot more options to run apps that you might find useful in
02:21your day-to-day life. So what's the whole advantage here? Well the advantage is that this is effectively
02:26an entirely new operating system. This operates independently of your vehicle. That means that
02:31when you go to stuff like Google Maps, it is using the car to help with reception, but outside of that
02:35it's using the power of Google. So your maps are newer, you get more traffic information, and
02:40arguably the best part is for cars without decent voice recognition systems, instead of leaning on
02:44the car's voice recognition system, you're able to forward commands through your car and then
02:48they're processed on your phone. Your phone is far better at understanding what you're doing, and
02:52you're able to send messages, make calls a whole lot easier, and we'll be testing some of these
02:55features a little later on to see which system works best. Down the bottom of the screen here
02:59you have some shortcut buttons. So this accesses your voice control. This uses the Hey Google service.
03:06You can hear it listening to me there. This button here accesses your notifications if you do have
03:11any. This is some of the apps that you have open, and this opens up the last app that you had running
03:16or goes back to the home screen. So it uses both of those functions. If we jump over here to settings,
03:22you can see some of the things that you can change within the actual Android Auto menu.
03:26There's not a great deal you can change here. Most of it is actually done on the phone. I'll show you
03:29what that looks like in a second, but you've also got access to phone functions here. While you can
03:33dial numbers, you're better off just using the voice recognition, but this is a good way to find
03:37your call history if you are driving and you just want to be able to dial back the last person that
03:40you spoke to a second last. All of that information will be easy to access here on the screen, and then
03:44you have the rest of the favorite apps that you have installed. Now jumping over here to the phone,
03:49so you have a lot more control over the settings here on the phone. If you go to settings and then
03:53we find Android Auto, this shows you which car is connected at the moment, which cars you've
03:58previously had connected. You've got a help screen there as well, and then a few more settings in
04:02terms of how the phone will interact with the car. But have a look at this secret menu. If you tap
04:06this 10 times, it'll ask you if you want to enable the development menu. You hit OK. Now you go up the
04:15top here, select developer settings. This is where you're actually able to set whether you want
04:20wireless and also what resolution this pumps out at. So it can go all the way up to 1080p,
04:24which means you can get a super high resolution display on your car and you're able to get the
04:29phone to dictate what displays on the car as opposed to vice versa. So there are a lot of
04:34functions here and a lot of customizability, and knowing Apple, we probably won't have the ability
04:39to change as many settings as we can here on the Android device. Righto, moving on to Apple CarPlay.
04:45This is available on all Apple phone devices. Same story here, it's either wireless or wired. If you
04:51want to see a full list of the cars that are compatible with wired and wireless Apple CarPlay,
04:56just go down to the description. So let me show you how this works. We get the USB and plug that
05:00in. Then we plug the other end into our phone. If it's a wired system, that will come up saying
05:06that it's trying to establish a connection. It'll come up asking you whether you want to allow the
05:10car to use CarPlay while your phone's locked. I always go allow because otherwise you'll need
05:14to pull over each time to unlock your phone when messages and stuff come through. So you can see
05:18here that this screen is super high resolution, just like that Android Auto system, but it's a
05:23different layout. Instead of having rows of apps that you scroll up and down, you scroll left to
05:28right here. So it's very similar to the phone screen in the way that it's set up.
05:32And then they have a home screen here that has your map and then also shortcuts to music,
05:37navigation and voice control. So just like the Android Auto system, this has its own type of
05:42voice recognition. It's called Siri and you access that by pushing and holding this button here.
05:49Or alternatively, you can use your car's voice recognition button to forward commands through.
05:54It's the same story there. It sends them through the phone and it's processed by the cloud. So you
05:58get a whole lot more accuracy in terms of the commands and how they go through. Unfortunately,
06:02though, you don't have much freedom in terms of the applications that can run on Apple CarPlay.
06:07So Apple is in charge of what it approves here. And there's not a huge list. Yes,
06:11the apps are expanding. And with the latest version, which is iOS 14, Apple has integrated
06:16the ability for developers to come up with apps that service EVs, restaurants, food delivery.
06:21That is going to become more and more critical now in terms of delivering features on CarPlay.
06:26In terms of shortcuts, on the side here you have the clock, how your phone is connected to the
06:30network and the strength, the apps that you've recently opened, settings shortcut and then a
06:35button for home. So if you're in your settings menu, you press that, that'll take you straight
06:38back to home. Now, in terms of settings, you have a little bit more flexibility here over and above
06:42Android Auto for the phone settings while you're connected to the car. You can determine here
06:47whether you want to enable do not disturb while you're driving. That'll basically send a text to
06:50people if you're driving and they try and text you. So you're not going to get distracted. All
06:55your text messages appear here as they come through as well if you don't have that enabled.
06:59New to Apple now with CarPlay is the ability to set different wallpapers. So if you don't like
07:04the standard design, you can pick a different wallpaper. But outside of that, there's not
07:08really a whole lot you can do with this. It is very much as Apple says it is. What Apple does
07:13have coming though, which excites me and is kind of already available on my Tesla with the app that
07:19Tesla gives you, but Apple has developed a system called CarKey and the first car to get this
07:24technology will be the BMW 5 Series and it'll allow you to approach the car with your phone
07:28only to unlock the car. You can send keys to other people. So if your partner has lost their keys,
07:33you can forward a key to them and set expiry dates and that kind of thing. Now, in terms of the
07:37settings menu on the actual phone, I'll show you what that looks like. So if we go to settings and
07:41just search for CarPlay, you can see here there isn't really a great deal. It just tells you the
07:45cars that you've recently been connected to. So at the moment we're connected to the Skoda.
