When Apple announced CarPlay, Apple's new technology for automobiles, the big question was whether it would only be available on new cars, or if older cars could also take advantage of it. Then to the relief of many, two different companies announced forthcoming aftermarket CarPlay systems, with the one from Pioneer to be the first to hit the market. As noted by AppleInsider, Pioneer has been offering hands-on demonstrations of its NEX car infotainment system to the media this week, including CNBC, Macworld, and Digital Trends, which has a very detailed hands-on review of the system. Pioneer's CarPlay system offers Phone, Music, Maps, and Messages. See an earlier post for a bit more detail.
According to the CNBC report, the NEX system will work with most cars except for some luxury vehicles. Support for CarPlay will be in the form of a software update for Pioneer's five NEX systems. The imminent arrival of CarPlay from Pioneer is somewhat earlier than had been expected. Pioneer's NEX systems begin at $700. To install CarPlay, one downloads the software from Pioneer's website to a USB thumb drive, and then plugs it into the system to install the update.