CarPlay

For months, Chick-fil-A has been testing and teasing its first-ever CarPlay app. Now, the day has finally come and you an officially place your favorite Chick-fil-A order using nothing but 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 in June 2022, Apple announced what it calls the “next generation of CarPlay.” This new CarPlay interface is set to debut in new cars this year, and it’s going to be a big change.

The first automakers signed on to support next-gen CarPlay? Porsche and Aston Martin. Here’s everything we know.

As part of iOS 18 this month, Apple has major new accessibility features for iPhone users. Among improvements like Eye Tracking and upgrades to Vision Pro, Apple also has plans to bring some accessibility updates to CarPlay.

Target is rolling out its new CarPlay app this week. With this app, you can easily manage your Target Drive Up orders and find nearby Target locations using CarPlay.

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.

Welcome to 9to5Mac Gearbox. While Gearbox is primarily written for motorbike riders, you’ll find that riding technology isn’t always just for bikers. Stay safe and enjoy the ride!

Apple CarPlay is becoming more common on motorcycles, but infotainment systems are typically only offered on high-priced touring bikes. Fortunately, there’s a fantastic aftermarket solution for adding CarPlay to almost any motorcycle. I’ve been testing the CHIGEE AIO-5 Lite, an all-in-one system that includes a CarPlay/Android Auto display, front and rear cameras, and an integrated safety system to keep riders alert. 

A new J.D. Power survey of vehicle owners has confirmed that infotainment systems are the worst. The only saving grace? Phone-based systems aren’t quite as bad, with Apple’s CarPlay coming out on top.

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 introduce new wallpapers for iPhone and iPad users, and we’ve made them available for download here. However, with the release of iOS 18 beta 4 for developers on Tuesday, Apple has also added new wallpapers for CarPlay – and we’re making them available for download as well.

While CarPlay is widely available on the majority of cars nowadays, Rivian is one of the primary holdouts (alongside Tesla and now GM). In a new interview this week on the Decoder podcast, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe explained the company’s reasoning for not supporting CarPlay, while also touting its overall “great relationship with the Apple team.”

At WWDC 2024, Apple provided new details on its plans for next-generation CarPlay, focusing on how the design can be adapted by individual automakers. Now, the folks at design firm BlackBox Infinite have put Apple’s CarPlay framework to the test by “redesigning several iconic instrument clusters from the pre-screen era.”

I’ve written a lot about CarPlay over the years, including questioning GM’s decision to abandon CarPlay on all of its EVs. Now, a new survey has details on just how important CarPlay is for people shopping for a new car, with a third of consumers considering it an absolute must-have.

Apple hasn’t had much luck persuading car makers to adopt its next-gen CarPlay, in which its own UI takes over all or most of the vehicle’s displays. But a feature known as punch-through might be the compromise which gets the company at least some of the way there.

Punch-through was initially designed to allow the car’s own UI to take over in very limited cases, like automatically engaging backup cameras when reverse gear is selected, but it could be applied more generally to keep everyone happy …

Plans for the rollout of the next-gen CarPlay don’t seem to be going too well. Despite Porsche being announced as one of the first companies in line to support it, the company has implied that its first hybrid Porsche 911 won’t include it.

The German sports car maker says that the $164k 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS will see CarPlay “integrated more deeply into the vehicle,” but went on to imply that this doesn’t mean it will be the next-generation experience Apple first announced almost two years ago …

Last week, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius made it clear that the automaker has no plans to support Apple’s next-generation CarPlay platform.

In a new interview with The Verge, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath took a different approach and said that he would be open to giving Apple control over all the screens in a Polestar car.

A little over a year ago, General Motors made what may well turn out to be one of its biggest gambles in many years: dropping support for CarPlay for all future EVs.

To most of us, the decision seemed insane, likely to result in a huge number of lost sales – but a new report suggests that the company felt it had little choice …

The stock head unit with wired CarPlay in my 2017 Honda Civic EX recently gave up the ghost. The most affordable solution was a greatly upgraded aftermarket head unit from a brand called JOYING. It’s a 9-inch display with wireless CarPlay, a volume knob, and a design made for 10th-gen Honda Civics. It retails well below $500 and is worth every penny.

Apple unveiled its next generation of CarPlay at WWDC in 2022, then announced last year that its first partners would be Porsche and Aston Martin.

In an interview today, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius made it clear that the company has no plans to adopt next-generation CarPlay – despite being touted by Apple as a partner.

Apple CarPlay is the safest way to interact with your iPhone in the car. You never need to touch your iPhone while driving – something you should never ever do anyway. Instead, you control navigation, communication, and entertainment with voice control and a simplified interface on your car’s screen.

What if your car doesn’t have a built-in display? What if it has one that doesn’t work with Apple CarPlay? The good news is you don’t have to go out and buy a brand new car. In most cases, you can have a really good in-dash system installed for anywhere from $200 to $1,000. Picking the right solution before you make the investment is important.

One of the big changes in iOS 17 for CarPlay users is the addition of SharePlay support for Apple Music. This feature allows anyone in the car to control and contribute to what’s playing via Apple Music, rather than just one person.

I took SharePlay for Apple Music in iOS 17 for a recent drive. My takeaway? This is a very, very fun feature.

The DOJ lawsuit is 88 pages long, and I freely confess I haven’t yet finished reading it, but it seems one tech writer has – finding a claim that CarPlay is anticompetitive.

As the piece notes, it seems clear that the Department of Justice doesn’t actually understand what CarPlay is, or how it works, as the claim simply makes no sense …

Apple’s iOS 17.4 software update for iPhone is now available. It features major App Store changes in the EU, new emoji for everyone, and a slight update to CarPlay.

Here’s how Apple describes the CarPlay update in iOS 17.4: