Pioneer last month announced five aftermarket options aimed at enabling CarPlay on older vehicles, with Apple confirming both Pioneer and Alpine aftermarket CarPlay integration coming later this year.
Today, the Japanese company has shown off how Apple’s in-car solution works in tandem with its NEX dash systems and we have a video right after he jump. Just like native CarPlay integration, customers simply plug in their handset and the NEX hardware then takes over and displays CarPlay interface on a built-in capacitive touchscreen (still a rarity in aftermarket systems)…
All of the CarPlay features are supported, including Maps, making phone calls, reading incoming messages, music playback, Siri and so forth. And thanks to Siri, you could control CarPlay without having to touch a screen at all.
Pioneer’s work-in-progress CarPlay aftermarket software.
Currently, ambient noise distracts Siri, but Ted Cardenas, vice president of marketing for Pioneer Car Electronics, tells MacWorld that the issue will be solved:
Siri will acclimate to your car’s sounds—the whoosh of the air conditioner, the hum of the engine (the sound of your kids bickering in back?) — and learn to distinguish your voice from everything else.
Watch the Flash-only video embedded below.
Pioneer will enable CarPlay compatibility on both new and existing NEX hardware by way of a firmware update. The following 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers will support CarPlay: the AVIC-8000NEX, AVIC-7000NEX, AVIC-6000NEX, AVIC-5000NEX and AVH-4000NEX.
Price start at $700 for the AVH-4000NEX and go all the way up to $1,400 in the case of the AVIC-8000NEX unit, which is still way cheaper than having to buy a pricey new car just to enjoy CarPlay integration.
These in-dash kits are available at authorized Pioneer Car Electronics dealers nationwide, including Best Buy, Crutchfield and Car Toys. Alpine will be bringing its own $500-$750 aftermarket CarPlay kits to market this Fall.
More information about Pioneer’s CarPlay kits is available here.
CarPlay requires an iPhone 5/5c/5s and iOS 7.1.