Apple’s CarPlay has been a part of our lives for more than a decade, and the feature just got its biggest upgrade in a long time.
The company announced in a press release that CarPlay Ultra, which was first teased all the way back in 2022 (hat tip to our friends at Lifehacker for remembering that), is finally available. Some Apple fans had assumed the feature would never see a release.
This is an upgraded version of CarPlay with some really interesting bells and whistles, but the main thing to know upfront is that the only way to use it right now is to order a new Aston Martin vehicle in the U.S. and Canada. Existing Aston Martin models with the proper tech inside of them will get CarPlay Ultra in an update “in the coming weeks,” while Genesis, Hyundai, and Kia have all agreed to incorporate it over time.
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In other words, relatively few people will get to experience CarPlay Ultra in the near term, which is unfortunate because it does sound pretty useful.
The big addition here is the ability for CarPlay to take over every screen in a car, as opposed to using up one main display or just part of a display. That means you can put pertinent information like a GPS route, what music you’re listening to, and other UI elements on the screen behind the steering wheel, for instance, so that info lives directly next to your fuel gauge and speedometer. Theoretically, it sounds much easier to keep your eyes on the road this way.
Apple said it will also work with auto manufacturers to come up with appropriate visual themes for different cars. Luckily, the wait for CarPlay Ultra to come to other vehicles isn’t astronomically large; according to Apple, it will roll out to other cars globally in the next 12 months.
