Apple Rolls Out CarPlay Giving Drivers a Smarter, Safer & More Fun Way to Use iPhone in the Car

CarPlay Premieres with Leading Auto Manufacturers at the Geneva International Motor Show

GENEVA―March 3, 2014―Apple® today announced that leading auto manufacturers are rolling out CarPlay, the smarter, safer and more fun way to use iPhone® in the car. CarPlay gives iPhone users an incredibly intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access messages with just a word or a touch. Users can easily control CarPlay from the car’s native interface or just push-and-hold the voice control button on the steering wheel to activate Siri® without distraction. Vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo will premiere CarPlay to their drivers this week, while additional auto manufacturers bringing CarPlay to their drivers down the road include BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp. 

“CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing. “iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we’re thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva.”

Apple has led consumer technology integration in the car for more than a decade. CarPlay brings your car and iPhone together for a thoughtful experience that lets drivers focus on driving, while also tapping into everything they want to do with their iPhone. 

Once iPhone is connected to a vehicle with CarPlay integration, Siri helps you easily access your contacts, make calls, return missed calls or listen to voicemails. When incoming messages or notifications arrive, Siri provides an eyes-free experience by responding to requests through voice commands, by reading drivers’ messages and letting them dictate responses or simply make a call.

CarPlay makes driving directions more intuitive by working with Maps to anticipate destinations based on recent trips via contacts, emails or texts, and provides routing instructions, traffic conditions and ETA. You can also simply ask Siri and receive spoken turn-by-turn directions, along with Maps, which will appear on your car’s built-in display. 

CarPlay gives drivers access to all of their music, podcasts, audiobooks and iTunes Radio℠ with easy navigation through listening choices from the car’s built-in controls or simply by asking Siri to pull up what you’d like to hear. CarPlay also supports select third-party audio apps including Spotify and iHeartRadio, so you can listen to your favorite radio services or sports broadcast apps while driving.

Pricing & Availability
Apple CarPlay is available as an update to iOS 7 and works with Lightning-enabled iPhones, including iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5. CarPlay will be available in select cars shipping in 2014.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Press Contacts: 
Christine Monaghan
Apple
cmonaghan@apple.com
+1 (408) 974-8850

Adam Howorth
Apple
adamh@apple.com
+44 207 184 1202

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iPhone, Siri and iTunes Radio are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/03/03Apple-Rolls-Out-CarPlay-Giving-Drivers-a-Smarter-Safer-More-Fun-Way-to-Use-iPhone-in-the-Car.html

Automakers Hope to Make Money on Used EV Batteries - Technology Review

"At $10,000 a piece, electric-car batteries are too expensive to throw out or recycle into scrap materials. And even after a decade of use, when they can't perform well enough to meet the vehicle's demands, they could still be valuable for other uses. Nissan and GM have both recently announced ways they might make some money from them.

Many issues remain unresolved, not the least of which is whether the automakers would need to buy back the batteries from car owners, or whether dealers would simply lease the battery rather than sell it, which would allow the car company to reclaim it for secondary uses later on."

Automakers Hope to Make Money on Used EV Batteries - Technology Review

No, GM Didn't 'Lie' About The Volt, The Press Got It Wrong

How GM "Lied" About The Electric Car

First pre-production Opel Ampera rolls off GM's assembly line in Michigan

Vauxhall / Opel Ampera

The Chevy Volt had its time to shine awhile back when the first pre-production examples rolled off the lines. Now the attention turns to the Opel Ampera as it hits the same milestone. Late last week, the first pre-production 2012 Opel Ampera sprung to life after making the trip down the line at General Motors' Warren, MI facility.

Read the full story by Eric Loveday at autoblog green

Think Electric is back!

Think Electric is back in a big way after GM invested in the company. Fittingly announced around the New York Auto Show, the company has revealed that it will begin selling its Think City -- one of the planet's first highway-capable electric vehicles, it'll have you know! -- in New York and "other select cities" later on in 2010.

Hummer Plugin Hybrid Gets 100+ MPG, Kicks Prius Butt

The modded Hummer gets 268 hp, has a 40 mile all-electric range, and a fuel-efficiency of over 100 mpg.

The V-8 combustion engine has been replaced by a small stand-alone 4 cylinder 2.0L engine which is only connected to the 100 kW Symetron PM Synchronous generator, and not the drive system. The engine is used only generate electricity and recharge the batteries when the vehicle drives beyond its 40 mile battery range and the lithium ion batteries are spent.

read more | digg story

Segway & GM reinvent urban transportation

GM has partnered with Segway for a project called P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility). This electrically powered two-seat prototype has only two wheels and according to GM allows people to travel faster and with lower cost around cities.

read more | digg story

1000s of GM Workers Get Company Cars & Gas

"General Motors continues to slash costs. But even as the company asks for more taxpayer loans, there's one perk GM refuses to give up: a company car and company-paid gas for about 8,000 white-collar employees.

Kleinbaum says it's one thing for a company to offer such a generous perk when it's making tons of money, but GM lost more than $30 billion last year. The company has already received more than $13 billion in taxpayer loans to avoid bankruptcy and is asking for up to $16 billion more.

