Hands-on with Apple’s major CarPlay update coming soon in iOS 13

Apple's CarPlay - Maps app
Apple’s CarPlay – Maps app

Coming in iOS 13 is Apple’s most thorough update to Apple CarPlay yet, with revised aesthetics and important new features.

Andrew Krok for CNET:

The main CarPlay screen hasn’t changed much; it’s still loaded with the same apps you’ve come to enjoy using behind the wheel. However, the left menu bar has been rearranged, with the time and cell-network information in the top left and a replacement for the home button at the bottom — after all, iPhones don’t have home buttons anymore, so why should CarPlay?

This is the best Apple CarPlay has been to date. The tech giant has offered its software to automakers to help reduce distraction and improve safety, and these updates reflect an even greater effort in that regard. It’s still just as easy to use as it was before, if not a little bit easier. I’m already looking forward to it.

Best of all, you don’t have to pay squat to get it. The iOS 13 update, like every other iOS update before it, will be free when it comes out in the fall. Vehicles don’t need a software update or anything to take advantage of the new CarPlay layout, so once your phone is updated, your head unit will be good to go.

MacDailyNews Take: Many significant improvements are coming very soon for CarPlay users!

8 Comments

      1. You’re right, we do pay for CarPlay. It’s built into the higher price of an iPhone. I paid even more because I had to change the radio in my wrangler so that I could have CarPlay.

  1. Can we all agree that this sentence is meaningless… “This is the best Apple CarPlay has been to date.”… I would hope so… Apple says this too when they announce a new device, “this is the most powerful xyz Apple has ever made”…. Again, I would hope so…

  2. My Cadillac XT5 sometimes won’t connect with the iPhone. Using Apple’s cable (not a 3rd party). 80-90% of the time it’s fine. 10-20% of the time it will not connect. Even when I press the symbol to connect it on the Cadillac, it says the device is not supported. Kinda a pain. I am pretty sure this is a Cadillac issue and not a iPhone issue. Anyone else have that problem?

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.