CarPlay has become a key way for me to use my iPhone while driving. My current car is rapidly approaching its 10th birthday, but the fact that it managed to offer CarPlay support (even though it’s only wired) is crucial for me. From using the display in my dash to manage my music, see where Maps needs me to turn, or handle a (dreaded) Teams call, CarPlay rapidly went from a nice feature to something critical. I may not always plug my phone in to use it (if I don’t directly need it I’ll often just use Bluetooth for music), but when I do need it, then it need it.
Several years ago, Apple announced a fresh take on CarPlay called CarPlay Ultra. Rather than simply being a screen in the dash, CarPlay would take over the entire dash, showing everything from your entertainment to the speed, RPMs, fuel level, etc. Things that were normally just part of the car behind the steering wheel would now be a part of CarPlay. Everything you look at while driving a car would be dictated by Apple. After the announcement, however, things went quiet. In fact, some automakers started to do an about-face and stop supporting CarPlay and Android Auto because they realized that while these offerings were better for consumers, they benefited more from only offering their own (inferior) experience and being able to collect and sell user data. While it wasn’t overly relevant for me at the moment since I’m not in the market for a new vehicle, it had started to become concerning that maybe the CarPlay dream wouldn’t make it to reality.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, though, and there was finally some headway. Aston Martin was announced as the first manufacturer that will support CarPlay Ultra. The teaser they shared was encouraging:
Naturally, 46 seconds isn’t exactly enough time to go in-depth on what CarPlay Ultra really offers, but Top Gear was kind enough to give us a nearly 20 minute look into just what it’s all about:
It’s quite the understatement to say that this is cool as hell. It was really interesting to see how, at least for Aston Martin, users get a choice of whether the UI retains the Aston Martin look and feel or if they go full on for something straight out of the Apple playbook. It was also clarifying to see that UI elements which aren’t a part of CarPlay Ultra can still bubble up through Apple’s UI so that no functionality is lost; whatever customizable experiences an automaker offers won’t be lost simply because of choosing a given UI.
Of course, at the end of the day I’m not exactly a person who is likely to be in the market for an Aston Martin (regardless of how much I may like them.) I need other automakers to opt in to supporting CarPlay Ultra, which swings things back around to manufacturers who want to stay in control of the entire experience so they can harvest and sell more of your data. Unless circumstances change, I don’t plan on buying a new car any time soon, but it’s interesting to think about the fact that, outside of the common things like performance, maintenance, and reliability, software support has now managed to become a key factor when deciding on what car to buy.