Originally Posted by JSING

While it may be dangerous I'd much rather have BT streaming and have my phone do all the heavy lifting with the apps n such. I've never been big one using the cars interface to navigate an iPod or app, I'd rather do it directly on the phone.

Originally Posted by jmpage2

Eventually cars are going to force your phone to go into a mode where you can't play around with it while you are driving... while many feel it's your "choice" on how to operate your vehicle, it's my choice to live!

Originally Posted by jmpage2

That's a legitimate concern, but as the apps are all built around fairly well supported SDKs it really shouldn't prove out to be too much of a problem. Eventually all of the cars will have cellular modems in them and the apps suite will update itself (along with Navi, etc) just like your smart phone does.

The problem with Audi's approach of "let your phone do it" is that manipulating your phone, even to do something as simple as picking a new Pandora station is dangerous. I really like BMWs approach, which is that if you have the apps/tech package, the car integrates with the phone to a degree that you can even use the jog shuttle to send a quick canned reply to an email or text (doesn't work yet with iPhone sadly).

Anyways, I think that in 3-5 years that kind of tech is going to be standard on pretty much any auto, luxury or otherwise, which is one reason that this go round I am going to lease vs. buy, the tech is just changing to fast to make another 8-10 year commitment to a vehicle that I sit in now for 90 minutes a day.

When you spend a lot of time driving, and some of it is in heavy traffic, the in-car infotainment, traffic features, etc, become more important.

Originally Posted by milknchees

Don't forget apps like Pandora aren't even available in Europe (licencing issues) so I'd say that's at least part of why they Euro brands are somewhat slower to adopt it than American ones (though nobody told BMW apparently).

Originally Posted by JSING

The argument could be made that fumbling around with MMI or iDrive while driving is just as dangerous as selecting a song on your phone. In all cases you aren't paying attention to the road. I guess you should by a ford and use sync if you're that concerned about it......or have Siri pick the song for you