As a Tesla owner, lack of CarPlay support is not an issue at all. The built in Apple Music support works fine, and you still get your text messages etc on the screen, because it uses the MAP Bluetooth protocol.
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BMW Confirms It Has No Plans to Offer CarPlay Ultra
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You're placing 100% of the blame on CarPlay for those problems?
A dropped connection would be USB or Bluetooth, not CarPlay.
Your conclusion seems to be limited to your personal experience. If your house burns down because you're a terrible cook in the kitchen, is it the house's fault?
Same.
And I would plead BMW to try to use physical buttons to control stuff like climate control, seat heater, volume, etc. ya know, all the stuff you only want to glance at and adjust using touch while driving.
I am good cook, sorry.
Bluetooth and Wifi are always on as required by BMW and CP - it has nothing to do with that, as also acknowledged by others here, which have said that the moment they started a new iPhone, the problems disappeared.
And by the way, my iPhone is an Xr, not a 5S, as jokingly mentioned by some other guy here.
Unless BMW changes its mind, my next car won't be BMW again. Its iDrive is basic to say the least, ugly and completely fiddly and unintuitive. I haven't had any issues with CarPlay in my BMW, other than the car itself sometimes doesn't want to switch to it. I can't imagine its iDrive X will be better in any way to CarPlay Ultra.
As always, there is a lot of misinformation about CarPlay Ultra here, leading to hate. First of all, I doubt anyone here has even used CarPlay Ultra, but also it is optional. If you don't want to use CarPlay Ultra, you don't have to. You can still use the car maker's rubbish software.
As always, there is a lot of misinformation about CarPlay Ultra here, leading to hate. First of all, I doubt anyone here has even used CarPlay Ultra, but also it is optional. If you don't want to use CarPlay Ultra, you don't have to. You can still use the car maker's rubbish software.
Basically what they say about iOS 26 as well on this site, so it probably would not make any difference to you from that standpoint. 😊
If BMW were to sell me a car, I will require them to install Apple CarPlay Ultra. Of course I am looking forward to the aftermarket replacing the OEM equipment that supports Apple CarPlay Ultra!
That probably won’t and can’t happen. You are going to find aftermarket instrument clusters, steering wheels, and infotainment screens?
You won't miss CarPlay at all. Now when I drive my other car with CarPlay, I miss my Tesla. Even if Tesla supported CarPlay, which really wouldn't make much sense, you would't use it over the Tesla system.
I drove BMW's for years before going to Tesla. The whole point of the BMW is the driving experience not to be playing with phone. You should enjoy getting away from your phone and driving the car.
I love the idea of CarPlay ultra but it is essentially useless the next generation of BMW since they no longer have an instrument cluster screen. You won’t see the difference between regular CarPlay and ultra without it.
iDrive is just a racket that allows BMW to charge subscription fees for benign things. Of course, they don't actually care about user experience or convenience
Car manufacturers are hesitant and it looks like the rollout of CarPlay Ultra will be very slow. Not surprised to hear this.
Can you reply to the messages? I'm genuinely asking because I don't know. My pre-CarPlay cars would show the text messages on screen via the Bluetooth connection but I couldn't reply.
The only physical buttons I want back are for the heated and cooled seats and heated steering wheel. Volume and track control is on the steering wheel. Climate control I set exactly one time and never touch it again. But the seat and wheel heating and cooling I use all the time. Even more ridiculously, the massage seat control IS a physical button on the door panel but the heating and cooling isn't? Make it make sense, BMW.
The XR is 7 years old. Maybe try a phone upgrade, especially since the XR won't support iOS 26 that's coming in two months. Just saying. The fact that Bluetooth and Wifi are turned on doesn't mean that they maintain a connection to the car.
Yeah and then if you want to buy an app to use in your car, you have to buy it via apple instead of via BMW.
Which is probably quite a big friction point for the carmakers.
That’s only true if you are willing to use the software that Tesla has built into the system. If you use other apps, you are SOL. Car owners should have the option to use CarPlay if they want.
Yes you can reply to messages using the Tesla voice command.
However once you get out of the car and come back in your message list is gone. It only shows new ones as they come in.
Which is still a lot more than Rivian does which is nothing at all.
I rented a 2024 x5 for a few weeks. CarPlay was flawless. I found Waze (or whatever nav app) better than BMWs. Could not get used to idrive. YMMV. CarPlay ultra would go great in a BMW. Elevate the experience.