If you were to head on over to Apple’s CarPlay website, you will see at the bottom that Toyota is listed as one of Apple’s partners that would support the feature, but oddly enough it seems that the car manufacturer has no immediate plans of doing so. This isn’t a necessarily a snub at Apple in favor of Google’s Android Auto because it looks like Toyota will be passing on Android Auto as well, at least for now and as far as the US market is concerned.This is according to a recent report by the New York Times in which John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology communications said that despite Toyota being in talks with Apple and Google, there are no plans to use either technology in the US market. Hanso was also quoted as saying, “We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions.”
Like we said, this is concerning the US market and there is no word on whether Toyota would be doing the same for other markets as well. A recent post on Toyota UK’s website claimed that CarPlay support would be arriving in 2015, but the company quickly backtracked on their claim, leaving it pretty much up in the air as to whether or not the company has plans for support in international markets.
However if anything, it certainly highlights some of the reluctance that some car manufacturers are showing with regards to adopting the technology, but how do you guys feel about that? Will a car’s lack of CarPlay/Android Auto be one of the reasons you might go for a different brand in the future? Or would you turn to third-party solutions from Alpine/Pioneer?