Newsletter
Apple previewed its next-generation version of CarPlay at WWDC back in June 2022. It was met with a lot of excitement, as the current version of CarPlay is mostly just a blown-up iPhone home screen that has larger touch targets – a lot like Android Auto, actually. Since then, we haven’t heard much about the next-generation CarPlay.
A report from Car and Driver shows off the first couple of vehicles that will launch with the new CarPlay. They come from Aston Martin and Porsche. So most of us won’t be able to use it.
The first renders of Porsche’s CarPlay interface show that it has a trio of circular gauges in the cluster, along with a background wallpaper. Meanwhile, Aston Martin is going a slightly different route, with its cluster including central information on the screen, which has the speedometer and tachometer on either side. With the tachometer integrating the “Handbuilt in Great Britain” wraparound text.
This is Apple’s answer to Google Built-In
A few years ago, I was at Google I/O when the company was showing off a new version of Android Auto that would power the entire car. Which was originally called “Android Automotive,” and that was not a good name because it was super similar to Android Auto, even though the two products were very different. It’s now called “Google Built-In,” which makes more sense.
Essentially, Google Built-In has all of your Google services built-in. Including Google Maps, YouTube (can only used when parked, obviously), YouTube Music, the Play Store, and much more. Apple’s next-generation CarPlay is very similar to that, where the whole car is running off of CarPlay. This also means that we’re going to need to have an iPhone to get the best experience here. Similar to the Google Built-In vehicles like the Hummer EV, Blazer EV, and Polestar 2, which need an Android phone to really take full advantage. However, thanks to Google’s apps being more cross-platform, you are able to get away with using an iPhone on Google Built-In vehicles.
