Wireless CarPlay?

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MxRacer965

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Wireless car play if I recall correctly is not something that could just be "turned on" easily. It utilizes a combination of WiFi and Bluetooth and requires a vehicle to have WiFi built in. Then just because WiFi is built in I would imagine there are other integration points that need to be considered to tightly integrate with the stereo system, etc. If it were simple, reliable, and cost effective I'm sure it would be prevalent. Since it is not at BMW even charged a fee for it that furthers my thoughts that it is *NOT* a trivial feature to offer. At least not today. In a couple years perhaps...
 

greg77008

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Wanted to update the forum on a wireless Carplay solution I recently ordered and installed. The product is called "Carlinkit" and the device I purchased is their second generation model (2.0). Basically the dongle plugs into the vehicle USB port and registers as a Carplay device, while wirelessly accessing your phone information. I was very skeptical as a couple of these devices have very negative reviews but I must say this one has worked almost flawlessly thus far. Only a handful of very short "audio skips" after five days of use. The last couple of days it has had zero issues during my work commute. It is very responsive, all of the steering wheel controls work, the audio quality seems to be on par with the wired Carplay option. It takes about 25 seconds to "kick-in" once I start the vehicle.

Definitely a great option if you despise always having to take your phone out and dealing with the lightning cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086JN1SGX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

KJ-Idaho

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Ok. Not familiar enough yet. But . . .

when I plug in, obviously I get a pretty full suite of car play apps.

sometimes, unplugged, I can make calls, request songs to be played, and send messages.

but, this latter condition doesn’t “always” occur. To make it work, I sometimes have to sto/restart the car, or, reboot the phone

dreckkk!
 

aggiegrad05

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I just read an article about carplay2air as well. There are some drawbacks (apparently there is a bit of lag, some infrequent audio glitches, your track info doesn’t display, and your steering wheel “next” and “back” button won’t work), and those are pretty significant. But it looks like a decent option otherwise.


https://apple.news/AACjDFeVIQ3O9SqFBR4IYaA
I just picked up the CarPlay2Air and it is the bees' knees.

The 2021 F150 loaner I had while my cam phasers were being fixed had wireless CarPlay, and I knew I could never go back.

I have been running it for 3 days now and it is FABULOUS. Set up takes about 90 seconds and after that initial setup, my phone automatically connects every time I fire up the vehicle (takes about 5 seconds). I have yet to have any lag or audio drops, and the forward/back buttons on my steering wheel DO WORK (contrary to what I had previously read). Honestly, I have not noticed any difference between "normal" CarPlay and wireless CarPlay running through the CarPlay2Air (although some of the buttons on the screen are blue now instead of green...weird).

I have 0 complaints and absolutely recommend it.

(One warning: if you search for the product on Amazon, several cheaper products that look comparable come up. DONT BUY THOSE. They are Android products and will NOT work, regardless of what the Amazon product page says.)
 

Lghtspeedz

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I bought the Carlinkit 2.0 wireless adapter. I was lured by the convenience. I read some reviews that said these are glitchy but Carlinkit appeared to be a bit further along in development. At some point CPlay2Air and Carlinkit have diverged, because they used to be the same. My experience with Carlinkit 2.0 has not been positive but I do have it working now. There are major compatibility issues with these dongles and Sync 3.4. Anytime you try to use Siri or voice commands it crashes. Carlinkit support was kind of non-existent when I asked about this problem. I did some reading on the macrumors forum and found an archive site with all the firmware updates. I figured out the solution was to go to an older firmware version. Rolling it back was a giant pain in the ****. It almost didn’t even work and was EXTREMELY fickle. Anyway, if you do this and have Sync 3.4 be prepared to go backwards to an August 2020 version of the firmware.

With all of that said once I got through that it works pretty well. There is the occasional audio skip but not much. It takes maybe 20 seconds or so boot up. But it is nice to drop my phone in the wireless charger and have CarPlay do it’s thing. It does get warm so I plug it in for long trips when the wireless convenience doesn’t matter to me there. At the moment it does what it’s supposed to do but I don’t think it’s extremely robust. Just beware what you’re getting into, especially if you are in Sync 3.4.
 

aggiegrad05

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I just picked up the CarPlay2Air and it is the bees' knees.

The 2021 F150 loaner I had while my cam phasers were being fixed had wireless CarPlay, and I knew I could never go back.

I have been running it for 3 days now and it is FABULOUS. Set up takes about 90 seconds and after that initial setup, my phone automatically connects every time I fire up the vehicle (takes about 5 seconds). I have yet to have any lag or audio drops, and the forward/back buttons on my steering wheel DO WORK (contrary to what I had previously read). Honestly, I have not noticed any difference between "normal" CarPlay and wireless CarPlay running through the CarPlay2Air (although some of the buttons on the screen are blue now instead of green...weird).

I have 0 complaints and absolutely recommend it.

(One warning: if you search for the product on Amazon, several cheaper products that look comparable come up. DONT BUY THOSE. They are Android products and will NOT work, regardless of what the Amazon product page says.)
CarPlay2 Air is running a "back to school" sale. $99.
 

Jamaican Cruiser

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Just about every car manufacturer is having issues with the wireless charger, if they are angled like Ford does. Until they find a way around physics this will be the case. Vehicles hit bumps and when they do the things in them move, so if you phone is angled and you hit a bump, it is GOING to fall off. If it is flat, you have some chance if if bouncing up and landing right back where intended.

My 15 year old nephew figured this out, so I would have expected all these brilliant auto engineers to have the smarts enough to do so as well ... :mfr_omg:
 
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