Chevy Corvette to be Enhanced With Apple’s CarPlay

Although 2015 may have been dubbed the “Year of Apple Pay”, Apple has certainly had much more success with its other devices and services. The staggering number of Apple Watches that were ordered by tech-geeks and Apple fans was enough to rattle the world of wearable technology. Then Apple unleashed it’s new streaming service, Apple Music, at this year’s WWDC. And back in May, Chevrolet announced that Apple CarPlay would be implemented alongside Android Auto in 14 of Chevrolet’s 2016 models.

For those of you out of the loop, CarPlay is Apple’s dashboard in the car market. It offers the user easy access to things like music, maps, phone calls, and even third party apps (like Spotify, Podcasts, Beats Radio, iHeartRadio and Stitcher). It is a system that can sync your iPhone apps with your car’s digital systems for ease of use. The idea behind CarPlay was that it would bring  functionality and apps to a car’s touchscreen; and in this way, the driver wouldn’t have to interact directly with their iPhone to use its features. As mentioned by 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.”

Well here we are a month later, and the first Chevy car models with CarPlay integration are beginning to roll off of the production line. Car enthusiasts and Apple fans alike are especially excited about the integration of CarPlay into Chevy’s Corvette Z06, which made an appearance earlier this week as the very first production Chevrolet with CarPlay installed (see photo below). The Corvette Z06 is the second vehicle available with CarPlay that is actually available for purchase, the first being the Ferrari FF.

While both CarPlay and Android Auto will be launched on a specific list of Chevy car models, only CarPlay will be available in cars that have the larger 8-inch MyLink display. Both CarPlay and Android Auto will be available on the 7-inch display. Regardless, Chevy is excited about being one of the first car companies to manufacture a car model with CarPlay/

As Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, noted “Partnering with Apple and Google to offer CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility across the widest range of models in the industry is a great example of how Chevrolet continues to democratize technology that’s important to our customers.”

 What do you think of the new Corvette? Would CarPlay be a deciding factor in your decision to buy the Corvette versus cars who not offer CarPlay?