Apple rolls out rebranded “CarPlay Ultra” three years after its unveiling
Almost three years after announcing what was then called next-generation CarPlay—or, colloquially, CarPlay 2—Apple on Thursday celebrated rolling out what it now calls “CarPlay Ultra” in a single automaker’s vehicles.
If you guessed that automaker was an exceptionally high-end company selling a relatively small number of vehicles, you’d be right: hello, Aston Martin. According to Apple, the update is available in new Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada starting today and will start appearing in compatible existing models in “the coming weeks” via a dealer-provided software update. It requires an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or later.
CarPlay Ultra’s goals, according to Apple, are to provide deeper integration with the car experience, taking over all of the vehicle’s screens, including providing real-time information in the instrument cluster. It’s intended to move beyond navigation and entertainment, letting drivers also interact with car features like climate control.
This update has traveled a bumpy road with a lot of detours since its initial introduction at WWDC 2022. At the time, Apple said the first car models with support would be announced in late 2023, and named a variety of partners, none of which have yet delivered a product. Aston Martin, notably, was not on that initial list. In January of this year, the company edited its website to remove a note about the first vehicles shipping in 2024.
The CarPlay 2 traffic jam has been largely the result of conflicting priorities between Apple and its partners where the rubber meets the road. Apple, of course, wants to exercise control over the whole system, but automakers are loath to give up control to a third-party, especially as they’d like to generate revenue by selling their own services—see General Motors, which said in 2023 that it would be discontinuing support for CarPlay and Android Auto.
That’s one reason Apple’s press release revving up CarPlay Ultra is replete with language about “reflecting the automaker’s look and feel” and “deeply integrating with the car’s systems and showcasing the unique look and feel of each automaker.” In fact, there’s a whole section of the announcement called “A Design Unique to Each Automaker” that stresses how Apple creates the design in collaboration with automakers.
Apple claims to be working with additional car manufacturers, specifically naming Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. But it stops short of providing specific timelines or vehicles that might support the new system.
Personally, I’m a longtime CarPlay user and fan—I put a compatible head unit in my car back in 2019 and haven’t looked back. I appreciate what Apple’s trying to do here—let’s all agree that most automakers aren’t great at the software side of the business—but it’s also clear Apple has an uphill drive to get carmakers to sign on and give up their control.
Dealing with the imperfect realities of partner companies is a place where Apple doesn’t always have the best track record. While I’m glad to see the company isn’t pumping the brakes on next-generation CarPlay, it does still feel like they’ve taken their foot off the gas.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the sci-fi spy thriller The Armageddon Protocol, is out now.]
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