Tesla's CarPlay Plans Delayed by Apple Maps Compatibility Issue

[MacRumors]

Tesla is still planning to bring Apple's CarPlay to its vehicles, but a compatibility issue between Apple Maps and Tesla's own navigation software has held things up, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Tesla found during testing that turn-by-turn directions from its maps app didn't sync up properly with Apple Maps during autonomous driving. That could be confusing for drivers, who could potentially have both navigation apps open side by side, since CarPlay is expected to run in a window within Tesla's existing software interface.

Gurman says that Tesla asked Apple to make engineering changes to Maps to solve the problem. Apple reportedly agreed, and shipped a fix in an iOS 26 update, but adoption of the new software has been slower than usual. Apple last week said that iOS 26 is now running on 74% of iPhones released in the last four years, just behind the 76% that iOS 18 had reached by January 2025.

Tesla had originally aimed to add CarPlay by the end of 2025, according to Gurman. It's quite the reversal for Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk, who have long ignored customer requests to implement CarPlay. But the feature is apparently seen as a potential sales driver – Tesla's infotainment system is widely considered the best in the business, but CarPlay is still a must-have for a lot of car buyers.

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Article Link: Tesla's CarPlay Plans Delayed by Apple Maps Compatibility Issue

 

[ForkHandles]

Account vacated.

 

[Veinticinco]

Tesla are an absolute joke.

Poor quality engineering, gimmicky tech and the most boring design.

Their supercharger network is the only asset they’ll have left of any value when the eventual collapse happens.

 

[Sputman99]

OMG that sounds like a fender bender in the making

 

[Slo Pesci]

As if Tesla sales couldn't get any worse 😂

 

[stocklen]

This seems a bit odd.

Firstly, Hell has indeed frozen over if Elon is making CarPlay available on Tesla vehicles....

Dont get me wrong as a past and potentially future Tesla owner Im very keen to have CarPlay... and in fact isnt there a survey somewhere that says for a large percentage of prospective car buyers the lack of CarPlay is a dealbreaker? Its this survey along with a decline in demand for Teslas that is probably finally forcing the issue.

Secondly, these so called incomapatibilies - well who would be even thinking of using simultaneously Teslas and Apple's navigation? Surely people choose either one or the other and would not really expect them to agree anyway... also anyone who wanted the Tesla integration would make certain they had upgraded to 26.3 or later knowing it was a prerequisite to using CarPlay.
Surely a greater statistic of how many iPhone users have or have not upgraded is irrelevant as how many of them have a Tesla and if they do then they WILL update it surely.

 

[diamond.g]

This seems a bit odd.

Firstly, Hell has indeed frozen over if Elon is making CarPlay available on Tesla vehicles....

Dont get me wrong as a past and potentially future Tesla owner Im very keen to have CarPlay... and in fact isnt there a survey somewhere that says for a large percentage of prospective car buyers the lack of CarPlay is a dealbreaker? Its this survey along with a decline in demand for Teslas that is probably finally forcing the issue.

Secondly, these so called incomapatibilies - well who would be even thinking of using simultaneously Teslas and Apple's navigation? Surely people choose either one or the other and would not really expect them to agree anyway... also anyone who wanted the Tesla integration would make certain they had upgraded to 26.3 or later knowing it was a prerequisite to using CarPlay.
Surely a greater statistic of how many iPhone users have or have not upgraded is irrelevant as how many of them have a Tesla and if they do then they WILL update it surely.

It seems like Tesla is trying to get Apple maps to match their routing so users can still use FSD. If you have no destination set FSD does interesting things.

 

[kotaKat]

Do we actually, again, have confirmation of this from any Tesla software hackers out there like Greentheonly or are we pissing in the wind here?

I've seen zero internal references on the Tesla software side to Carplay support... and with the amount of people behind the scenes in the Tesla hacking community, we would have had SOMETHING by now.

If there's people running FSD in unsupported countries via hacks (see also Oleg Kutkov's work as well), we would have known by now what Apple sh*t's in the Tesla software stack.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Great - Tesla finally removes the ONE THING that prevented me buying one 4 years ago, and now I won't buy it because the CEO is a looney (－‸ლ)

 

[diamond.g]

Do we actually, again, have confirmation of this from any Tesla software hackers out there like Greentheonly or are we pissing in the wind here?

I've seen zero internal references on the Tesla software side to Carplay support... and with the amount of people behind the scenes in the Tesla hacking community, we would have had SOMETHING by now.

If there's people running FSD in unsupported countries via hacks (see also Oleg Kutkov's work as well), we would have known by now what Apple sh*t's in the Tesla software stack.

From what I gather most of this is supposition.

 

[nfl46]

I can’t wait until we get it!

I’m quite certain that I’ll never purchase another vehicle besides a Tesla. I absolutely love their technology!

 

[knappeduivel]

Musk / Tesla is not interested in manufacturing ev's in the long run. Tesla is betting on robotics.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Secondly, these so called incomapatibilies - well who would be even thinking of using simultaneously Teslas and Apple's navigation?

It sounds to me like the issue is that the car is driving itself, and it's using the route that Tesla has chosen (not visible on the screen) rather than the route that Apple Maps is showing.

I wonder whether the change iOS 26 is that Apple Maps will follow Tesla's lead (so not use Apple's routing and instead just use Tesla's) or vice versa.

I could see it going either way... on the one hand, it's Tesla's car and so the buck stops with them. On the other hand... if the user has chosen a different route via the UI, the car should respect that.

Maybe Apple Maps follows Tesla's lead to a greater extent than I initially imagined, where even when presenting route selections, it's still options Tesla has decided to offer?