GM insists its employees appreciate the impact of high fuel prices, but one current GM staffer interviewed for this story said the perk does blind some people. He recalled that when gas spiked last summer, a colleague complained.

It wasn't because of the cost. It was because he had to swipe his credit card twice to fill up the tank of his big SUV.

A former GM economist estimates that last year alone, the automaker spent nearly $12 million on fuel for its staff."

read more | digg story

Exclusive: Jay Leno on the Bailout

Once you Lose American Manufacturing, It’s Gone Forever. In an exclusive interview with PM, Jay Leno gives his take on the auto bailout.

I think we should bail them out. To me it’s like class warfare. The white-collar guys get a bailout and the blue-collar guys don’t? That’s crazy. You know, I’d rather help a guy with a wrench in his hand than some guy sitting in front of a keyboard.

We’ve given the banks $700 billion. Does it seem like anything has actually happened with that money? No. But when a factory closes, boy, you’ll see the effect of that right away. You’ll see towns go under and you’ll see lives ruined. That town will never be a manufacturing center again. At best those old buildings will become a mall or a Wal-Mart.

I look at it this way: I don’t necessarily want to loan my brother-in-law money, but he’s family. To me, GM, Ford, Chrysler and the suppliers that go along with them are our family.

We barely make anything in this country anymore as it is. And once you lose this manufacturing infrastructure, it’s pretty much gone forever.

read more | digg story

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The Chinese Want To Buy the Big 3 Automakers

It appears that the Chinese car makers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire the Big 3: "A take-over of a large overseas auto maker would fit perfectly into China's plans. As reported before, China has realized that its export chances are slim without unfettered access to foreign technology. The brand cachet of Chinese cars abroad is, shall we say, challenged. The Chinese could easily export Made-in-China VWs, Toyotas, Buicks. If their joint venture partner would let them. The solution: Buy the joint venture partner. Especially, when he's in deep trouble.

At current market valuations (GM is worth less than Mattel) the Chinese government can afford to buy GM with petty cash. Even a hundred billion $ would barely dent China's more than $2t in currency reserves. For nobody in the world would buying GM and (while they are at it) Chrysler make more sense than for the Chinese. Overlap? What overlap? They would gain instant access to the world's markets with accepted brands, and proven technology."

read more | digg story

Will the Chevy Volt save the world?

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Given the prolonged drum roll of publicity that accompanied the unveiling of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle last week, it isn't surprising that any number of onlookers got caught up in the enthusiasm. 

When people begin referring to it as a "game changer" and a "paradigm shift," it's time to inject a bracing dose of reality.To put the Volt in perspective, it is an expensive, low-volume automobile that will have no visible impact on GM's market share, CAFÉ average or profitability. One cynic calls it "a Viper for tree huggers."

read more | digg story

Detroit Finally Gets It!

During the past two weeks, General Motors reported a $15.5 billion quarterly loss (including special items), following Ford Motor's $8.7 billion loss the week before. I shudder to think how bad it is at Chrysler. Auto execs claim they were giving Americans the products they wanted. Really? For proof to the contrary, look at their U.S. market shares, which are slumping to historically low levels as Japanese auto makers gain ground. In a recent meeting with Ford executives, CEO Alan Mulally dared to challenge the Detroit gospel that you can't make money on small, fuel-efficient cars. At last Ford appears to be making bold moves to design and sell vehicles that people want. So with Fords EcoBoost and Verve at least there is some promising news from the American auto-industry, but is it too late?

read more | digg story

Electric car shootout in London

WhatCar? Britain's Biggest and Best Car Buyer's Guide has a Electric car shootout in London. They review the NICE Mega City, the Smart ed, the Micro-Vett Fiat Doblo, and the Reva G-Wiz together for a group evaluation on the streets of London town to "...decide whether or not they do make a practical alternative to urban transport.".
Now before you start drooling these electric cars can currently be purchased in Europe and hopefully one day a broad spectrum of electric cars will be sold in the USA.


Even "Beautiful beaches and a perfect climate are not enough for the citizens of the South Pacific islands of Fiji. Apparently, they desire cars that are quiet and don't emit pollution as well. If the Korean electric vehicle maker, CT and T, gets its way, that desire will be fulfilled."

Mitsubishi plans to sell iMiEV electric car from 2010 to mid 2009 in Japan about 4 million yen or US $37,496. Sadly currently there are no plans to sell the car in the USA.

A very interesting looking car is the Opel Flextreme and the upcoming Volt will be badged as a Chevrolet or an Opel across "the pond has been decided. The first Euro-bound EV's from the General will be Opels, though we are not sure how much in common the vehicle will share with the Flextreme concept."

In an amusing statement Rick Wagoner, head of General Motors, at a recent conference in Dallas, Texas in response to why GM didn't begin offering hybrid cars earlier is because nobody wanted them. So next time you wonder why the American auto industry is doing poorly look no further then their upper management. Kudos' to Toyota on the foresight to build hybrid cars earlier. In frustration Hank and Joe built their own electric car rather then waiting on the big automakers. While these guys have actually made a working product there are no end of retarded gas saving devices for sale on the Internet that will not save any gas at all.

Last but not least BMW is planning sell 500 electric Minis coming to California.