Apple revealed a new version of CarPlay at WWDC that looks to push the phone-based infotainment system to new heights.
The new version can connect to your car and then adapts to cover all screens. This includes your instrument cluster, A/C controls, standard infotainment and everything else.
During the presentation, Apple showed off a bunch of screenshots of the new CarPlay, and it looks incredible. For years traditional automakers have struggled to keep their infotainment software looking modern and now Apple has decided to take things into its own hands.
Users can even control radio playback!
There are no vehicles currently on the market that support this new system, but Apple and automakers will announce what vehicles will support the new in-car software standard next year. That being said, Apple did show a list of approved automakers that plan to work with the new CarPlay. Interestingly, Polestar is on this list, and it currently uses an in-car system built on top of Android.
The new CarPlay is incredibly ambitious since it still plans to run the system from a phone. This is unlike the new Android Automotive infotainment backbone. I’m hesitant to say that it will be more widely adopted because of this but that remains to be seen. Now that Apple has a full in-car infotainment/control software system it might be even close to releasing the Apple car.
More to come…