CarPlay

The FCC in the US has officially given Apple, Meta, and Google the go-ahead to tap into the 6GHz band for wireless devices. This comes four years after the companies teamed up to petition the FCC for access to this spectrum, with one of the biggest use cases being for augmented reality and virtual reality devices.

On last week’s episode of 9to5Mac Happy Hour, I complained about an ongoing CarPlay problem I’ve been experiencing on and off for nearly a year. Essentially, the GPS continually bugs out and completely breaks navigation via Apple Maps, Google Maps, or any other navigation app.

Since last week’s Happy Hour episode was released (listen here), I’ve heard from a lot of CarPlay users who are facing similar problems with GPS performance.

Honda and Acura are expanding their focus on CarPlay by bringing support for smart garage door openers to their respective CarPlay apps.

Currently, CarPlay integrates with HomeKit to present garage door information and control options. What this new Honda and Acura feature does, however, is bring even non-HomeKit compatible smart garage doors to CarPlay.

I’ve written a lot about GM’s shortsighted decision to abandon CarPlay in all of its EVs next year. On the flip side, however, Porsche has been expanding its focus on CarPlay, most recently with its My Porsche app for CarPlay adding climate controls and other in-car features.

In a new interview with ArsTechnica, Cyril Dorsaz, Porsche Digital’s principal product manager, offered more details on why the company believes CarPlay is the way of the future.

While Tesla itself has refused to adopt CarPlay over the years, there’s a thriving community of Tesla owners that have taken matters into their own hands. One of the leading projects here is called Tesla Android, an open-source operating system that brings CarPlay and a slew of other features to Tesla cars.

We last wrote about Tesla Android in June 2022, and the project has come a long way since then.

There are a lot of questions floating around right now about the future of CarPlay. Apple unveiled a completely new CarPlay experience at WWDC 2022 but hasn’t given us a single update since then. GM, meanwhile, recently announced its decision to drop CarPlay support in all of its future EVs.

With that said, there are still bright spots in the CarPlay ecosystem, and I recently had the chance to spend some time with one of them: The Polestar 2’s implementation of dual-screen CarPlay. This isn’t “next-generation” CarPlay, but it’s the closest thing to it right now.

Earlier this year, GM announced that it would be ditching CarPlay and Android Auto for all of its future EVs starting in 2024 in favor of a proprietary system. Now the all-new Cadillac Escalade IQ EV has been unveiled with a massive 55-inch LED display that could offer an amazing CarPlay experience. So will the company’s popular luxury SUV turned EV get an exception? GM says nope.

Porsche has released an update to its My Porsche app, allowing greater control of vehicle functions from within CarPlay – including wireless CarPlay support.

We got a chance to test out some of its features on a 2024 Cayenne, and it’s the first time we’ve felt an Apple-like experience from software made by a traditional automaker.

DoorDash is following in the footsteps of Uber and adding support for CarPlay to its delivery app for drivers. The company announced the new app in a blog post as part of its efforts to “make the dashing experience even better” for drivers.

In case you missed it, GM is planning to ditch CarPlay in all of its future EVs starting next year. A new survey from JD Power today only further highlights the stupidity of GM’s decision, revealing that fewer people than ever enjoy in-car infotainment systems from automakers. Instead – wait for it – they prefer CarPlay.

Earlier this year, GM announced its boneheaded decision to ditch CarPlay in all of its future EVs, opting for a partnership with Google instead. The company has received an incredible amount of backlash since that announcement, and unsurprisingly, GM dealerships are also none too happy about the move.

Hyundai’s complicated relationship with CarPlay might soon get a little bit easier to understand. A new report this week suggests that Hyundai plans to add support for wireless CarPlay and Android Auto to its cars that are also equipped with integrated satellite navigation, starting later this year. Historically, Hyundai cars with integrated navigation have only supported wired CarPlay.

Fancy the new iOS 17 default wallpaper? CarPlay has its own version, and now there are color options.

iOS 17 beta 2 adds blue, gray, and red options to the existing multicolor wallpaper version. Each color has a light and dark mode.

iOS 17 is now available in beta for developers, and the pre-release version of the iPhone update includes a few changes for CarPlay. An update to Apple Music is the biggest change, but there’s more to see.

ETA is an iPhone and Apple Watch app dedicated to prominently displaying travel times and traffic conditions. The latest version of ETA puts that information on the screen in your car too.

Here’s a twist in the ongoing story of GM and CarPlay. General Motors has hired Mike Abbott to run its software team, the company announced today. That’s the same Mike Abbott who just left Apple after spending five years in charge of iCloud software.

Instapaper, the popular read-it-later service, is now available via CarPlay. You might be wondering how a reading-focused app translates to CarPlay, but it all comes down to text-to-speech technology.

VLC, the popular open source media player, is now available via Apple’s CarPlay platform for the first time. The new VLC app on CarPlay gives you easy access to your audio files while driving, rather than relying on using the iPhone app while behind the wheel.

Over the last several weeks, CarPlay has been in the headlines quite a bit thanks to GM’s decision to bail on the platform and Rivian’s continued resistance. Apple, however, isn’t concerned and has recently updated its website to promote the fact that over 800 cars on the market currently support the feature.

As companies like GM and Rivian face backlash for failing to adopt Apple’s CarPlay platform, Ford is doing the exact opposite. In a statement to 9to5Mac, Ford explained its reasoning for supporting CarPlay…and it has us pondering the future of Ford’s relationship with Apple and next-gen CarPlay.

Eddy Cue teased “iOS in the Car” in 2013, and Apple released CarPlay as an update to iOS 8 a year later. CarPlay was slow to be adopted by automakers in the first few years. Pioneer brought CarPlay to existing cars first in 2014, then Hyundai released the first new vehicle with CarPlay integration in 2015.

Now, a decade since its first public appearance, it has become harder* to buy a new car without CarPlay. Yet General Motors is positioning itself as a new adversary for Apple and CarPlay. Greedy and nefarious reasons for dropping Apple CarPlay from GM EVs are most likely to blame, but I do wonder if a certain preview from Apple is a factor too.