07:50It just tells you here whether you've allowed CarPlay to work while unlocked and it also lets
07:53you customize features such as the apps that appear on the screen as Apple adds them. Okay,
08:00here's the bit I've been waiting for, the comparison test. I have three tests lined up.
08:05I have a call to my ethnic auntie. She has a very tricky name. So I'll be keen to see if these
08:10systems can actually pick up her name. I want to find an EV charger near my home. So that'll be
08:16another test to see how well not only the voice recognition works, but how good the search
08:20functionality is. And finally, I want to go somewhere, a place I'd rather be. Sunny Northern
08:25Territory this time of year would be fantastic. So for each of these tests, I'm going to use voice
08:29recognition. We've got the Apple phone hooked up first. Let's give this a shot. First up, let's
08:33call my auntie Blazhenka Shecherov. It's a nice ethnic name. Here we go. Call Blazhenka Shecherov.
08:44Calling Blazhenka Seserov mobile.
08:50Okay, perfect. So that worked. It picked it up, although it was read back to me in a very strange
08:55way. Let's see how it goes on the Android device. Call Blazhenka Shecherov.
09:04Not sure how to help with call Blazhenka's chat off.
09:08Okay, that didn't work. Let's try once more. Call Blazhenka Shecherov.
09:16Calling Blazhenka Seserov mobile. Okay, there we go. That worked. I just needed to say it a little
09:21slower, but I think the Apple won that one. Okay, test two. I'm an EV driver. I want to know where
09:27the nearest ChargeFox charging station is near my place. So I'm going to give this a shot.
09:34Find a ChargeFox charging station in Caulfield, Victoria.
09:40One option is ChargeFox on Chebot Terrace in Ocean Grove.
09:44Let me know if I should call one of them. I'll get directions for you.
09:47Nope, that isn't going to work. So for those of you who don't live near me,
09:50that's nowhere near me. Let me try Google Maps instead. We'll give this a shot.
09:57Find a ChargeFox charging station in Caulfield, Victoria.
10:03Boom, there it is. That is the one near my house. Okay, so it did work. It just needs Google Maps.
10:13Apple Maps is pretty terrible. So you can set that as the default search,
10:17and that is what I would be recommending. Let's try it out on the Android.
10:21Find a ChargeFox charging station in Caulfield, Victoria.
10:26Showing results for Find a ChargeFox charging station in Caulfield, Victoria.
10:31That's really cool. I like that. So you can see the charging station there,
10:36but the best bit is it actually shows you the charging types available plus a support phone
10:42number. That is seriously cool. So both of these have used Google Maps, but the results
10:47are so much better on the Android. The search is better as well because I don't have to then
10:51Android. The search is better as well because I don't have to then go and manually specify
10:56Google Maps. So that is a win for Android Auto for that test.
11:00Final test. I want to go somewhere that's nicer than Melbourne at the moment,
11:04so I've picked Bitter Springs in Northern Territory. It's a bit of a drive,
11:08but let's see if we can find our way there. Take me to Bitter Springs in Northern Territory.
11:16Getting directions to Bitter Springs, Arizona, the United States.
11:22Um, yeah, okay. So we can't get directions there because that is in a different country that we
11:27can't drive to because there's a whole lot of water between Australia and the US. So that is
11:32a fail there. Let me try what I did last time with Google Maps instead. I'll see
11:36if that makes any difference. Take me to Bitter Springs, Northern Territory.
11:45There we go. That's actually worked. Okay, so Apple Maps is not helping
11:49the team here, so that is a fail for Apple CarPlay. Let's try it on the Android.
11:55Take me to Bitter Springs, Northern Territory.
12:01Navigating to Bitter Springs. Boom. That's taking me where I want to go as well. So,
12:06Android Auto. Actually way better than I thought it was going to be. Righto, so one win to Apple,
12:12two wins to Android Auto. Okay, so look, this wasn't a very scientific test, and if you're an
12:16Apple fanboy or a Samsung Android fanboy, don't get too tied up. Don't get your knickers in a
12:21twist. We're just having some fun here. I think the biggest letdown here is Apple Maps. It's
12:26clearly just not a very good system. It's trying to send me to Arizona. There's like a massive body
12:30of water between Australia and the US, so that's clearly not going to work. Whereas if you set the
12:34default to Google Maps, it'll have the same functionality as the Android did. But it goes
12:39to show you, these phones are now so powerful. I love the fact that you can simply plug this into
12:43the car and you extend the functionality of your infotainment system, so you don't need to spend
12:47mega bucks on a car to get good infotainment. Most new cars on the market now come with this
12:52technology, which means you can easily plug it up and extend it and be able to do things without
12:57taking your eyes off the road. I really love this stuff. Now, let me know in the comments section
13:01below, which one do you use and which do you prefer? Do you like Apple CarPlay or do you
13:05prefer Android Auto? Let me know if you found any cool apps for both of these that you are using as
13:09well. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you share it. Also press the like button and
13:14if you haven't done so already, press subscribe and the bell icon. It's going to tell you every
13:18single time we do one of these fun tech things. Let me know what else we can test with these
13:22phones and cars. I'm keen to get into a bit more of this stuff. So thank you so much for watching
13:27and until next time, take it easy.