Apple has announced CarPlay Ultra, but a number of car brands have indicated that it does not support the update. That while Apple said earlier that these brands would work with CarPlay Ultra.
CarPlay Ultra
CarPlay Ultra is finally available! Apple already announced CarPlay 2.0 years ago on the WWDC 2022. It was quiet for a long time, until the company presented CarPlay Ultra in May this year. The new generation of the operating system takes over almost all screens in the car, so that CarPlay is much better integrated into the car. Unfortunately, that is not the case with all car brands, because they do not support CarPlay Ultra.
At the WWDC 2022, Apple presented a list of car brands, which would offer CarPlay 2.0 in their cars. In the meantime, that list turns out to be outdated because various manufacturers have indicated that not to support CarPlay Ultra. This is a number of popular car brands, who have confirmed not to switch to the new generation of CarPlay. These brands must do it definitively without CarPlay Ultra:
- Audi
- Mercedes-Benz
- Polestar
- Renault
- Volvo
Focus on own systems
It is striking that these car brands do not offer support for CarPlay Ultra, certainly because Apple previously indicated that they would do that. Now it appears that popular car brands such as Renault and Volvo do not get CarPlay Ultra. Instead, the manufacturers focus on developing their own software system for the car. They want to distinguish themselves with their own system, for which you may need a paid subscription in the future.
Without CarPlay Ultra, users of the cars are dependent on the software of the car manufacturer. The chance that they will take out a paid subscription in the future is therefore much greater. This is an important reason for car brands not to support CarPlay Ultra. It is expected that paid subscriptions will become an important source of income for car manufacturers in a number of years.
CarPlay continues to work
More and more car brands decide not to switch to CarPlay Ultra. Manufacturers who do work with the new generation of the operating system are at least Aston Martin, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis and Porsche. At the former, CarPlay Ultra is even available in the United States, other brands will roll out the update later this year in existing and new cars. Other manufacturers such as Ford, Nissan and Honda have not yet said anything about CarPlay Ultra.
Incidentally, it is good to know that the first generation of CarPlay will continue to work in the cars of these brands. Popular car brands such as Renault and Volvo do not support CarPlay Ultra, but still work with the current version of CarPlay. That’s good news, because the first version of the operating system gets many functions with iOS 26. Curious which ones are? These changes come to CarPlay in 2025!
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