Remember when Apple announced that in the near-future, CarPlay would be able to take over the entire dashboards of new cars? Yeah, that was in 2022. Three years feels like a lifetime in tech circles, and it’s about a half-lifetime for a single generation of automobile. Yet here we are in 2025 without any sign of next-generation CarPlay in a new vehicle yet. It’s an uncharacteristic delay for a company known for shipping products soon after announcing them, and at this point, do we even want Apple’s vision of the dashboard of tomorrow?
Let’s throw things back to June of 2022, when Apple announced the next-generation of CarPlay at its Worldwide Developers Conference. It was a shiny thing, with the company’s own mocked-up digital gauges and emphasis on shiny widgets, but it was enough of a dashboard takeover to be divisive to say the least. It certainly divided us, with Jason Torchinsky writing:
As much as I’d like to be a hard-ass and say this is all terrible, and these sorts of frivolous widgets have no place on a dashboard, I’m also a human being, with faults and flaws ingrained and mixed in me like peanuts and marshmallows in Rocky Road ice cream, so I know that we make bad decisions every day, all the time.
As you probably expected, this idea got me a lot of blowback already, even before we published this. David fundamentally doesn’t seem to get my point, and Thomas thinks that adding any extra distractions is a bad idea.
I don’t think either of them are wrong.
The concept of selectable widgets for easily distractible humans to look at while piloting two tons of metal and glass down a public highway at 70 MPH seems flawed from a safety perspective, but Apple said it wasn’t letting up despite lukewarm automaker sentiment. In 2023, just two manufacturers—Porsche and Aston Martin—announced next-generation CarPlay integration for 2024, a year that has since come and gone. It all makes you wonder what happened, and whether anyone still vibes with Apple’s vision.
I still reckon that car stuff like gauges and instruments and phone stuff like music streaming and navigation should stay separate, because infotainment and pure information are two different things. For maps and audio, a phone is most users’ native tech experience. For stuff you actually need to drive a car, your speed and fuel level and temperature gauges and so on, drivers are used to the information provided by automakers. Now, Apple is set to let automakers create their own gauge packs within next-generation CarPlay, but users will allegedly also be able to choose Apple’s own designs, and some elements of them just aren’t intuitive.
In this rendering, the digital readout for speed is fine and dandy, and most consumers will be okay with an idiot gauge for coolant temperature, but things devolve once you look a bit closer. For one, the fuel gauge here has absolutely no hash marks for each quarter-tank, bare-minimum design elements most drivers are used to because most cars have featured them for almost a century. A half-tank or a quarter-tank on the gauge is a good ballpark for deciding when you want to fill up, because not everyone waits for the empty light, and not everyone wants to guess on a vague unitless gauge.
At the same time, a tachometer that isn’t easy to read at a glance might not bother most drivers who simply drop it into drive and go, but I picture a tiny four-digit engine speed readout inside a large skeuomorphic circle being extremely weird if you’re using paddle shifters. Perhaps that’s why, in next-generation CarPlay mockups, Porsche and Aston Martin chose more conventional digital gauges.
Then there’s the complexity of next-generation CarPlay integration. While we’re already seeing some automakers like Volvo and BMW display CarPlay navigation apps like Waze in their digital instrument clusters, that doesn’t involve intercepting and interpreting a boatload of powertrain data. As it stands, CarPlay lets your infotainment system display and control iOS. Expanding CarPlay to cover things like gauges and climate control requires a far higher level of integration and a fresh set of cybersecurity considerations, and it may be proving more challenging than Apple anticipated.
As it stands, Apple CarPlay works just fine as it is, bringing a bit of every iPhone user’s native tech experience into vehicles’ infotainment systems. People like it enough to not even consider buying a car without it, and demand for further immersion is uncertain at best. With consumer sentiments trending more toward buttons than screens and automakers looking to wrestle control of users’ data, there’s a chance that the next generation of CarPlay has simply missed the boat, an uncharacteristic look for a titan of tech.
Top graphic credit: Apple, Story via Macworld
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I love CarPlay, and specifically wireless CarPlay, but I don’t care if it gets stretched over all my screens. It already interacts somewhat with my Acura’s instrument cluster, showing my next turn (also on my HUD) and the song I’m listening to in the center of my tachometer.
