Apple’s CarPlay Ultra Comes to a Halt as Industry Giants Start Changing Their Minds

Apple’s CarPlay Ultra Comes to a Halt as Industry Giants Start Changing Their Minds

Despite appearing on Apple’s planned partner list, Mercedes and Audi have stated that they will not be supporting Apple’s upcoming CarPlay Ultra, and they are not the only ones. BMW, Volvo, Polestar, and Renault also stand with Mercedes and Audi in rejecting CarPlay Ultra.

After Apple first announced its CarPlay Ultra in June 2022, all these brands were added to Apple’s list of carmakers who were likely to be committed to CarPlay Ultra. However, the tides took a swift turn after the CarPlay Ultra was officially announced in May. 

During the official launch, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Bob Borchers, described the product’s vision:

“This next generation of CarPlay gives drivers a smarter, safer way to use their iPhone in the car, while deeply integrating with the car’s systems and showcasing the unique look and feel of each automaker. We are excited to kick off the rollout of CarPlay Ultra with Aston Martin — and this is just the beginning, with more automakers on the way.” 

Aston Martin was the only car-maker that officially announced its support for CarPlay Ultra before its launch. Apple had already started working with the brand to design a custom interface for its CarPlay Ultra, and soon after the official launch, Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis also announced their support. 

However, the big names on the initial 2022 list started to publicly reject Apple’s new CarPlay one by one, all pointing at the same problem: it takes over the whole in-car display and all of its screens. Yes, all of them. Instead of only showing maps or music on the centre screen, it redraws every gauge and control, which includes the speedometer, fuel level, climate toggles, and radio. It also allows Siri voice commands to control car features, and widgets from the iPhone can also be projected on the in-car displays.

At an interview, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius spoke about the feature, stating that they wouldn’t let Apple “take over all of the infotainment” while also mentioning that the company would continue allowing the existing method for connecting iPhones to Mercedes cars.

Källenius explained that the car experience is a whole, including both the hardware and the software parts:

“If you want to create a superior customer experience, you need to think about that as a whole,” Källenius said. 

Audi also expressed a similar concern, and Renault even said, “Don’t try to invade our systems".

Besides Mercedes, Porsche was also on Apple’s initial CarPlay Ultra supporters’ list. The brand went on a review with Apple in December 2023 to see how the new CarPlay would look on Porsche vehicles. However, Porsche still didn’t comment, either positive or negative, after the official launch of the CarPlay Ultra revealed the scope of the feature.

Apple is yet to make a comment on its assumed partners’ stance. In June 2024, Apple ran a study on the public sentiment on Apple CarPlay and revealed that the results showed “79% of U.S. buyers only consider CarPlay-capable vehicles.” 

However, it is also worth noting that this percentage doesn’t reflect a preference for the dominance of CarPlay over characteristic interfaces like Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and Jaguar.