(VIDEO) APPLE ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF iPHONE VOICE CONTROL FOR CARS

APPLE'S CAR PLAY SYSTEM

Add tech giant Apple to the long list of Silicon Valley companies gaining a toehold in Detroit.

Apple on Monday announced that its fully-integrated dashboard system, CarPlay, will roll out this week in Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo models and in other brands later this year.

CarPlay allows users of an iPhone 5 or later model to display apps, Apple Maps and access iTunes Radio and Siri voice commands through their dashboard.

Apple’s CarPlay comes as other tech giants, including Google and Microsoft, and music streaming rivals, like Pandora and Spotify, each plot strategy to battle on a new front in the tech wars.

In January, Google announced it was working with a slew of automakers, including General Motors, Honda, Hyundai and Audi, to get Google’s popular Android operating system, known as Open automotive Alliance, in automobiles.
Google is also working on its own self-driving cars.

Meanwhile, Samsung has teamed up with BMW to let drivers remotely monitor their car batteries and locks.

Drivers can also turn on the car and control its temperature from the living room, for example, while it heats up in the garage.

Apple is promising CarPlay in more than a dozen other cars in the coming years by manufacturers including BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota.

Absent from the list is Tesla, Volkswagen and Chrysler.

One concern already brewing, however, is whether Apple will force users to use its Apple Maps, which some drivers deem inferior to Google Maps.