I would like to see updates come that don’t require new hardware in the car. I would like to see more apps available to use with CarPlay, for instance, but I don’t know if things like that EVER get updates. I suppose there’s a safety reason why OBD2 apps don’t work on CarPlay, for instance, even though it’d be super useful sometimes.
Having people arrange their own dashboard information is like having a surgical patient select and arrange the tools for their surgery. It won’t end well, even if the driver/patient is a little entertained before the inevitable disaster.
CarPlay is great for navigation and controlling music and audio. The fact that it mirrors the interface the driver is most accustomed to is a huge benefit. However, core vehicle functions that are essential for operating the vehicle should be physical controls designed and located by individuals who understand what they are doing.
werid anaogy, its more comparable to people changing the skin on their media player on their washing machine
yall have issues
Those sort-of-skeumorphic gauges with absolutely no indication of numerical ranges are essentially useless. The ones in my truck are bad enough because they’re lacking tick marks at important speeds like 65, but you might as well not bother if you’re going to do something this stupid.
Then again, minimalism to a fault is pretty much the Apple way so I guess I’m not surprised.
the only think I need to know 99% of the time is the speed I am going, which is displayed as a two digit number
I still read articles about Apple CarPlay (just because Thomas wrote it, TBH ;-)) even though I continue to go through life sans smartphone. Plus, my youngest car (an ’04 Volvo) doesn’t 🙁 even have an ‘aux in’ jack, let alone CarPlay/Android Auto compatibility. Ever since that article David wrote about how the Dodge Caliber (I think it was) came with that fuzzy plastic pocket for an iPod, I’m obsessed with using my old iPod in the Volvo. Short of a crappy FM modulator (I miss Fry’s, which sold a lot of them) the main option for getting an ‘aux in’ jack (plus a bunch of other stuff I don’t need) on my early XC90 is to install a $500 thingy called the Denison Gateway 500, and I’m just too decrepit to spend hours on my back under a dashboard now.
There are some other hacks for adding an ‘aux in’ jack, but they all seem to involve taking the dashboard apart and soldering on circuit boards. I don’t mind soldering (at all) but again, I can’t muster the enthusiasm to rip up the dash: haven’t done that since I was a limber 20-year-old futzing around with an A1 VW.
You guys are werid and literally nobody gives a shit you have a 19 year old volvo
Well, that’s not very nice. But you know what they say about opinions…
youre the one who wrote a 200 word opinion about why your 19 year old volvo is the best car ever
maybe look in the mirror for the asshole in the middle of your face
Yes, because while CarPlay’s native interface might not be immediately intuitive to some, the fact that it can be used over multiple different vehicles is an inherent benefit.
I drive a number of different government pool vehicles for a living. Instead of learning the quirks of every manufacturers digital interface, I can reliably drive a vehicle with no prior seat time experience, knowing all of my gauges and important information are always in the exact same places.
As an average NBA height guy, I especially would like to have that kind of portability for my seat controls and climate controls. Instead of wasting five minutes every time adjusting steering columns and seat positions, I would like CarPlay to directly set those up in all of my vehicles for me.
I refuse any rental car that doesn’t have carplay.
Can’t speak to Apple Car Play but Android Auto is just as buggy and shitty as it was in 2016. Especially when it comes to controlling music apps.
When I tell it I want to listen to a song it often pulls up some random shitty live recording of said song. It also has a habit of playing remixes. My Daughters love New Order but it almost never plays the album version and instead forces God awful remixes by people I’ve never heard of down our throats.
Very often it won’t play the song at all. God forbid I ask it to play “Perfect People” by Pennywise. It can’t fucking do it. Most often it will play some BS by Less than Jake instead. If I type in exactly what I said into Spotify directly it gets the song every time.
And it’s been like this for almost 10 years now. I’m ready to go back to mix tapes at this rate.
Having a modern car with all the gizmos now feels like being the rich kid who got an Atari Jaguar at launch.
Every selling point turns out to be worse than the cheaper, more popular alternatives that came both before and, inevitably, after.
