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

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.

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…

Updated November 28, 2022 with News+, InRoute, LINE, Microsoft Teams, Panera Bread, Plexamp, and Weather on the Way.

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.

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.

An over-the-air (OTA) update has brought Apple CarPlay to newer Android-Automotive powered Volvos. CarPlay has been missing on Volvo models ever since the carmaker went with Google’s operating system.

At WWDC, much of the attention was on the fancy next-generation CarPlay Apple previewed, but those experiences won’t appear in cars for several years.

Near term, something new for CarPlay in iOS 16 is the addition of new supported app categories for “fuel and driving tasks,” according to the iOS 16 feature preview page. A report from Reuters today says that some gas station chains are already preparing to take advantage of this and allow drivers to pay for fuel through the car’s infotainment center.

About a week ago, I had Alpine’s newest version of its popular multimedia receiver – the iLX-507 – installed into my beloved nine-year-old car, providing a much-needed upgrade. Head below for more details.

Currently, Tesla cars do not support CarPlay, but by the beginning of the year, 9to5Mac reported a nice project called Tesla Android with CarPlay. Created by developer Michał Gapiński, this workaround to enable CarPlay on Tesla cars has now been updated to version 2022.25.1 with a ton of new features. In addition, it now supports all the cars the company has.

Apple’s car ambitions range from replacing your infotainment system with the iPhone to someday selling self-driving electric vehicles. Not every auto exec is convinced Apple will ever cross the finish line to shipping its own car, however. Meanwhile, more automakers are continuing to adopt Apple CarPlay even as the company teases its next grand vision for taking over your car software.

With more employers transitioning to hybrid work comes more ways to stay connected while on the go. Today, Webex announced its new feature, Move to Mobile, for Apple CarPlay.

Tesla’s resistance to adding CarPlay is no secret, and there’s absolutely no indication it’s something the company is working on adding. Earlier this year, we covered a workaround that brought CarPlay to Tesla cars, and now it’s available for anyone to try… as long as you’re willing to jump through some major hoops.

There are also a few other third-party options. Head below for the details.

Some kind of new Porsche Apple partnership may be in the cards after the two companies held meetings to discuss “possible joint projects.”

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume revealed the meetings when announcing the company’s annual results …

CarPlay is Apple’s popular in-car infotainment system that brings your iPhone apps and interface to your car’s display. It’s gone through multiple different design iterations over the years, the most recent of which features a dashboard, tile-based design to give you access to quite a bit of information at once.

As our colleagues at 9to5Google have reported, Google is testing a new version of its own Android Auto in-car system, and many of the new design elements may look familiar to long-time CarPlay users.

Over the weekend, Polish developer Michał Gapiński shared a fascinating look at CarPlay running on his Tesla Model 3. The automaker doesn’t support CarPlay, so this workaround – with some major caveats – will certainly grab the attention of those who have been asking for the functionality for years.

Alpine is out today at CES with its next-gen multimedia receivers for automobiles. The new 11 and 9-inch Halo Floating Touchscreen Receivers include support for wired and wireless CarPlay/Android Auto as well as compatibility with Lossless hi-res audio.

Update 1/6: Alpine has also announced new weather-resistant receivers for the Jeep Wrangler.

Infiniti has announced that it is making wireless CarPlay available as a free upgrade to owners of a handful of different car models. The company announced today that owners of 2020 and up Q50, Q60, QX50, and QX80 models can now get wireless CarPlay added to their vehicles as a free upgrade…