CarPlay

Hyundai’s complicated relationship with CarPlay might soon get a little bit easier to understand. A new report this week suggests that Hyundai plans to add support for wireless CarPlay and Android Auto to its cars that are also equipped with integrated satellite navigation, starting later this year. Historically, Hyundai cars with integrated navigation have only supported wired CarPlay.

Fancy the new iOS 17 default wallpaper? CarPlay has its own version, and now there are color options.

iOS 17 beta 2 adds blue, gray, and red options to the existing multicolor wallpaper version. Each color has a light and dark mode.

iOS 17 is now available in beta for developers, and the pre-release version of the iPhone update includes a few changes for CarPlay. An update to Apple Music is the biggest change, but there’s more to see.

ETA is an iPhone and Apple Watch app dedicated to prominently displaying travel times and traffic conditions. The latest version of ETA puts that information on the screen in your car too.

Here’s a twist in the ongoing story of GM and CarPlay. General Motors has hired Mike Abbott to run its software team, the company announced today. That’s the same Mike Abbott who just left Apple after spending five years in charge of iCloud software.

Instapaper, the popular read-it-later service, is now available via CarPlay. You might be wondering how a reading-focused app translates to CarPlay, but it all comes down to text-to-speech technology.

VLC, the popular open source media player, is now available via Apple’s CarPlay platform for the first time. The new VLC app on CarPlay gives you easy access to your audio files while driving, rather than relying on using the iPhone app while behind the wheel.

Over the last several weeks, CarPlay has been in the headlines quite a bit thanks to GM’s decision to bail on the platform and Rivian’s continued resistance. Apple, however, isn’t concerned and has recently updated its website to promote the fact that over 800 cars on the market currently support the feature.

As companies like GM and Rivian face backlash for failing to adopt Apple’s CarPlay platform, Ford is doing the exact opposite. In a statement to 9to5Mac, Ford explained its reasoning for supporting CarPlay…and it has us pondering the future of Ford’s relationship with Apple and next-gen CarPlay.

Eddy Cue teased “iOS in the Car” in 2013, and Apple released CarPlay as an update to iOS 8 a year later. CarPlay was slow to be adopted by automakers in the first few years. Pioneer brought CarPlay to existing cars first in 2014, then Hyundai released the first new vehicle with CarPlay integration in 2015.

Now, a decade since its first public appearance, it has become harder* to buy a new car without CarPlay. Yet General Motors is positioning itself as a new adversary for Apple and CarPlay. Greedy and nefarious reasons for dropping Apple CarPlay from GM EVs are most likely to blame, but I do wonder if a certain preview from Apple is a factor too.

In today’s edition of “things you didn’t know you needed,” Domino’s has announced that you can now order ahead using CarPlay. Using the updated Domino’s app via CarPlay, you can use a simple “Tap to Order” feature to place an order without using your phone at all.

CarPlay is available on the vast majority of cars today, including on electric vehicles from the likes of Ford, Polestar, and others. One of the most notable CarPlay holdouts (alongside Tesla) is Rivian, and new comments from CEO RJ Scaringe today make it clear that the up-and-coming EV company has no plans to adopt Apple’s platform…

General Motors is making the controversial decison to phase out its support for Apple’s CarPlay platform. Instead of supporting CarPlay, GM is teaming up with Google to design custom built-in infotainment systems for future electric cars. This comes after GM went all-in CarPlay just a few years ago…

After being rumored as coming with an update for some time, luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid has officially announced wireless CarPlay and Android Auto are now available and come standard with its connectivity suite.

Uber this week announced a big update coming to its iOS app. More specifically, the Uber Driver app (which is the one used by drivers working for the company) will soon get integration with Apple CarPlay. This will allow drivers to interact with the platform directly from their car dashboard while their iPhone is connected to CarPlay.

iOS 16.3 was released to everyone on Monday, with headlining features including Security Key support for Apple IDs and support for the second-generation HomePod. The update also included a handful of bug fixes and improvements, including a fix for a pesky CarPlay bug.

Porsche is a strong supporter of Apple’s CarPlay platform, particularly in regards to helping owners retrofit CarPlay in classic Porsche cars. As part of those efforts, Porsche has expanded support for retrofitted Bluetooth and CarPlay infotainment systems to early-2000s cars…

Apple showed off the next generation of CarPlay during WWDC 2022, and wow does it look stunning. The complete CarPlay takeover of the infotainment display, dash controls, and more tease us with Apple Car vibes.

While Project Titan remains an R&D project, Apple says the first cars that will work with next-gen CarPlay won’t be announced until the end of 2023. There’s a high chance that drivers will have to wait until 2024 or 2025 to get behind the wheel of next generation CarPlay.

iOS 16 does include a few updates to CarPlay, however, and these features are available to everyone with the software update.

Weather on the Way is a clever app that blends navigation and weather and shows you what conditions to expect throughout your travels. Arriving today is the newest update that brings CarPlay support which means live weather radar plus navigation on your vehicle’s display.

After sharing a sharp concept last year imagining what the future of CarPlay could look like in a Tesla Model 3/Y, designer John Calkins is back with another vision, this time a “modular, customizable layout.” Check out a closer look at this Tesla CarPlay UI that includes elements from the next-generation CarPlay Apple has teased.

CarPlay wallpaper options will expand by three when iOS 16 is released this fall. All three new wallpapers are available in CarPlay, starting with today’s fourth developer beta release.