Requests to car manufacturers: hardly any information on CarPlay Ultra
Apple's improved CarPlay Ultra is currently only available in Aston Martin in the USA and Canada. But what about other manufacturers?
CarPlay Ultra in the car: Nice, but hardly available.
(Image: Apple)
Apple's in-depth iPhone vehicle integration CarPlay Ultra has already received good marks from initial testers: The system is easy to use and the direct transfer of additional functions to the dashboard improves CarPlay overall. The problem is that only one car brand has currently announced that it will follow suit. And Aston Martin vehicles, which will initially only be available in the USA and Canada, are not mass-produced. Other manufacturers have so far said little about CarPlay Ultra. This has now been revealed by a survey conducted last week by the Apple website Macrumors at the companies' US branches.
Mercedes and GM don't want it, all others vague
So far, the only thing that is clear is that Hyundai and its subsidiaries Kia and Genesis will introduce CarPlay Ultra alongside Aston. Apple itself announced this and Hyundai confirmed it again. However, the South Korean company has not provided any concrete details on how and when. Volvo, which was still on Apple's list in 2022 when CarPlay 2.0, now called Ultra, was announced, did not want to provide any information about CarPlay Ultra. Porsche and Mercedes-Benz initially declined to comment. Porsche actually wanted to be one of the first providers of the new CarPlay, while Mercedes rejected the technology as early as 2024.
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Nevertheless: Subaru wants to investigate CarPlay Ultra for later models, Mazda stated that it was also analyzing "new technology" without naming CarPlay Ultra. General Motors will probably remain completely CarPlay-abstinent for its modern e-vehicles, which affects brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick and GMC (USA-only). Ford had no comment, BMW and Toyota did not get back to us. Honda appreciates Apple's CarPlay, but also did not want to commit to CarPlay Ultra.
CarPlay finally prevailed
Despite all the hesitation, it should be remembered that CarPlay itself was slow to catch on at first. The car companies argued similarly at the time, wanting to retain control over their software. However, customer demand then ensured that Apple technology was also installed in smaller and cheaper model ranges, often in parallel with Android Auto, but not always.
With CarPlay Ultra, which includes significantly more vehicle functions, things could go similarly, partly because Apple gives manufacturers a lot of freedom to adapt the interface. However, if we are optimistic, widespread implementation is likely to take years.
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