Maybe this tech will eventually pave the way for a good, modern experience that’s as dependable as a 1988 Camry. But for now, it’s just not worth it.
how many people had this same sentiment in 1988 saying that modern cars weren’t better than what was built in 1952
please understand how dumb you sound
I dropped a Carplay/Android Auto compatible head unit in my 2014 Sportwagen and I love it. It’s nothing fancy, but it lets me display my GPS app of choice on the screen built into the car, something the factory radio does not do. That’s all I really wanted Android Auto for, anyway. The factory screen did nothing but display the backup camera and basic media controls, and the wasted space bugged me. Its a huge improvement, and of course the rest of the instrumentation is analogue or in a basic little LCD screen between the gauges. I prefer minimal tech in my car, but the Android Auto upgrade made things just a little more convenient.
I’m an enjoyer of my screenless 2010 vehicle. It has a cd changer and FM/AM radio for entertainment.
I don’t want Apple anything in my car. Nor, for that matter, Google anything.
Gauges to monitor the car, a radio, and physical buttons/switches for HVAC, lights, etc. No screens.
Drivers should not be distracted by hunting for touch-buttons, scrolling or any of that extraneous stuff. Techies can have them all in simulators, thus making the road safer for drivers.
This has “old man yells at clouds” written all over it.
Look I like physical controls too, but I also like being able to very quickly listen to my podcasts and music using the same familiar interface from my phone apps. Just a few taps from controls that are consistently in the same spots.
I also like having global navigation at my fingertips and knowing ahead of time if there’s some traffic delays on my route and getting automatically routed around them.
Sure, I don’t like the Tesla style of “every control is on the center screen”, but especially for CarPlay, the consistent interface regardless of the vehicle does have its own safety in familiarity, especially for people like me who are constantly in different unfamiliar rental cars and areas for work travel.
It can be implemented in a way that doesn’t really require interaction once moving. The GR86/BRZ have buttons for the main display stuff and the controls that would be used while underway have more traditional dials and switches. When I get in, I connect the phone, set a destination if I’m doing so, and put on music. I drive off and that’s about it for the touchscreen. If I’m not using GPS, I usually shut the display off before leaving (this took me way too long to realize I could do!) as it will still play and the audio controls still work on the steering wheel. The way they designed it, it’s less distracting than the old days of tapes and CDs, if one were going to change them while driving. If you want to change playlists, I think it requires the car to be stopped, but I set up my playlists so that isn’t something I’m really going to want to do. Frustratingly, most cars do not do this and they suck for it, but it is possible to do it correctly even on a low-volume, fairly low-priced car that I’m surprised they make any money on.
I’m by no means a luddite, as emerging technology research is my career these days, but I can’t suppress my engineer instincts that prefer core functionality and reliability above superficial functionality. I don’t want screens everywhere that allow for common-mode failure of my primary monitoring and diagnostic tool (dash gauges). I get the cost-savings that come from manufacturing a single component to replace multiple components, but I’m also not sold that the tradeoffs and superficial functionality is worth it. My automobiles are automobiles first, not mobile infotainment centers.
This is where I sit, as well. I get accused of being Luddite or whatever, but it’s not that I’m against technology (there are some things I quite love—including ACP—and, unlike so many others, suffer from almost no nostalgia, so I’d argue I’m actually below average in terms of being a Luddite), I’m against tech for the sake of it that offers little to no meaningful benefit for real losses in privacy, usability, durability, user-serviceability, safety, satisfying user experience, and cost, along with increased large supply chain dependency and a ready means of intrusion by nefarious criminals, industry, and government (although, the last two are redundant, there’s a necessary distinction). I am heavily against planned and forced obsolescence and also highly value the engagement and tactility of honest, real experience over fake electronic substitutes. When people call me a Luddite, all I hear is the jabber of an unimaginative and unknowledgeable doormat with little personal accomplishment who happily hands over their autonomy for infantile-like dependency.
In this context what does ACP stand for? Affordabal Connectivity Program?
I like the concept of this from a customization standpoint but they are probably having to spend a lot of resources to integrate with all the different internal vehicle architectures from different brands, different coding and logic behind since they are not part of the development of the vehicle; testing is crucial here for the best user experience.
I don’t think automakers are open to let a third party access all the data from the vehicle and what Apple can do with that data, look at GM and smart driving fiasco.
