What's happening with CarPlay?

CarPlay Ultra is running into resistance from car makers despite regular CarPlay's popularity

- DAVID CROOKES

It's been on a lengthy journey but CarPlay Ultra (aka next-gen CarPlay) has finally arrived. It's now available with new orders of Aston Martin vehicles in the US and Canada as well as in existing models that use the car maker's next-gen infotainment system. It will soon be available in new cars by Hyundai, Kia and Genesis too (with Porsche understood to be on the way) but where Car Play Ultra goes from there is anyone's guess.

What we know is you won't be enjoying CarPlay Ultra on a vehicle made by Volvo Cars, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Polestar or Renault - at least not unless they perform a sharp U-turn. You won't see it on a car made by General Motors either - it doesn’t even install the “standard” CarPlay on all of its EV models - and the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Nissan are yet to commit.

But then CarPlay Ultra has not had the easiest of rides since it was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2022 as a next-gen iteration of CarPlay. Although Apple claimed car makers were “excited to bring this new vision of CarPlay to customers” and said 14 of them were on board, as time passed, it became apparent there was a problem.

The first new vehicles with CarPlay Ultra were expected in 2023 but none materialised. Apple then stated on its website that the release timeframe was 2024, but it removed that reference in January 2025. Rumours then began circulating that some car manufacturers had misgivings about the nature of the second generation of CarPlay, not least because its reach extends further than an infotainment system.