Toyota has gradually been expanding its lineup of CarPlay-enabled vehicles, announcing earlier this week that it would be retrofitting the infotainment system to select 2018 models. Now, Toyota has announced the first-ever Prius with CarPlay integration.
Toyota has announced its latest vehicles to receive Apple CarPlay during the Chicago Auto Show today. The 2020 TRD Pro family of trucks and SUVs includes the Sequoia, Tundra, Tacoma, and 4Runner which are all getting CarPlay, Android Auto, and Alexa integration.
Toyota was one of the few auto manufacturers to seemingly holdout on adding CarPlay support to its vehicles until this year. Now, the brand is bringing Apple’s in-car platform to two more of its 2019 models.
Toyota, listed by Apple as an official CarPlay partner, has told the NY Times that it “currently has no plans” to offer the system in the USA.
John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology communications, said while the company talked frequently with both Google and Apple, it currently had no plans to adopt Android Auto or CarPlay in the United States.
“We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Mr. Hanson said.
Toyota’s backtracking began last year, when the company posted a statement on its UK blog that CarPlay would be coming to 2015 models before hastily deleting the post. A brief replacement statement said that “no announcements have been made about if and when Apple CarPlay will arrive in Toyota cars.”
Toyota remains listed as a “committed partner” on Apple’s own website.
The day after Apple officially launched CarPlay, allowing iPhone functionality to be accessed via in-car screen systems, Apple’s VP of iPhone and iOS product marketing is at the Geneva Motor Show to help launch Carplay in the Ferrari FF. Swiss site MacPrime brought us photos of the launch …
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5OZMu5u0yU]
Earlier this month we reported that a developer was seemingly able to get Apple’s upcoming iOS in the Car feature running through what we assumed was the iOS Simulator. Today, the same developer, Steven Troughton-Smith, has posted the video embedded above showing the feature actually up and running in a 800×480 Simulator window. Using the iPhone Simulator and iOS 7.0.3, the video shows the Maps app, a crude multitasking tray of sorts, and the ability to search by voice to navigate. No other apps are shown in the video, but it does appear that media controls of some kind are in the multitasking tray like in previous versions of iOS.
We noted before that the design had changed quite significantly since Apple first showed off the feature on stage at WWDC last year. The first set of screenshots posted showed a horizontal navigation bar, but the new video shows a design that’s much closer to what Apple showed on stage and what it is currently displaying on its website. Smith also made some notes of his own after playing with the simulator:
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