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Toyota and Lexus to Offer CarPlay in Select 2019 Vehicles and Beyond in United States

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Toyota today is introducing its all-new 2019 Avalon at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and MacRumors has learned it is the automaker's first vehicle with support for Apple's CarPlay.

toyota-carplay.jpg

Toyota and Lexus plan to expand CarPlay compatibility to other 2019 model year and beyond vehicles with its Entune 3.0 and Enform 2.0 multimedia systems respectively, according to company spokesperson Brian Lyons. Toyota and Lexus vehicles with CarPlay will initially be sold in the United States only.

Entune 3.0 is already included with the 2018 Camry and 2018 Sienna, so CarPlay should be available in 2019 models of those vehicles at the very least. Toyota told us it hasn't finalized plans for all other vehicles yet.

Toyota said its CarPlay implementation will be wired, so connecting an iPhone via USB will be required. Entune 3.0 will also be compatible with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in the United States, as Toyota announced at CES 2018 last week. It looks like Android Auto isn't supported at this time.

Toyota often competes for the title of world's largest automaker, and it was by far the most notable brand to not support CarPlay until now, lagging months or years behind competitors like Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Volkswagen.

Toyota had been listed as a committed CarPlay partner on Apple's website since 2014, but it had no plans to adopt the platform as of February 2015. "We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions," the company said at the time.

Then, in early 2016, Toyota entered into an agreement with Ford and Livio to deploy SmartDeviceLink, an open source multimedia system rivaling CarPlay and Android Auto. Ford and Toyota established a consortium in early 2017 to accelerate development of the open source software platform.

A recent survey indicated that an increasing number of customers consider CarPlay a must-have feature, so Toyota's support for Apple's software platform should benefit both new vehicle buyers and its bottom line.

Below is a list of some of the other new vehicles with CarPlay support debuting at the auto show this week:

- 2019 Audi A7
- 2018 BMW X2
- 2019 BMW i8 Coupe
- 2019 Ford Ranger
- 2019 Ford Edge 
- 2019 Genesis G70 
- 2019 Hyundai Veloster
- 2019 Kia Forte
- 2019 Honda Insight Prototype
- 2019 Lamborghini Urus
- 2019 Mercedes-Benz G-Class
- 2019 MINI Hardtop
- 2019 MINI Convertible
- 2019 RAM 1500
- 2019 Volkswagen Jetta
- 2018 Volkswagen Passat GT
- 2019 Chevrolet Silverado
- 2019 Jeep Cherokee
Apple periodically updates a list of over 200 vehicle makes and models available with CarPlay on its website.

Update: Toyota has now shared a press release that reveals the 2019 Avalon has a new nine-inch capacitive touchscreen. CarPlay is a standard feature on all trim levels of the vehicle, which goes on sale in late spring 2018.

Update 2: Toyota informed MacRumors that its CarPlay implementation will be wired, so connecting an iPhone via USB will be required. We're also told that CarPlay will be available in select 2019 model year and beyond Lexus vehicles with its Enform 2.0 multimedia system in the United States.

Update 3: Toyota told us that it doesn't have any plans to support CarPlay in pre-2019 vehicles at this time, even though models like the 2018 Camry and 2018 Sienna have its Entune 3.0 system.

Article Link: Toyota and Lexus to Offer CarPlay in Select 2019 Vehicles and Beyond in United States
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/15/toyota-to-support-apple-carplay/
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Blackstick said:
Astounding how long it takes car companies to implement technology. They’re like geriatric panda bears reachiiiiiiiing for the bamboo on the far tree.
Click to expand...

Product development cycles are much longer in the automotive industry. But then so are product life cycles.

It is easy these days to see automobiles on the road that are ten years old. How many people on here are using a ten year old smartphone.

You Bri g up a very good issue, however. With the rate of technological change in the mobile device industry, the technology implemented today in automobiles will be obsolete by the time most people buy this model year. I am very interested to see how the automotive industry addresses this. I am also interested to see if a sub-industry springs up to provide technology upgrades to older vehicles.
 
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Pretty sure my basic Peugeot 208 introduced CarPlay in their 2015 model.

It’s surprising that some manufacturers still don’t offer CarPlay - I don’t think it’s a preference for Google’s equivalent as most cars seem to have both or neither.

I wouldn’t consider a car without it now, and ideally I’d be wanting a wireless connection.
 
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NachoGrande said:
I amazed at how long it's taking car companies to make this a standard. No one want some clunky UI designed by a car company.
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Well. It's a tribute to the American market where the iPhone is the clear market leader. I live in Europe (Germany) where the market looks quite differently and where way more people use Android than iOS. I'm pretty sure that in Toyota's home market iOS support probably isn't much more than an afterthought...
 
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Just last year at CES 2017 Toyota had doubled down on their own system. What a difference a year makes. Finally, they realize it's a big factor for car buyers. I'm sure one reason the new Camry is hurting in comparison to the new Accord on reviewers lists is just this issue. Good to see they came around.
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upnorth85 said:
It is way past time for Honda and Toyota to offer Apple Car Play. We have Lexus and Acura SUV’s and have totally useless navigation systems. Both of us use our iPhones for navigation.
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Honda has been offering it for about two years now, it used to be on higher trims but now most Civics, CRVs and all Accords have it. Toyota had said last year they wouldn't support this for the forseeabel future.
 
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Subaru finally has made CarPlay standard on all models, as well. It's amazing how much cleaner CarPlay's interface is compared with the stock multimedia interfaces in cars. You'd think a car company would understand what kind of interface drivers would need, but it took Apple to get it right.
 
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syan48306 said:
I'l so stoked that Lexus might have the possibility of having CarPlay. I love their cars but Lexus inform is literally the biggest downsides to their cars.
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Ditto, I’ve been able to confuse the system on more than one occasion. That said after the warranty expires I may mod the console and add it myself.
 
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Winni said:
Well. It's a tribute to the American market where the iPhone is the clear market leader. I live in Europe (Germany) where the market looks quite differently and where way more people use Android than iOS. I'm pretty sure that in Toyota's home market iOS support probably isn't much more than an afterthought...
Click to expand...
I live in japan, and while the majority of people are iPhone users (55-60%), the Japanese industry is extremely scared of evolution of any kind except robotics (hence Peppa and e-palette making their ways to Olympic Games).
I absolutely hate the in-car navigation. My car is the Toyota equivalent of a Lexus (once RX450, now called Harrier), but I bet I won’t see CarPlay for a long time.
I am still hoping they move their butts and offer electric only SUVs and Wagons soon. I like their cars and the quality (being German myself), but currently I am glancing at Tesla and Mercedes
 
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Is offering CarPlay simply software, or is some hardware needed? (Specifically for CarPlay, not just general phone connectivity)
 
peterh988 said:
Is offering CarPlay simply software, or is some hardware needed? (Specifically for CarPlay, not just general phone connectivity)
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I think the issue is that the software should be able to display an external input source on the screen, but not of any kind. So it is a bit of work doing that on proprietary systems. Also the touch controls have to work
 
CarPlay is very disappointing. Limited apps with limited functionality. It is also very buggy and doesn’t integrate well with other radio functions like SiriusXm. A dash mounted iPhone connected via Bluetooth is a superior solution at this point.
 
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