Apple’s Next-Generation CarPlay is a Teaser for the Apple Car: Gurman

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman said in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter that the next generation of CarPlay was “the most tantalizing announcement” to come out of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week.

During WWDC, Apple announced a major update to CarPlay that features deeper hardware integration and expanded functionality.

CarPlay will now be able to hook directly into your car’s internal systems and essentially replace every screen, from the instrument cluster to radio, temperature, seat controls and everything in between. What’s more, the revamped CarPlay will be completely customizable and offer an unparalleled degree of personalization for a vehicle interface.

According to Gurman, the new CarPlay is a precursor to the long-rumoured Apple Car, internally codenamed “Project Titan.” The next iteration of CarPlay, which we should see integrated into vehicles over the next couple of years, may very well be the interface Apple’s own electric, possibly autonomous car eventually ships with.

“Despite all the recent staff departures from the project, I’m still led to believe that development of a vehicle is moving forward,” Gurman wrote. Apple’s self-driving electric car team has seen several high-profile exits as of late, including those of three key engineers in December 2021.

Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch took charge of Project Titan last year. He has since brought in some of the heavy hitters from the Apple Watch team to work on developing the car as well. “The latest I’ve gathered is that Apple is negotiating supply-chain deals for car parts and overall manufacturing,” the analyst added.

According to people familiar with the matter, the Apple Car team is making good progress with Lynch at the helm and hitting deadlines that it might have missed under previous leadership.

Gurman has been told Apple has some top-tier auto industry talent currently working on the car’s physical design, including former Aston Martin interiors manager Duncan Taylor, ex-Aston Martin chief concept engineer Pete Jolley, ex-Porsche executive Manfred Harrer, and former Tesla exteriors/interiors vice president Steve MacManus.

While Apple’s planned electric car is unlikely to launch by 2025, Gurman expects to see at least an announcement by then, with deliveries beginning later this decade.

CarPlay gives drivers a taste of what Apple can do in the space. It could even create an opportunity for Apple to develop add-in infotainment systems and interface hardware for the automotive market.

Gurman also reiterated that Apple’s first mixed-reality headset likely won’t debut before early 2023, noting that last week’s event was “full of clues about Apple’s future AR/VR headset” nonetheless. In addition, the analyst observed that tvOS was completely missing from WWDC 2022.

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