Wireless CarPlay

[BelTCR]

Hi,

is there anyway to make apple CarPlay wireless in the mk7.5 without the use of a dongle?
I have been using the car2play dongle and it didn’t quite did the job for me..
I tried to make it wireless following the instructions for the Audi A6 but it didn’t change anything.

 

[gixxerfool]

One of the protocols for wireless compatibility is wifi. So there would need to be a hardware change at the least for it to work. So to make it wireless through software or coding alone is impossible. I am hoping someone retrofits it, but so far I haven't found anything.

 

[BelTCR]

One of the protocols for wireless compatibility is wifi. So there would need to be a hardware change at the least for it to work. So to make it wireless through software or coding alone is impossible. I am hoping someone retrofits it, but so far I haven't found anything.

Hmm weird, because the car can act as a personal hotspot when it has a wifi connection

 

[gixxerfool]

Hmm weird, because the car can act as a personal hotspot when it has a wifi connection

I am not sure what you mean, you have in car wifi?

 

[BelTCR]

I am not sure what you mean, you have in car wifi?

You can turn on wlan in the car and then it start looking for a WiFi connection, for example it takes the WiFi from my house, after this I can select personal hotspot and the car sends out a WiFi signal which I can receive on my phone and connect to

 

[gixxerfool]

You can turn on wlan in the car and then it start looking for a WiFi connection, for example it takes the WiFi from my house, after this I can select personal hotspot and the car sends out a WiFi signal which I can receive on my phone and connect to

There may be other protocols, hardware and software, that are required for wireless CarPlay to activate. I am not sure exactly what those are. It may require MIB 3, but again, I'm not sure.

 

[BelTCR]

There may be other protocols, hardware and software, that are required for wireless CarPlay to activate. I am not sure exactly what those are. It may require MIB 3, but again, I'm not sure.

Well I’m not sure which system I have, I have the big screen and it’s a 2020 model but we’ll have to wait and see, one day someone will find a way I think, I thought the dealership told my it was country bounded to activate the wireless option but I’m not sure about it

 

[gixxerfool]

My wife's 2021 Tiguan has it, so it may be down to a dealer programming to unlock the function. I am not sure where VW decides what gets what. Sorry I cant be more help.

 

[Lth0ms0n]

The car needs to have a 5GHz WiFi antenna in it for wireless CarPlay to work. I imagine that either the channels used by 2.4GHz are not wide enough or Apple opted for 5GHz because it's more easily obstructed by objects and would probably cause less disruption to other road users as CarPlay becomes more prevalent.

In cars where it's wireless, it seems to be one or the other - my parents have a 2018 F56 JCW Mini with Wireless CarPlay enabled and although the car has 2 USB sockets below the display, neither works with CarPlay.

 

[bobloblawGTI]

Only way to do it without a dongle would be retrofitting the MIB3 from the 2021 models, which afaik no one has done/been able to do (yet.) Fwiw I have the Carlinkit 2.0 dongle and it works mostly fine.

 

[Lth0ms0n]

Only way to do it without a dongle would be retrofitting the MIB3 from the 2021 models, which afaik no one has done/been able to do (yet.) Fwiw I have the Carlinkit 2.0 dongle and it works mostly fine.

Mostly? What kind of issues have you had with it? I'll be honest, I'm about to put this in mine and I know I'm going to get frustrated with the lack of wireless capabilities with it very quickly... I hate having my iPhone plugged in all the time, it's not good for it to continuously charge it like that.

 

[KevinC]

I have wireless CarPlay in my new M2 and frankly, I wish I could just use it wired. Wireless is a PITA in a bunch of ways and I'd sooner plug in my phone and not deal with any of it.

 

[bobloblawGTI]

Mostly? What kind of issues have you had with it? I'll be honest, I'm about to put this in mine and I know I'm going to get frustrated with the lack of wireless capabilities with it very quickly... I hate having my iPhone plugged in all the time, it's not good for it to continuously charge it like that.

Mine is the Carlinkit 2.0 (Amazon currently has it on sale for $104) on custom firmware. Only three main issues I've encountered in ~6 months of usage:

1. The next/previous buttons on the steering wheel work only to advance or go back a track; they cannot be held down to seek forward or backwards within a track (this is persistent behavior, unfortunately, though you can accomplish track seeking by tapping and holding the next/previous buttons on the screen itself.)

2. For audio playback, there is some lag (about 600 ms) between a command (like skipping a song) and the audio beginning/changing. My understanding is this lag is present in factory-installed wireless CarPlay also so may not be unique to the adapter.

3. Occasionally voice control audio (like turn-by-turn navigation directions) will be muted on startup; unplugging and replugging the adapter resolves this (intermittent; happens maybe 1 in every 10 times I start the car.)

Battery drain is noticeably higher when using wireless CarPlay (not unique to the adapter) so for trips > 1 hr. I usually still plug in. Overall though, for a hundred-ish bucks it's a pretty solid solution considering how complex/costly MIB retrofits are, not to mention how much more a new 2021 would have been over my 2019. Just my 2¢ of course; not perfect but better than plugging in each and every time I sit in the car.

 

[IWMTom]

No way to do it without using a dongle.

 

[GenX Retread]

I have wireless CarPlay in my new M2 and frankly, I wish I could just use it wired. Wireless is a PITA in a bunch of ways and I'd sooner plug in my phone and not deal with any of it.

Is some of the functionality different over wireless vs. wired? This is the first car I've had with CarPlay, but when I start the car, it just connects and works. I do get the odd break in audio when I'm streaming over LTE, not sure if it's my network or the wireless CP.