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Next-Generation Apple CarPlay Will Be a Whole Car OS

Headshot of Antuan Goodwin
Headshot of Antuan Goodwin
Antuan Goodwin Senior Writer, Electrified Cars
Antuan started out in the automotive industry the old-fashioned way, by turning wrenches in a driveway and picking up speeding tickets. He now has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience behind the wheel of hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen, and traditional combustion vehicles. For each car he tests, Antuan covers more than 200 miles behind the wheel and evaluates driving dynamics; acceleration and braking performance; range; and efficiency. Antuan's goal is to use his extensive car knowledge to educate CNET readers and help with their next car-related buying decision. Whether you're EV-curious, an EV-enthusiast or a combustion-car loyalist, Antuan will bring you the unbiased advice, reviews, best lists and news you need. You can reach Antuan at antuan.goodwin@cnet.com
Expertise Nearly two decades of testing, driving, reporting on, writing about, reviewing, and editing content about electric and ICE cars. Category focus is on electrified cars, EVs, HEVs, PHEVs, ICE cars, EV infrastructure, EV chargers, EV adapters, EV news, auton Credentials
  • North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
Antuan Goodwin
2 min read
Apple CarPlay preview occupying multiple screens on a rendered dashboard
Apple

What's happening

Apple previewed the next generation of its iPhone-powered in-car software.

Why it matters

CarPlay will soon be able to power the totality of a vehicle's infotainment functions.

What's next

The first car with an iPhone-powered dashboard should be announced in late 2023.

Apple CarPlay is about to get a whole lot more powerful. At its WWDC 2022 keynote today, Apple previewed the next generation of its in-car app mirroring technology, which will soon be capable of taking over the car's displays and infotainment functions -- from the speedometer to the seat heaters.

The next generation of CarPlay will be compatible with a variety of aspect ratios -- from portrait to landscape -- and can even adapt to multidisplay dashboards, including vehicles with digital instrument clusters or with ultrawide pillar-to-pillar displays.

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.
Watch this: Apple CarPlay Will Integrate with a Car's Hardware

CarPlay will be more integrated with all the host vehicle's systems. Beyond its current navigation and media consumption functionalities, Apple CarPlay will handle traditional instrumentation like speedometer, tachometer, temperature gauges and fuel or EV battery level displays. Users will be able to adjust their climate controls, activate seat heaters, monitor air quality and even tie into Apple's smart home technologies directly from the CarPlay interface.

As with the next generation of iOS on the phone, Apple is also giving CarPlay users the ability to customize how CarPlay looks with selectable themes, backgrounds and widgets. From loud pink analog-style gauges to slick numerical displays and bar graphs, CarPlay will be able to match a wide range of vehicle interior designs and personal aesthetic tastes. 

Next-Gen Apple CarPlay Previewed at WWDC 2022

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Perhaps most interestingly, Apple says that this new full-fat approach to CarPlay as a complete vehicle interface will continue to be powered entirely by the connected iPhone, giving Apple an unprecedented amount of control over the vehicle's operation as well as access to data generated by each host vehicle. Here's hoping it can be as trusted to protect said data as it claims to.

Apple says the first vehicles to feature this CarPlay OS compatibility should be announced in late 2023, so we're still about a year out. It also hasn't announced which automaker will be first to the market with the tech, but lists Acura, Audi, Ford, Honda, Jaguar-Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Volvo and Polestar as partners that are "excited to bring this new vision of CarPlay to customers."