Apple today announced that leading auto manufacturers are rolling out CarPlay, the smarter, safer and more fun way to use iPhone in the car.
CarPlay gives iPhone users an incredibly intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access messages with just a word or a touch. Users can easily control CarPlay from the car’s native interface or just push-and-hold the voice control button on the steering wheel to activate Siri without distraction. Vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo will premiere CarPlay to their drivers this week, while additional auto manufacturers bringing CarPlay to their drivers down the road include BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp.
“CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing, in the press release. “iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we’re thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva.”
Apple has led consumer technology integration in the car for more than a decade. CarPlay brings your car and iPhone together for a thoughtful experience that lets drivers focus on driving, while also tapping into everything they want to do with their iPhone.
Once iPhone is connected to a vehicle with CarPlay integration, Siri helps you easily access your contacts, make calls, return missed calls or listen to voicemails. When incoming messages or notifications arrive, Siri provides an eyes-free experience by responding to requests through voice commands, by reading drivers’ messages and letting them dictate responses or simply make a call.
CarPlay makes driving directions more intuitive by working with Maps to anticipate destinations based on recent trips via contacts, emails or texts, and provides routing instructions, traffic conditions and ETA. You can also simply ask Siri and receive spoken turn-by-turn directions, along with Maps, which will appear on your car’s built-in display.
CarPlay gives drivers access to all of their music, podcasts, audiobooks and iTunes Radio with easy navigation through listening choices from the car’s built-in controls or simply by asking Siri to pull up what you’d like to hear. CarPlay also supports select third-party audio apps including Spotify and iHeartRadio, so you can listen to your favorite radio services or sports broadcast apps while driving.
Apple CarPlay is available as an update to iOS 7 and works with Lightning-enabled iPhones, including iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5. CarPlay will be available in select cars shipping in 2014.
Source: Apple Inc.
Related articles:
Apple to launch iOS in the Car with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo next week; more makers coming this year – February 28, 2014
Honda’s ‘HondaLink’ offers partial iPhone-vehicle integration ahead of Apple’s ‘iOS in the Car’ – January 24, 2014
Apple patent application reveals in-vehicle holistic ID for ‘iOS in the Car’ – December 12, 2013
ABI Research: Apple’s ‘iOS in the Car’ to be No. 1 in-vehicle system by 2018 – November 1, 2013
General Motors adds Apple’s Siri Eyes Free to more vehicles following ‘remarkable’ customer response – October 16, 2013
Hidden contacts revealed within Apple’s iOS in the Car – August 8, 2013
Automakers integrate Apple’s iOS in the Car to minimize driver distraction, increase customer satisfaction – July 30, 2013
Why Apple is planning aggressive 2014 launch for ‘iOS in the Car’ – July 26, 2013
Why Tim Cook described Apple’s iOS in the Car strategy as ‘very important’ – July 25, 2013
Apple has its eyes on automakers with ‘iOS in the Car’ – July 5, 2013
Ford plummets to 27th in J.D. Power vehicle quality rankings on Microsoft-developed ‘MyFord Touch’ woes – June 20, 2012
The glaring omission is Ford. As much as I like my wife’s new Fusion, its Microsoft system is infuriating to use with an iPhone. Even after the last software update, it plays each song in a playlist for about 3 seconds before moving to the next.
At least I’ll have plenty of options from Ford’s competition.
Did you *read* the article above?
“… additional auto manufacturers bringing CarPlay to their drivers down the road include BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda…” Note Ford is listed right after BMW.
For those wondering about Ford, they went with Blackberry last week and dumped Microsoft: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-24/blackberry-shares-rise-as-ford-said-to-pick-qnx-over-microsoft.html The article talks about the funeral for Microsofts car ventures. I think Apple just put the MS coffin in the ground, and covered it up.
Not correct. Ford has made no decision yet;
http://crackberry.com/ford-hasnt-decided-qnx-future-sync-sytems-just-yet
Ford is the 3rd one on the list to bring CarPlay to its vehicles.
Totally agree. I really like my Ford Focus…but “synchNOT” is abysmally bad. Note to manufacturers…my next lease car will have CarPlay. Do the math.
So how does this differ from iOS in the car and Siri eyes free?
Is this just a rebranding?
Carplay to align with Airplay?
This IS “iOS in the Car.” This will include “Siri Hands Fee” functionality.
Rush out, buy a new car suckers! What a scam.
I agree. This really does need an after-market device for the rest of us.
http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/
Notice the screen is sapphire.
Can I have some of what you are smoking? There is no indication of what the screen is made of in any information from Apple.
By the time car manufacturers charge this as a $1,000 option, it’ll be cheaper to buy an iPad mini and stick it on the dash with a suction cup dashboard holder.
Wow, excellent idea. A very elegant, Apple-like solution to a problem.
And the iPad mini with suction cups won’t give the NSA a back door to my vehicle data.
errr… Aren’t you lost? The exit door is to your left. It’s marked Troll.
I’m hoping several aftermarket models will also be available that will, also hopefully, integrate with existing vehicles.
I’m hoping Bose works CarPlay into their auto systems.
Having recently acquired a 10 year old Acura with a most excellent Bose sound system (including an integrated 6 CD changer and cassette player) I’m trying to figure out how to bring my iPhone or an iPad mini into the picture. The car also has a useless “trip computer” taking up a big chunk of space. Ten year old fancy electronics are really quaint.
I hate to mess with the audio quality and really good radio in the Bose system, but the rest of the installation is so ’00s.
I have a older Escalade with a separate head unit and CD player. I found a module that goes between the CD player and head unit that tricks the the whole thing into thinking the iPhone is a CD. I just wish I could find it again.
I want this, and I want it now. I wonder if there will be third party solutions if your preferred car isn’t listed. I drive a Jeep Wrangler which I love and didn’t see it listed as one of the companies embracing CarPlay.
If I could swap out the stereo head unit with a CarPlay supported unit, I’d switch them out ASAP. Considering what’s out there now, currently stuck with UConnect, Apple should make a killing with this product.
It will do for car stereo/navigation what the iPhone did for smart phones, which weren’t very smart before the iPhone. This is huge!
What happened? Did Samsung miss the meeting and not try to roll a knock off first?
Knock-offs don’t come first.
The rumoured iWatch came out first from Samsung as Gear. It was a knock of of a rumoured product.
that was a knockbefore.
And we are still waiting on the Apple watch! So, who made it first??
omgomgomg, you should totally go buy AAPL!!!
Where the heck is the VW group. I just spent $100K on an Audi. What? Don’t tell me they’re using Blackberry? Nooooooooooo
And you spent $100k without knowing which 3rd party system powered the audio???
So, we have AirPlay and AirPort and AirDrop. Now we have CarPlay. I wonder what the others will be. CarPort could be some sort of home charging station for the iCar. CarDrop I’m having trouble with.
Finally. Apple iCar project will go live. SJ is smiling up there. 🙂
Hopefully this will be integrated into some 3rd party systems- alpine, pioneer etc, for those of us who don’t need a new car…I would happily spend 1k for an awesome integrated product…
Ditto that.
But I need a new car NOW !
It would be nice if the MS Sync hardware inside a Ford or whatever could be “flashed” with new software to support this. Kinda like wiping Windows O/S off the HDD of a PC and installing OSX. Conceptually, I’m not advocating a Hackintosh 🙂
Actually the more I think about it the more technically possible I think it is. I’m sure these systems are just embedded PCs inside. CPUs, storage, memory & a screen etc.