CarPlay and Safety

It’s no surprise that some organizations are raising safety concerns about Apple’s forthcoming CarPlay technology, but the ship has already sailed on their main concern: distracted drivers. The fact is, CarPlay will help alleviate many of the biggest distractions in cars today.

Drivers are distracted. This isn’t new, drivers have been distracted since the first automobile rolled off the assembly line—people are talking, music playing on the radio, even other cars are distracting. What is new is that, if anything, drivers are becoming more distracted. Text messages, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter and many other beeps and vibrations take a driver’s eyes off the road to focus on their devices.

What we need is a technology that will allow drivers to keep their eyes on the road—that’s what CarPlay delivers. With a touch of the voice button, Siri will handle most tasks that you want to do with CarPlay. If you don’t use Siri, you’re missing out on a great technology.

Siri will be CarPlay’s secret weapon. It will allow you to manipulate CarPlay without being physically distracted by looking down at your device. Technology and safety all rolled into one unit.

CarPlay is, from my experience with in-car navigation systems, safer than anything else I’ve used. It will feature the same intuitive interface that we’ve become accustomed to using with Apple products. This isn’t just iOS 7 thrown into a car, it’s integration built specifically for the car. There’s a big difference. Yes, you can use the touchscreen on the dashboard, but you have to use some common sense too.

In stead of worrying about a technology that is working to make driving a vehicle safer, organizations should target technologies like Google Glass, or people that text on their devices while they drive. These are distracting and offer no safety measures at all.

I understand the arguments, but technology in automobiles isn’t going away. What we can do is demand that companies that offer these technologies do everything that they can to make them safe. CarPlay does that.

Distractions come in many different forms and there is no way we will stop all of them. I would love to stop the person looking down at their phone while driving head-on towards me on the highway.

The iPhone is a popular device and CarPlay will be immensely popular as well. I want access to all of my media in the car and the ability to make and accept phone calls while I’m driving. I also want the safest way possible to do this. I currently use a Bluetooth headset for phone calls and in-car Bluetooth for my music, but CarPlay will offer me even more flexibility, features and options. It will also offer more safety.

We are never going to get rid of distractions in the car. What we can do is give drivers the technology they need to help themselves be as safe as possible. That’s CarPlay.