Apple first announced its next-generation CarPlay system at WWDC 2022 and said it would be available on vehicles launching in 2024. However, with just a couple of days left in the year, we are yet to see a single car with CarPlay 2 despite the tech giant’s website still maintaining that the first models sporting it will “arrive in 2024” (via MacRumors).
CarPlay 2 promises a redesigned user interface, elevated customization, support for multiple displays across the dashboard, deeper hardware integration with instrument clusters, widgets, and more. Here’s how Apple describes CarPlay 2 on its website:
This next generation of CarPlay is the ultimate iPhone experience for the car. It provides content for all the driver’s screens including the instrument cluster. This ensures a cohesive design experience that is the very best of your car and your iPhone — with designs for each automaker that express your vehicle’s character and brand. Vehicle functions like radio and temperature controls are handled right from CarPlay. And personalization options ranging from widgets to selecting curated gauge cluster designs make it unique to the driver.
Apple might not be solely to blame for CarPlay 2’s absence from dashboards — the next-generation system’s rollout is heavily dependent on carmakers and their willingness to adopt it.
While Apple announced it would be partnering with Acura, Audi, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Polestar, Porsche, Renault, and Volvo on bringing next-generation CarPlay to drivers, carmakers might be hesitant to hand over the prime real estate that is their vehicles’ dashboard to the iPhone maker.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius pulled out of next-gen CarPlay earlier this year, noting the company would instead prioritize its own software for the in-vehicle experience. Porsche similarly denied having any immediate intention of adding CarPlay 2 to its vehicles last month. Aston Martin, meanwhile, added itself to the list of adopters last year as it previewed its implementation of CarPlay 2.
Apple hasn’t publicly spoken about CarPlay 2 in a while, but the company did show off new videos featuring the next-gen system at WWDC 2024. Redesigned next-gen CarPlay icons were also found in the code for iOS 18.2.
CarPlay 2 is a next-generation, standalone system and won’t be an update to the current CarPlay. It is expected to only be available in new vehicles. With Apple reportedly pulling the plug on its Apple Car project for good, CarPlay 2 — if it does ever see the light of day — could be the most “Apple” a car will ever be.
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