CarPlay

Apple’s next generation of CarPlay keeps showing signs of life. Not long ago, we saw new CarPlay icons debut in a recent iOS 18.2 beta, and now some fresh next-gen CarPlay assets have turned up in a public online database.

After a false start back in January, the Apple Music Classical app has officially launched on CarPlay. The app also now integrates with Siri, allowing you to ask Siri to play your favorite content using Apple Music Classical.

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This week, I want to share a fascinating talk I came across on social media about an Apple service that doesn’t seem to get as much attention in the community: CarPlay. While Apple has not publicly disclosed the exact number of CarPlay users, I’d venture to say it’s one of its most used services. And one of the biggest concerns is anything that could compromise driver safety or privacy. So, how secure is CarPlay?

As the adoption of electric vehicles has grown, so has the availability of EV-specific apps for CarPlay. There are a number of excellent CarPlay apps that help take your EV experience to the next level, including planning trips, finding chargers, and more. Read on for the growing list of CarPlay apps that every EV owner should check out.

We’re coming up on two years since GM announced its decision to ditch CarPlay on all of its EVs. By all measures, the transition got off to an incredibly rocky start with its 2024 model year cars. The Chevy Blazer EV, for example, suffered from a series of problems courtesy of GM’s “Ultifi” infotainment system.

In a new interview this week, Baris Cetinok GM’s software vice president once again doubled down on the company’s move to abandon CarPlay.

iOS 18.1 released this week with the first Apple Intelligence features for iPhone, plus iPad and Mac. But if you’re a CarPlay user, you might have noticed that Apple Intelligence provides a few nice changes on the road too. Here are three small iOS 18.1 enhancements to CarPlay.

For months, Chick-fil-A has been testing and teasing its first-ever CarPlay app. Now, the day has finally come and you an officially place your favorite Chick-fil-A order using nothing but CarPlay.

Since its initial introduction, Apple’s CarPlay platform has become ubiquitous. It’s available in the vast majority of new cars on the market today, and for good reason: it’s one of the top things people look for when buying a new car.

At WWDC in June 2022, Apple announced what it calls the “next generation of CarPlay.” This new CarPlay interface is set to debut in new cars this year, and it’s going to be a big change.

The first automakers signed on to support next-gen CarPlay? Porsche and Aston Martin. Here’s everything we know.

As part of iOS 18 this month, Apple has major new accessibility features for iPhone users. Among improvements like Eye Tracking and upgrades to Vision Pro, Apple also has plans to bring some accessibility updates to CarPlay.

Target is rolling out its new CarPlay app this week. With this app, you can easily manage your Target Drive Up orders and find nearby Target locations using CarPlay.

CarPlay is Apple’s feature that brings communication and entertainment functions to the built-in screen in your car using iPhone apps. The feature appears on a lot of aftermarket displays and new cars that you can buy today.

As CarPlay support is now available from most manufacturers, we’re also seeing more CarPlay apps. Once you install these apps on your iPhone, they appear on your CarPlay-enabled display when you connect your iPhone. Read on for the growing list of iPhone apps that support CarPlay.

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Apple CarPlay is becoming more common on motorcycles, but infotainment systems are typically only offered on high-priced touring bikes. Fortunately, there’s a fantastic aftermarket solution for adding CarPlay to almost any motorcycle. I’ve been testing the CHIGEE AIO-5 Lite, an all-in-one system that includes a CarPlay/Android Auto display, front and rear cameras, and an integrated safety system to keep riders alert. 

A new J.D. Power survey of vehicle owners has confirmed that infotainment systems are the worst. The only saving grace? Phone-based systems aren’t quite as bad, with Apple’s CarPlay coming out on top.

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 introduce new wallpapers for iPhone and iPad users, and we’ve made them available for download here. However, with the release of iOS 18 beta 4 for developers on Tuesday, Apple has also added new wallpapers for CarPlay – and we’re making them available for download as well.

While CarPlay is widely available on the majority of cars nowadays, Rivian is one of the primary holdouts (alongside Tesla and now GM). In a new interview this week on the Decoder podcast, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe explained the company’s reasoning for not supporting CarPlay, while also touting its overall “great relationship with the Apple team.”

At WWDC 2024, Apple provided new details on its plans for next-generation CarPlay, focusing on how the design can be adapted by individual automakers. Now, the folks at design firm BlackBox Infinite have put Apple’s CarPlay framework to the test by “redesigning several iconic instrument clusters from the pre-screen era.”

I’ve written a lot about CarPlay over the years, including questioning GM’s decision to abandon CarPlay on all of its EVs. Now, a new survey has details on just how important CarPlay is for people shopping for a new car, with a third of consumers considering it an absolute must-have.

Apple hasn’t had much luck persuading car makers to adopt its next-gen CarPlay, in which its own UI takes over all or most of the vehicle’s displays. But a feature known as punch-through might be the compromise which gets the company at least some of the way there.

Punch-through was initially designed to allow the car’s own UI to take over in very limited cases, like automatically engaging backup cameras when reverse gear is selected, but it could be applied more generally to keep everyone happy …

Plans for the rollout of the next-gen CarPlay don’t seem to be going too well. Despite Porsche being announced as one of the first companies in line to support it, the company has implied that its first hybrid Porsche 911 won’t include it.

The German sports car maker says that the $164k 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS will see CarPlay “integrated more deeply into the vehicle,” but went on to imply that this doesn’t mean it will be the next-generation experience Apple first announced almost two years ago …

Last week, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius made it clear that the automaker has no plans to support Apple’s next-generation CarPlay platform.

In a new interview with The Verge, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath took a different approach and said that he would be open to giving Apple control over all the screens in a Polestar car.

A little over a year ago, General Motors made what may well turn out to be one of its biggest gambles in many years: dropping support for CarPlay for all future EVs.

To most of us, the decision seemed insane, likely to result in a huge number of lost sales – but a new report suggests that the company felt it had little choice …