It took forever for Polestar to add carplay to their vehicles that run with Google Automotive OS and I only used it as a backup when the vehicle connectivity was slow when driving in rural areas.
The only way this could work is if you don’t need an iPhone to have this and Apple will be the third party supplier for software and infotainment, I don’t think automakers are willing to spend billions on this to someone else do it and profit from it.
You know what I really need is a 112pt letter indicating the transmission drive mode, and a grey-on-grey 12pt afterthought of any actual information.
But, but… how else are you going to know you’re not in reverse?
Perhaps a reminder to use correct floormats, and not to stack them would be more helpful.
I want seamless integration. I want the map to be completely integrated into my display. Specifically, the HUD with turn directions and alerts in my Volvo. This does not happen because Volvo wants to be independent and also use CarPlay on the side. Volvo prevents CarPlay from interfacing with the HUD and only the Volvo app throws alerts.
CarPlay 1.0 is implemented as a walled garden and prevents what I want. CarPlay 2.0 is supposed to take care of this and allow the interface to be seamless.
I’ve been driving my 2001 and our 2015 vehicles in an equal rotation lately; the former was only recently made properly roadworthy, so I’ve been trying to shake out any issues.
Apart from all the minor broken crap, which now includes a trip/mpg computer that only works about 10% of the time, it’s been…refreshing. I have 6 CDs in the trunk, radio in the dash, a bluetooth FM adaptor for the occasional podcast. But the thing that gets me above all else is just the sheer engagement that comes from having no screens and doing everything by touch.
This might seem obvious to Autopians who regularly drive pre-2012(ish) vehicles, but I can’t overstate how nice it is to just focus on a wheel, throttle, and brake, plus a little bit of manu-matic shifting. And my eyes are always looking outward, not down. It constantly makes me wonder if boring cars beget screens; or if screen beget boring cars. There’s some weird symbiosis at work here.
you know, I can turn my screen off when I don’t need that info.
I even have a physical dial to dim all the lights to reduce distraction
Also of note: The speedo, tach, temp gauge, and fuel gauge all still work perfectly, as does the climate control. It makes me wonder how these things will hold up in 24 years in a screen-heavy car. That just feels like waste, and we’re long overdue for someone to come up with modularity and anti-obsolescence measures (my vote is still for durable iPads that can be replaced as needed). If we’re going to focus on environmentalism, let’s take a hard look at reducing the replacement cycle of cars first.
The big shift came in the 1990s when robots started making engines and gearboxes, followed by electronic injection and common rail for diesels. I drive cars first registered in 2004 and 2006, both with 250,000 km on them and mechanically they are fine. Before then gaskets would almost always blow at around 100,000 km, with cascading failures from them on.
I am absolutely convinced it is more environmentally conscious to drive like I do, rather than buy new, electric or not.
The owner’s wife where I work had her main screen go out on her ’17 Escalade. She couldn’t control anything until she ponied up couple thousand $$ to replace it.
Give me physical gauges directly in front of me and a screen in the center stack with my current music selection and Waze, preferably in a large-enough font that I can see them clearly while wearing sunglasses. Props to Android Auto for keeping their interface relatively simple, at least for the time being.
This. Analog gauges. Display in the center, preferably standardized double-din so I can upgrade it when it inevitably becomes outdated.
I like how the new Bugatti Tourbillon has no digital screens. Bugatti understands me.
I never use Apple Car Play. I don’t want my car to be an extension of my phone. My phone is enough of a bother as is and when I’m driving I’d rather try to enjoy myself than be distracted by the day to day hoopla. My car is a bit of a sanctuary for me. It’s one of the reasons why I like to have something that’s fun to drive. I get to eek a little bit of joy out of the routine.
I guess I’m a real technophobe because I just use my native infotainment for everything. It has navigation, I have SiriusXM radio which I rather enjoy and gets me out of an endless loop of my own playlists, and I can take calls via Bluetooth if I really have to, which I almost never do.
That’s enough for me. I don’t need 9,000 screens. I don’t want my entire life to be one giant online tech experience.
I love CarPlay and hate cars without it now.
why do you even comment on something you refuse to use? are you afraid you might actually find it convenient?
