Although the Apple Car is the next major piece of hardware we’re looking forward to coming out of Apple Campus, CarPlay is another innovation changing how we drive.
First announced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has confirmed significant changes are coming to the CarPlay platform in 2023. The firm’s working with automakers to offer an unprecedented design and customization to digital dashboards, replacing existing dashboards and user interfaces for the first time.
Since its launch in 2014, CarPlay has served as an extension of your iPhone and a new infotainment screen, but the new version will go much further than this, replacing the rest of your car’s dashboard screens.
Apple’s updated CarPlay will read and display real-time data such as the speed, RPM, tachometer, fuel, mileage, coolant temperature, oil pressure, and trip distances, and it will be possible to customize the design of your dashboard. It’ll also be possible to add iPhone widgets to cover things like the weather, smart home device controls, and calendars, and the first cars to support the updated CarPlay will be released in late 2023. Right now, Apple says it’s working with Acura, Audi, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes, Nissan, Polestar, Porsche, Renault, and Volvo on CarPlay 2.0 integration, and with the tech still more than a year away, we expect to see even further improvements before its launch.
In recent years, Tesla has gone from cars to computers on wheels, and now Apple is trying to go from computers to vehicles. It’s a tricky and complicated process, and if rumors are to be believed, the Apple Car project has been less than a smooth ride. Indeed, the company has reportedly scrapped plans to launch its own self-driving car on more than one occasion, but now, it appears as though the company’s journey is full steam ahead.
Last December, Tim Cook said: “We’re very focused on augmented reality, we’re very focused on artificial intelligence, we’re very focused on autonomy,” hinting at an autonomous vehicle launching soon. Of course, with Apple’s insane wealth, the company could purchase an autonomous driving startup such as Lucid, Rivian or even a more established player such as Hyundai, but Apple appears to want to go it alone and build its car from the ground up. Details on the project are slim, and the company naturally wants to remain tight-lipped, but there are reportedly 100s of employees working on the project, and it’s set to be announced in the coming year or two.
According to Reuters, Apple is aiming to kick off production on a car in 2024, but reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a proven track record when it comes to Apple products, argues that it will be 2025 to 2027 at the earliest. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes that the Cupertino company is tentatively aiming for a 2025 launch, but nothing is set in stone. Apple reportedly has a separate campus for its car-building efforts in Sunnyvale, California, minutes away from Apple Campus. There, teams are working on the hardware and software for the upcoming automobile, which is rumored to be self-driving.
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