Apple's CarPlay Ultra to Expand to These Vehicle Brands Later This Year

[MacRumors]

Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly nine months later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.

In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said he was told that CarPlay Ultra will come to at least one major new Hyundai or Kia vehicle model "in the second half of this year." It is unclear if he is referring to Hyundai's upcoming IONIQ 3, as previously reported, or if it will be a different model.

CarPlay Ultra features deeper integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in apps for radio and climate controls, rear-view camera feed support, and more. The connected iPhone provides app-related data, while the vehicle provides information like the current speed, fuel level, tire pressure, engine temperature, and more.

The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can choose from various preset design options.

BMW, Ford, and Rivian are among the brands that have publicly downplayed CarPlay Ultra, while General Motors controversially ditched the regular version of CarPlay in its new electric vehicles, so it is likely to pass on CarPlay Ultra too. That means vehicles from brands like Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC are likely out of the running.

It is improbable that Tesla would offer CarPlay Ultra either, but it is reportedly working on offering the regular version of CarPlay in a major pivot.

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Article Link: Apple's CarPlay Ultra to Expand to These Vehicle Brands Later This Year

 

[AlanMarron]

Requires a first officer in the right seat to handle the workload.

 

[Plutonius]

I suppose Apple can still call the next gen Car Play "Supreme" since they called this one "Ultra" 🙂.

It will be interesting when marketing runs out of names.

 

[jz0309]

Well, other rumors say that the Ioniq 3 is not coming to the US, so we shall see.

 

[svish]

It is a slow rollout. However nice to see that it becomes available in more cars from different manufacturers.

 

[pbau]

When in Cupra and Seat?

 

[arnoz]

So "just" some of the Hyundai Group cars. Missing a few others 🙂
CarPlay introduction was super slow too if I remember correctly, wasn't it? Before it went "mainstream" like I hop in almost any car today, including rental, or a friend's, and CarPlay is used.

 

[DotCom2]

Lexus where are you? Toyota always last if that! HHHHHH

 

[Icehawk]

Carplay Ultra. Put it in, great. Leave it out, whatever. But Carplay? Oh come on. It's just the infotainment thingy. Leave it as an option.

Ultra taking longer to rollout I totally understand. There's surely a lot to consider and all.

 

[Biro]

Look at that screen. What a mess. Clearly, Apple hasn’t gotten the memo about drivers preferring real buttons and switches.

 

[dannys1]

If it comes to an Ioniq 5 - then I think that might be the reason to ditch my Model S i've had for 8+ years.

 

[dannys1]

Look at that screen. What a mess. Clearly, Apple hasn’t gotten the memo about drivers preferring real buttons and switches.

I've driven mine for over 8 years now and not once have I ever thought "I wish I had a button for this"

I do constantly wish I had CarPlay though so I didn't have to use my phone.

 

[Nyx1]

Imagine if not abandon project titan

 

[KENESS]

Doesn't the headline kind of imply more than just the possibility of one car from one brand, or is it just me...? 😉

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Mark also said regular CarPlay was coming to Teslas. I'll believe it when I see it in regards to more CarPlay Ultra vehicles.

 

[viktornagy19]

I use to love apple car play. Unreliable specially on my 2017 mercedes and i use cables. and spotify breaks. sometimes wont activate. not really good. to be honest if my next car has waze and spotify app integrated in i wont use apple car play.

 

[match14]

Requires a first officer in the right seat to handle the workload.

I have wondered if you have a car with CarPlay ultra, can you select to just use regular CarPlay instead? Guess I should really ask an Aston Martin owner.

 

[tomtad]

Completely DOA product

 

[tomtad]

I use to love apple car play. Unreliable specially on my 2017 mercedes and i use cables. and spotify breaks. sometimes wont activate. not really good. to be honest if my next car has waze and spotify app integrated in i wont use apple car play.

Exactly the future is integrated services rather than CarPlay

 

[TundraKing]

Give me a native Apple Music app on my in vehicle infotainment system and that’s all I need. Don’t use CarPlay for anything else as there is already Google Maps built in ….and I never use hands free messaging or calling as it’s an invitation for disaster…….

 

[Veinticinco]

So Aston Martin and “at least one major new Hyundai or Kia vehicle model in the second half of this year."

Let’s just say it. CarPlay Ultra is dead in the water.

 

[Minato1990]

No Honda?
Cmon man im sure its doable for the 2025 Honda Accord Touring Tim

 

[name99]

Requires a first officer in the right seat to handle the workload.

Maybe not?
The goal is obviously to be able to control the car through NuSiri, so that instead of fiddling with physical controls (or a tap screen) you can say something like "make the car a little warmer".

Now obviously there are many ways one can complain about this. There are the usual boring complaints (sometimes well founded, often not) about existing Siri. There are (IMHO) a better set of complaints around Siri being too slow, so yes you can do things but they feel clumsy and take twice as long. A similar set of complaints is that (for current Siri) you have to remember the correct term for some functionality, so you might have to say something like "switch on recirculation mode" rather than "stop the smell from outside the car".

I think the significance of this change by so many brands might be that Apple, with NuSiri, is showing that most of these types of complaints have gone away. If the system is a lot more accurate, can do a lot more, can understand vague and imprecise speech (courtesy of an LLM) and is much faster (courtesy of a LOCAL LLM) then it becomes much less frustrating.
Perhaps these car brands were not willing to give up control (eg of AC) to the performance of oldSiri on an A19, but have been much more impressed with demos of NuSiri running on an A20?

 

[jole]

Look at that screen. What a mess. Clearly, Apple hasn’t gotten the memo about drivers preferring real buttons and switches.

With CarPlay Ultra the car manufacturer can decide to use as many real buttons as they please. Ultra will adapt to that design.

 

[TheDailyApple]

As much as I’d like having maps and music in the instrument cluster, I feel like auto manufacturers see diminishing returns from this. It takes more work to implement than standard CarPlay, and probably plenty of continued costs to keep their specific implementation up to date with future Apple software updates.