I’ve used it many times and found that it doesn’t improve my quality of life in any noteworthy way
That’s fine; millions of people disagree and it hasn’t caused any more accidents than drive thus do.
I’m genuinely confused what your intention was with this response. Can you share?
Are you really that dumb?
apple carplay improves my quality of life and most new car buyers agree.
there’s no car with 9,000 screens as the person who proudly uses old tech claims
Simply trying to understand who pissed in your cheerios. If we’re exchanging personal attacks, I would prescribe a chill pill to the attitude that you’ve portrayed across the site. It’s not a welcome or appreciated one, my friend.
Im just bored at work, I really don’t care what you think
I have a different experience. I find that having Android Auto minimizes headaches with infotainment. If I want nav, I don’t futz with a nav system that is usually fairly clunky and gets less frequent map updates. I can set up a playlist that will last the entire trip and not pay for satellite radio (which I’ve done before and didn’t find worth it, especially since you need to call them every time the promotion ends or you pay way too much).
I don’t think that I need access to any more apps than those, but those are enough to keep me using it. But I definitely don’t need Google Gauges or some crap.
This – for average daily commute or errands I don’t need CarPlay, but when it comes to nav, even against a good built-in nav unit plugging in a location on the phone is quicker than arguing with the voice activation or touchscreen bipbapboop, plus there’s real time traffic updates which are valuable even when I know the directions.
People are usually either in one camp with satellite radio vs. streaming audio. Streaming services are not without their caveats, but in my experience satellite radio has their own playlists basically like terrestrial radio, and the sound quality often has this coffee can-like quality.
Yeah, I have not generally been pleased with the satellite audio quality and have to change channels often because of their repetitive playlists. My parents love it, though, because they take long drives and just want something like terrestrial radio, but without changing stations as they go. Certainly worth it for some folks.
HD Radio, on the other hand, if you are lucky enough to live close enough to lock on to the digital portion of the broadcast reliably, has OUTSTANDING sound quality. Whatever Ibiquity’s codec is, it sounds pretty awesome.
Yeah, HD Radio is great when you can get it! And the fact that some places have alternate broadcasts available is also really cool. When I first heard about it, I was skeptical, but the first time I kicked into HD range and heard the difference, I was impressed.
Satellite radio…
Not only does it sound bad, their playlists are small, there’s too many channels, and generally, it’s just like cable: a panoply of mediocrity that’s not worth paying for.
It’s also owned by a company I’d rather not do business with, as they will use my money to lobby actively against things I want.
Every year I do the 3 months for $2 on SiriusXM and I enjoy it. The simplicity of it just being radio is appealing.
And then after a week or so, when I’ve heard the same shit get repeated multiple times, I go “ah, yeah, this is why I never do the full year subscription, duh”
The sound quality is ass, the playlists are needlessly repetitive and I already own all the stuff I like hearing on Lithium and Ozzy’s Boneyard.
I’m with you on HD radio… It’s good! Better quality, no ads/breaks and one in Chicago (97.1.2) actually plays deep cuts.
I think if you have a desire to listen to a whole bunch of different music then SiriusXM delivers for the most part…but if you prefer to stick within a single genre or two (nothing wrong with that, this isn’t a DURR MY TASTE IS BETTER rant) then it gets super limited. I have eclectic (some would use the phrase music ADD to describe it) taste and I find it very convenient to be able to quickly cycle through different genres to find what I’m in the mood for.
One day it’s metal, another it’s classic R&B, maybe it’s red dirt country the next, etc. I find that convenience to be…well, very convenient because it saves me time not having to search through my library. But my single biggest issue with SiriusXM is that if there’s a band or artist that transcends a single channel they have a tendency to beat them into the ground.
Like…of course I enjoy Pantera, but if I’m in the mood for something heavy and Walk or Cemetary Gates are playing across Octane, Liquid Metal, Ozzy’s Boneyard, and Turbo I’m gonna be pissed…and it happens kind of often. If I’m in the mood for modern rap and 3 different channels are playing me Anxiety by Doechii I’m not gonna be happy.
