CarPlay Faster, Safer than Automakers’ Own Infotainment Systems

Matt

6 years ago

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto React Quicker Than Native Infotainment Systems

… and when the display shows you what you want faster, you spend more time watching the road than the screen. That’s the goal of CarPlay. See the Digital Trends story.

In its latest automotive safety report, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety measured the distraction times required for drivers to complete typical in-car infotainment tasks and the results showed Google’s Android Auto and Apple’s Carplay were significantly faster on average than car manufacturer’s native infotainment systems. The smartphone apps were 24 percent (five seconds) faster when making phone calls and 31 percent (15 seconds) faster programming navigation than standard car systems.

Even with faster performance than in-car systems, however, the smartphone apps were overly demanding. According to the AAA, drivers double their crash risk when they take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds. The group stated that distracted driving causes 3,500 deaths and 390,000 injuries annually.

We thought this was very interesting, and a feather in CarPlay’s cap:

The researchers considered CarPlay and Android Auto roughly equivalent in visual demand, mental demand, and the time needed to complete infotainment tasks. Overall, the group rated the smartphone apps “moderately demanding” and the native systems “very highly demanding.”

In other words, Apple (and Google) are achieving what they set out to do: reduce driver demands, aka, don’t crash.