Future Toyota models will offer in-dash infotainment systems compatible with Ford’s SmartDeviceLink system rather than Apple’s CarPlay, the Japanese automaker announced on Monday.
Seems a bit odd considering Ford just starting adopting Apple’s CarPlay.
Not odd at all. Toyota is adopting SDL, which Ford is making available as an open source platform. Ford is NOT adopting CarPlay over its own platform. It is supporting CarPlay (and Android Auto) using an SDL-based system. In principle, Toyota will be able to do the same thing. More importantly, it is wrong to say Toyota chose Ford over Apple. They are choosing a technology platform that makes it unnecessary for them to choose Apple over Android, or vice versa.
They have different capabilities – SDL allows you to build custom apps as well as get onboard diagnostic information. CarPlay and Android Auto are limited to built in apps, music players and notifications. CarPlay can potentially allow car manufacturers to expose additional functionality, but that’s not (currently) something available to developers.
I don’t
think that any auto mfg will want to be beholden to either Apple of Google. They’re interested in selling their cars to the broadest markets available.
how would offering optional mobile support for the two leading mobile platforms make them beholden? be specific.
I’d feel a lot better about their “in house proprietary systems” (since the point of SDL is to let the carmaker run their own UI) if I hadn’t seen how godawful Toyota’s UI was, from my parents’ Camry Hybrid.
(I see no reason why they shouldn’t be able to support SDL, CarPlay, and Android Auto, honestly.)