The worst I can remember is when Pearl Jam made their big comeback back in the 20 teens and released the song Sirens. Dear god almighty. That song would be playing on the Spectrum, Lithium, Alt Nation, Octane, fuckin Turbo, etc every single day. It felt like I couldn’t escape it and it made me absolutely loathe the song…which kind of sucked because there was nothing inherently bad about it? Like it’s definitely not an S tier Pearl Jam banger but it’s not BAD.
SiriusXM giveth and it taketh away. I’m personally fine with living with its eccentricities, but I get why some people aren’t. I also think the rock channels in particular need to be better about not playing the same shit all the time (except First Wave, that channel and its DJs are phenomenal). I don’t necessarily think it’s as big of an issue with other genres that have multiple channels, but then again the state of rock radio in general is just sad across the board so I’m not sure if this problem is unique to satellite radio.
First Wave is excellent. XMU is alright as well, but it gets a bit repetitive.Spectrum suffers from constantly trying to make bands like The Avett Brothers and Red Clay Strays a thing. The best channel used to be The Loft, which AFAIK didn’t actually have a playlist and you’d hear everything from Neko Case to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. but that wound up getting dropped for Dave Matthews Radio or some shit.
dude, get a fuckin life
Why? I’m not the one berating people on car blogs 😉
You’re writing 5 paragraph essays of pure bullshit about why you don’t like modern tech on a Tuesday morning.
seriously, get a fucking life
Another vote for First Wave. And I like to bounce around some of the comedy channels. The sound quality was crap in ’15 BMW my ex owned. It came with the ’17 Accord I bought, and it was much better. I haven’t read of any infrastructure improvements on their end in the roughly two years those vehicles were built, so I can’t explain the marked difference in sound quality. The biggest annoyances are off on loss of signal along about a 10 mile stretch of northbound I-5 (they have two satellites, one over the equator due south of the Florida panhandle and the other out west due south of roughly San Diego). And being fairly far north it doesn’t take much of a ridge to block the signal. They also have a network of terrestrial repeaters to fill in gaps in concrete canyons, tunnels etc.
“ a nav system that is usually fairly clunky and gets less frequent map updates.”
This. Never again needing to input my destination address using these clunky interfaces is reason enough for me to love CarPlay.
Although I have no need for extended CarPlay. Apple can keep that one. I also prefer analog gauges tho.
My guess is the consumer backlash for replacing all input and dashboards with screens killed their plans or at least forced them to go back and rethink.
Original CarPlay offered real value in improved user function. This updated version feels cosmetic and an over reach.
the people who complain on this site think owning a 20 year old car is the equivalent of having a personality
carplay is safer and easier than most alternatives
I really hope Apple has decided to stick with just the infotainment. I believe there is a place for some customization of the gauges, but that should be offered by the vehicle, not a connected phone. Additional points of failure for critical gauges is bad enough to avoid it even if they figured out how to balance their aesthetics with actual usability.
Thank you. I am probably not alone in that ALL I want displayed from my phone is google maps, I want to play the music on my phone, and take a hands free phone call. Nothing else needed. Sometimes tech need to know that “less is more”
You’re not alone.
Some of this stuff makes no sense. I understand backseat reminders, but a display on your dash to tell you who is in the vehicle? Turn your head around, my guy.
Temperature is fine, I guess, but your dermal sensor probably indicated what is and isn’t comfortable on the walk to the car.
I 100% do not want my car giving me calendar reminders. I don’t want to see cover art. I don’t want a giant bright screen reducing my nighttime distance vision. I don’t want a visual indicator to pop up and show that I’m increasing or decreasing the audio system volume because, you know what? I can fucking hear it. And then then little pop-up takes time to disappear. During that time, I often want to select some other function, and instead I have to wait.
The people who want specific numbers and categorization are running amok.
just because you can….etc.
It’s time for some real standards.
If you’re going to have all that stuff in the car, it shouldn’t take me TWO MILES of driving before it’s no longer sluggish or doing random shit as it boots up (my current experience with UConnect 5 in our GC 4xe). It should work without delay from start-up, or it shouldn’t be in the car. It’s a hazard otherwise. I realize that’s challenging. Get to it.
Well said and my current uconnect in my wrangler also takes a while to connect to my phone.
but they cant appease shareholders by just keeping it the same because its good
they have to make it new, so that people will beg for classic
and the programmers need to keep changing stuff to stay employed.