Volvo shows infotainment system with CarPlay

It remains to be seen which automaker will be the first to bring Apple’s CarPlay to the market, but with at least 18 automakers signed on and five promising availability by the end of 2014, there’s no doubt that the iPhone-integrating system will be coming soon to a car near you.

We had a chance to see CarPlay in action at the New York auto show, where Volvo had a mockup of how it might look in the redesigned XC90 SUV, due out later this year. And while we were impressed, the demo left us with some concerns.

The mockup combines CarPlay with Volvo’s own first touch-screen interface, which offers a clean design with four big tiles to access navigation, entertainment, climate, and CarPlay. Pressing any of the tiles takes you into easy to navigate sub menus, with the option to scroll left or right to dive even deeper into vehicle and app set-up screens. In addition, the screen uses uses infrared technology and can be operated even while wearing gloves. Fonts and icons are large—at least on the main screens.