Alpine Electronics announced at CES the introduction of the world’s largest CarPlay head unit.
The model i109-WRA has a 9-inch screen and it works specifically with Jeep Wrangler 2011 and up vehicles. The unit has no built-in navigation but it has a dedicated nav button specifically for CarPlay navigation. Alpine says the i109-WRA is the first CarPlay unit to offer dedicated hard buttons for CarPlay features.
The unit has a fast processor so CarPlay commands are quick and without delay, it said.
The i109-WRA will be available this spring at a price to be announced.
Alpine says that most Silverado, Jeep Wrangler and Sierra truck owners are iPhone rather than Android users, so it is not including Android Auto on it’s initial offerings, although Android Auto is on the company’s roadmap for the future.
Leaving out Android Auto is a huge mistake.
2 words. DATA eater
CarPlay is already pretty popular and data consumption isn’t really an issue with most people.