Exactly. The current phone "integration" into cars is bullshit, akin to the $100 AM radio rip-off of the '70s.

All we've needed in cars for the last 15 years is a goddamned WELL in the dashboard to put our phones in. Have swappable plastic inserts for different phone models, and integrate a power supply and (for non-Apple victims) an audio line.

"Problem" solved.

Except for the profit, when you upgrade to the premium system.

bingo

> I’d rather the car has no software

I'm not sure I want to rely on a buggy iOS/CarPlay/AppleCar UI. Ok for media, but the way Apple is pitching this, it would be the operating system of the whole car's UI including showing things like oil pressure and tachometer.

To clarify I don't want CarPlay or iOS in the car. I want the car to have its own platform which is not connected to the non-essential functions and my iOS device can do that in isolation. The only real functions that are required for integration are audio controls and BT has already solved that.

And that audio connection better be fully airgapped from every other wire in the car.

The radio used to be that way. Just power essentially.

I wonder, if Tesla can bootstrap, why not an EV company on the extreme low end.

What do you do for things like maps though?

Apple Maps

You said you just have a Bluetooth audio connection - so you’re just listening to the readout of the directions? That doesn’t sound like a great experience.

The phone has a screen and sits on the dash. I don't use BT audio for directions, only for calls and Apple Music.

> The phone has a screen and sits on the dash.

It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to understand why a proper large screen, integration into the instrument cluster, and the HUD if you have one, is safer and easier to use than a tiny phone hanging off your dash.

You’re also for example missing out on your car's ability to do dead reckoning when there is a poor GPS signal.

Depends how badly designed your car is. Mine sits just to the top left of the steering wheel.

The phone does dead reckoning as well. It has accelerometers and a compass built in.