Apple is taking CarPlay to an entirely new level with a huge announcement at WWDC 2022. In what it called a “sneak peek,” Apple showed off an entirely new generation of CarPlay that expands beyond infotainment and becomes the car’s entire interface, from a gauge cluster screen to the center stack and including every car function.
Almost every car from the past handful of years has CarPlay, and it’s one of the most-requested features from car buyers. Even still, it’s a pretty disjointed experience that transports you to an entirely different interface and leaves you jumping back and forth to the car’s own operating system anytime you want to perform “car” functions and not entertainment functions. With this shift, that all goes away: Apple wants to make CarPlay the only interface in your car.
This announcement picks up on a huge trend in the automotive industry, as cars move away from physical switches and dedicated gauges, instead opting to use a giant screen — or multiple distinct screens — to display information. This has been the case from inexpensive models from Kia and VW, up to the latest and most expensive Mercedes models — and of course, Tesla has had a war on physical buttons from Day 1.
Physical switches are going away, leaving a lot of work to do to recreate these experiences in software — and carmakers are realizing there’s an incredible amount of work to do here. That’s work that Apple thinks it’s better poised to handle, and it’s hard to blame them; I trust Apple (or Google for that matter) to make a user interface far more than any car company.
In typical Apple fashion, what it had to show off in this concept makes you think that this physical button-free world could work out alright. The gauge cluster and information displays are all clear, simple, and information-filled — all with the same iOS-like styling we know and (in many cases) love.
This is also a shot across the hood of Google, which has already made the leap from the phone-tethered Android Auto interface to Android Automotive, which is a whole-car operating system. Android Automotive actually provides a good roadmap for how this could go for Apple.
Apple said that this new interface will be shown in actual vehicles with a variety of partners by the end of 2023. On the partner slide it showed Land Rover, Mercedes, Porsche, Nissan, Ford, Lincoln, Audi, Jaguar, Acura, Volvo, Honda, Renault, Infinity, and Polestar. Until then, we’re just going to be salivating over these demos.
It’s also easy to let our minds wander quickly to the long-rumored Apple car, and what this interface could tell us about the expected experience if Apple were to ever make its own.