Apple’s CarPod system is a dream worth dreaming
Interestingly Apple is alleged to have imported one of these vehicles back in 2014.
Imagine all the intelligence of CarPlay (with its soon-to-be-improved Maps) combined with all the music in the world thanks to Apple Music and those frighteningly effective HomePod speakers. You could even pump video into the backseat screens from the Apple Television service. You could call the system…
CarPod
Think what CarPod could do (most of this already):
- Apple Music while you drive at HomePod quality
- Zane Lowe’s popular drive time show
- Siri’s forthcoming Maps improvements mean you’ll always get to park up at the nearest point to where you are going
- Messages, emails, and proactive Siri intelligence – everything you already get with CarPlay, I suppose.
- Siri on request – “send that email to Dave.”
- “Where’s my nearest available parking spot?” becomes, “Where’s my car?”.
- Smart movie watching for the passengers in the back seat – viewing recommendations based on what they love
- A fabulous multi speaker sound system that intelligently adjusts itself to compensate for reverberation, background noise, even the number of people in the vehicle.
- The chance for people in the back to continue watching what they were already watching thanks to that Family Sharing version of the TV app Apple’s got to develop at some point.
- A speaker system that piped the sound to where you want it, so the people up front don’t get distracted by the loud movie their eleven-year old will inevitably be watching at the back.
- Families could also talk together while driving better thanks to a little intelligent sound reinforcement from those HomePod speakers – the backseat passengers could listen in in AirPods or whatever.
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- HomeKit systems inside the seatsto make sure you are comfortable.
- Same applies to air conditioning, temperature and the rest
- Sensors watch heart and fitness levels. Are you tired? Siri will tell you.
- Telematics systems (think Automatic) mean all your vehicle condition data will be visible on-screen, and immediately shareable with services and breakdown services.
- Immediate alerts to emergency services if you have an accident.
- And Do Not Disturb While Driving to help make sure you don’t.
- Find My iPhone? Yeah, that’s great, but ‘FindMyCar’?
- Face ID before your car will start.
- TouchID to open your car door.
I could go on, but I guess what I’m saying is that if Apple never makes a car, it’s got a fairly good opportunity to make a difference to people’s drives.
What else would you like a CarPod to do?
Good thoughts for sure. If and when they do it, I hope they won’t overthink systems that work well already. I have keyless entry already and my car unlocks the doors, adjusts the seat position and certain creature comforts based on our fobs. In cold weather climates, fingerprint readers and facial ID could be problematic, especially when cars are covered with ice, mud or roadsalt and cameras inside might be fogged up. “If it ain’t broke…..”