Apple AirPlay found in latest version of Tesla iPhone app after Musk signaled support

Apple CarPlay is probably never coming to Tesla EVs, but it looks like next best thing is on the way.

It’s been over a year since Elon Musk said Tesla would consider adding AirPlay support to enhance wireless audio quality for music from iPhones. At the time, the Musk tweeted that he would “discuss this and other improvements with Tesla audio engineering” when asked about bringing AirPlay support to Teslas.

Fast forward to now and it appears that the Tesla audio engineering team has began laying the groundwork for Apple’s wireless audio technology. That’s according to @Tesla_iOS_App (via Not A Tesla App) on Twitter, who decompiled the latest version of the Tesla iPhone app to discover any interesting reference:

allowsAirPlayForMediaPlayback

While there’s no sign of AirPlay from iPhone to Tesla working just yet, this reference is a very strong indicator that the wifi-based audio streaming method is very much in the works.

Combined with Musk’s positive signaling a year ago, it seems plausible that we could see AirPlay added to Tesla EVs this year.

Apple dramatically overhauled AirPlay a few years ago to support up to 24-bit/48kHz audio playback over wifi. Aside from maximum audio quality, AirPlay support would allow drivers and passengers alike to send music and podcasts from iPhone to the Tesla sound system without ever pairing over Bluetooth.

We’ll keep you posted as this story hopefully unfolds over the next few weeks. You can grab the latest version of Tesla for iPhone from the App Store.

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