Watch Apple's CarPlay in action, as Mercedes-Benz takes us for a spin

Apple’s CarPlay is bobbing up in more and more places. As the projected summer rollout nears, the tech company's bid to put iTunes, Messages and navigation on your dashboard has shown up in the iOS 7.1 upgrade. Apple partners Alpine and Pioneer have already announced aftermarket systems that can be installed in older cars. And our first chance to see it live happened on Monday, when Apple partner Mercedes-Benz showed us a prototype implementation of CarPlay in a 2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

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Our guide was Hamza Lakhani, manager of embedded software at Mercedes-Benz’s Research and Development, North America, based in Sunnyvale, Calif. In this prototype, Mercedes-Benz had crafted a small, Stump-Stand-like cradle for the iPhone—using a 3D printer, of course. The cradle sat in the center console, so it could plug in without the hassle of having a cable plugged into a port.
When Lakhani connected the phone, the CarPlay logo flashed on the phone’s screen, and the CarPlay home screen appeared on the car’s display. Mercedes-Benz does not design touchscreens into its cars, but Lakhani showed how you could use controls built into the center console to navigate the CarPlay screen. A hard button on the console summoned Siri.

Image: Ina Maria

The icons on the CarPlay interface look just like the ones on your iPhone.

The screen icons are the same ones you’ve seen on other CarPlay examples. You can make phone calls, access your iTunes library, find locations and plan routes, and even send and receive text messages. Lakhani noted that third-party apps—like Mercedes-Benz's own Comand remote-control app, seen in the image above—could be added to the screen as developers bring them to Apple’s App Store.
This was just a prototype, so there were hiccups: The air conditioning’s soft whoosh seemed to make Siri harder of hearing, though Lakhani said it had worked just fine in a previous demo. When CarPlay finally goes live in the near future, though, it looks like it will make it a lot easier—and safer—to use your iPhone in your car.