 

[blaureiter]

The Tesla interface amuses me. It looks a lot like an early version of NeXT Step, Steve Job's UNIX system with 16 bit gray scale. Beyond minimal use of color, Telsa's design works against the driver. On the left side of the screen is a huge animation of the car on the road as it twists and turns (no, you cannot drive the car by looking at it), the map that you might actually want to look it is more for the passenger to view. The most idiotic design is putting the name of the street you are on in gray type at the bottom right of the screen so ONLY a passenger can make that out.

While adding CarPlay would be an improvement, there is nothing that Tesla can do to prompt me to buy another EV from them. [We have had a flawless Model Y since 2020, but there are better cars with designers who pay attention to the needs of the driver].

 

[nt5672]

Don't see this as a problem.

While I'm not and never will be a Tesla purchaser, Musk rescues astronauts that NASA can't, builds rockets that other's can't, competes with nation states on satellites, provides free global internet in times of local disasters, and has visions that most under performers will never even try to understand.

I've never understood why low performers and other tech cult members are so hateful of success.

Is he weird, yes. That does not change the fact that he has contributed a lot of good to the world.

Tesla will easily solve this, if they want too.

 

[justanotherdave]

Santa: “What EV would you like for Christmas?”

“I’d like a Porsche Taycan Turbo S.”

Santa: “Now, now, be realistic.”

“I’d like a Tesla with even panel gaps.”

Santa: “What color Taycan would you like?”

 

[justanotherdave]

Don't see this as a problem.

While I'm not and never will be a Tesla purchaser, Musk rescues astronauts that NASA can't, builds rockets that other's can't, competes with nation states on satellites, provides free global internet in times of local disasters, and has visions that most under performers will never even try to understand.

I've never understood why low performers and other tech cult members are so hateful of success.

Is he weird, yes. That does not change the fact that he has contributed a lot of good to the world.

Tesla will easily solve this, if they want too.

Musk doesn’t do any of that. He hires engineers that do all the work and his sycophants give him the credit as if he personally did it.

 

[rb24]

Not everyone here may realise that Tesla is #1 in China, the most competitive EV market in the world. However the others are catching up. Notably Xiaomi who in addition, offer tight integration between their cars and mobile phones which, frankly, is pretty cool. My guess is that has nudged Tesla into making a move in that direction.

 

[Finalcountdown]

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Tesla found during testing that turn-by-turn directions from its maps app didn't sync up properly with Apple Maps during autonomous driving.

A lot of things do not work well with Tesla’s “autonomous” driving.

 

[diamond.g]

A lot of things do not work well with Tesla’s “autonomous” driving.

Like?

 

[lowendlinux]

Not everyone here may realise that Tesla is #1 in China, the most competitive EV market in the world. However the others are catching up. Notably Xiaomi who in addition, offer tight integration between their cars and mobile phones which, frankly, is pretty cool. My guess is that has nudged Tesla into making a move in that direction.

Xiaomi's electric SUV tops China sales in January, sells twice as many as Tesla's Model Y

Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has priced its vehicles below Tesla's and marketed features it claims are comparable or superior.

www.cnbc.com

"The Model Y, which was the best-selling model in December, plunged to 20th place in January. Among new energy vehicles, it also fell from the first position to seventh over the same period."

That seems to be over

 

[I7guy]

Tesla are an absolute joke.

Poor quality engineering, gimmicky tech and the most boring design.

Their supercharger network is the only asset they’ll have left of any value when the eventual collapse happens.

Said a poster who possibly said in 2011 that Apple is doomed.

Not a necessity but I would like to have that option of CarPlay.

 

[stocklen]

It sounds to me like the issue is that the car is driving itself, and it's using the route that Tesla has chosen (not visible on the screen) rather than the route that Apple Maps is showing.

I wonder whether the change iOS 26 is that Apple Maps will follow Tesla's lead (so not use Apple's routing and instead just use Tesla's) or vice versa.

I could see it going either way... on the one hand, it's Tesla's car and so the buck stops with them. On the other hand... if the user has chosen a different route via the UI, the car should respect that.

Maybe Apple Maps follows Tesla's lead to a greater extent than I initially imagined, where even when presenting route selections, it's still options Tesla has decided to offer?

I appreciate that if you have a Tesla and want to use something like 'full self driving' in the 2 territories it currently applies to, then presumably youll understand the feature is 100% tied to tesla's built in nav software and would have no expectations or indeed need to use Apple Maps in CarPlay at the same time.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Tesla are an absolute joke.

Poor quality engineering, gimmicky tech and the most boring design.

Their supercharger network is the only asset they’ll have left of any value when the eventual collapse happens.

Supercharger network is definitely excellent, I will give them that for sure.

Just used it again this weekend.

(Chevy Bolt driver)

 

[I7guy]

The Tesla interface amuses me. It looks a lot like an early version of NeXT Step, Steve Job's UNIX system with 16 bit gray scale. Beyond minimal use of color, Telsa's design works against the driver. On the left side of the screen is a huge animation of the car on the road as it twists and turns (no, you cannot drive the car by looking at it), the map that you might actually want to look it is more for the passenger to view. The most idiotic design is putting the name of the street you are on in gray type at the bottom right of the screen so ONLY a passenger can make that out.

While adding CarPlay would be an improvement, there is nothing that Tesla can do to prompt me to buy another EV from them. [We have had a flawless Model Y since 2020, but there are better cars with designers who pay attention to the needs of the driver].

Competition is good. And can’t wait to see if CarPlay ever hits teslas. However can’t see any other electric vehicle that’s as good as an SDV as Tesla. Tesla is eating their lunch while other companies are taking billions in write-offs.