[zx10guy]

I only skimmed the article. I'm going to probably get the ridicule of many as not being a real car enthusiast. But having smart phone integration does impact your life significantly if you daily drive your car and live in an area where traffic is a total mess. I can't tell you the number of times Waze has saved me time and aggravation by setting my route based on real time traffic conditions. The alerts on speed and radar traps is also a nice perk.

I've been able to get Android integration on my 1 series via a different avenue. While it's not perfect, it gets most of the way there and provides flexibility which Android Auto or Car Play won't give me. I installed a Mirrorlink box which allows me to cast the video and audio from my Android phone into my iDrive system. I got quickly dependent on this setup.

When I got a new daily driver, I quickly realized how much I was missing with the awful as sin Toyota Entune 3.0 system. The trim package I have uses an app in the Entune 3.0 system called Scout GPS. The smart phone syncing works occasionally and some times requires me to kill the smart phone app I have to install to allow the data link to be established via Bluetooth or USB hard wire. The Scout GPS app many times can't find the destinations I'm trying to look up, sets routes that doesn't make sense, and is awfully slow. Plus Scout GPS crashes constantly. I would try Android Auto but Toyota was taking the same stupid stance as BMW and only doing CarPlay. Oh, and CarPlay was just recently pushed out with Toyota's infotainment system so they're really playing catch up. But even Toyota finally got the clue and is starting to also push out Android Auto support on upcoming models. Whether there is going to be a retrofit with existing cars (especially those with Entune 3.0) remains to be seen.

And the ridicule about the issues with CarPlay is unwarranted. If I was forced to pay a yearly subscription for a feature, you damn straight I would expect that crap to work. If not, I would expect regular software updates to make sure the feature works.

Now that my 135i has been relegated to weekend/fun status, I wish I could transfer what I have installed in the 135i into my C-HR.