The new CarPlay would take over all car information and entertainment functions — image credit: Apple
Apple has issued a rare statement concerning its CarPlay project, saying that despite delays, the company continues to work with several car makers to bring it to market.
This is another rare move from Apple, following its 2022 unusual sneak peek at what it calls the next generation of CarPlay. While various car manufacturers have expressed support for the new system, nothing actually drove out of the showrooms by Apple’s planned date of the end of 2024.
Now the company has finally removed that 2024 date from its website, and also issued a statement.
The next generation of CarPlay builds on years of success and insights gained from CarPlay, delivering the best of Apple and the automaker in a deeply integrated and customizable experience. We continue to work closely with several automakers, enabling them to showcase their unique brand and visual design philosophies in the next generation of CarPlay. Each car brand will share more details as they near the announcements of their models that will support the next generation of CarPlay.
Apple made its statement first to MacRumors. It’s the only update about CarPlay since December 2023‘s promotion of future Porsche and Aston Martin cars.
As statements go, though, Apple’s latest is no more than a holding message — and a stepping back from committing to dates. It was already clear that the company was continuing to work on CarPlay as some details appeared in a regulator filing in November 2024, so there is nothing new in the announcement.
Outside of Apple’s control
The problem is that CarPlay is one project that Apple cannot completely control. It has to work, and work very closely, with car manufacturers.
It’s not even as if Apple can develop its CarPlay software and then hand it over to the car makers. The whole point of the new CarPlay is that it replaces every system in the cars it is used in.
So instead of being a screen with maps, music and a few apps, the new CarPlay is the car’s speedo. It is the rev counter, the air conditioning controller — it is everything in the car beyond steering and the drive mechanism.
Since it also necessarily has to be different for every car — it has to fit in with existing displays on the dashboard, or the manufacturer has to design new ones — it is really a bespoke app.
Consequently instead of developing one CarPlay, Apple and its car manufacturing partners are developing many. At its original sneak peek in 2022, Apple claimed to be working with 14 firms, so that’s really 14 different development projects.
Car makers have their own agenda
Car manufacturers do not work for Apple, and they have their own development cycles. With CarPlay becoming so much more than an in-car entertainment system, it’s not like the car makers will wait until the last minute to fit it.
But they will wait until they are ready. New car design can take place over years, and it is a complex job of which the control and entertainment systems are just a part.
Apple knows this, of course, so it was extra unusual that it would do that sneak peek at all. And it was perhaps rash for it to announce dates of when the first cars would appear.
At the time of that sneak peek, though, there was speculation that Apple was rather forced into it. Some car manufacturers who had previously supported the existing version of CarPlay were abandoning it, even if not very successfully.
There was also speculation back in 2022 that this CarPlay sneak peek was really a glimpse into what the then-forthcoming Apple Car would look like. The Apple Car project has reportedly since been cancelled, so even with all its delays, CarPlay is doing better than that.
This story originally appeared on Appleinsider
