Image: Michał Gapiński on Twitter
Polish developer Michał Gapiński (@mikegapinski) on Sunday teased the second alpha build of “Tesla Android,” his jury-rigged workaround for running Apple CarPlay on a Tesla — reports Tesla North.
Gapiński’s hacky solution for bringing CarPlay to a Tesla was in its infancy when he first showed it off back in January. The developer has since polished it into release-ready software, branding it Tesla Android. Tesla Android became available to download earlier this month.
The second alpha build “will be all about audio,” said Gapiński. Improvements will include fixing navigation audio from apps like Apple Maps and Waze in CarPlay and adding the ability to mix audio between iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth.
Gapiński’s “hack” relies on running CarPlay on a custom build of Android, which he had originally installed on a Raspberry Pi connected to his Tesla.
Gapiński did not say when the update will be available for end users.
iOS functionality has eluded Tesla owners for years. CarPlay support has been one of the most requested features among Tesla’s customers, but the company is yet to budge. It’s bewildering that the automaker still hasn’t added the feature to its cars despite CarPlay growing into a staple for luxury cars.
Interestingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week that he “will discuss” Apple AirPlay and lossless audio support with the company’s audio engineering team. Looks like there might be hope for at least some (official) Apple functionality in Teslas, after all.
Could things finally be looking up for Tesla owners with iPhones? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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I’ll just add – that iPiC really needs to add a disclaimer warning “at user’s risk” here. This is not like getting an iphone and JB’ing it and then tossing it away if you brick it. The OS in Tesla is the be-all-end-all of that car, allowing any dev that level of access and hack is extremely dangerous and will almost 100% end your warranty especially if you brick it.
You’re not altering the Tesla OS at all so there’s no real risk there. Just using a Raspberry Pi as a web server which is then hosting the CarplayOS.
So it’s a lot less like JBing an iPhone, which would void your warranty, and more like visiting a webpage using a web browser.
Actually pretty cool, not risky at all… except your time and a bit of money.
Wow, you are clueless on what this is actually doing. You can buy a Raspberry Pi and install Android on it yourself, including the Android app that allows you to connect from iOS to Android. As a matter of fact most infotainment systems use Android/Linux today, and those systems allow your iPhones to talk to your car. So in case you didn’t fully understand, your iPhone talks to some Android/Linux system that then talks to the infotainment part. But cannot talk to, or control your car, period.