Like many iPhone owning drivers, the DiscoverAuto team are a big fans of Apple’s CarPlay, which allows drivers to access key iPhone features through their infotainment system in a safe and convenient way. Thankfully, most manufacturers install CarPlay in their cars – along with Google’s equivalent, which is called Android Auto – like Toyota, the Volkswagen Group and Mazda. Today Apple has released their annual major update to iOS, the software that powers iPhones, which includes several upgrades to CarPlay – read on to find out what’s new!
Multi-stop navigation in Apple Maps
Apple has finally added the ability to plan routes in Apple Maps. Users can plan trips with 15 different stops in the Maps app, which CarPlay will follow. Routes can also be planned on a Mac in Apple Maps, and sent to an iPhone to use later with CarPlay. Drivers can add stops to their existing navigation route while driving by using the ‘add stop’ menu in the Maps app, or by asking Siri to add stops.
Auto send messages with Siri
The messages app within CarPlay can now automatically send a message during message dictation mode after it has been read back to the driver. Currently drivers must manually request a message they’ve dictated be sent, so this option should speed up the process.
Podcast app redesign
The Podcasts app has received a bit of a redesign in CarPlay, becoming significantly less limited. Users can now easily browse for podcasts and select new episodes of favourite podcasts in the app itself. This will avoid drivers having to using Siri, or worse, having to pull over and use an iPhone to manually select episodes.
New app categories
Apple has added two new categories for apps it will allow to run in CarPlay: fuelling apps and driving task apps. Fuelling apps are somewhat self-explanatory and are aimed at allowing drivers to check fuel prices and find the cheapest petrol. It’s been confirmed that at least in the US, drivers will be able to pay for fuel at some petrol stations directly in CarPlay. Driving task apps are more ambiguous, but we assume they’ll allow drivers to complete other tasks through CarPlay—Apple mentions “road information, toll support, towing help” as examples. Of course, developers will have to create apps with these features, which may take time.
How do I get the new features?
These improvements to CarPlay are available by updating to iOS 16 through the settings app on the iPhone. Support is limited to the iPhone 8 and newer. iPhone SE (1st generation), iPhone 6S/6S+ and iPhone 7/7+ users will have to update to newer iPhones to get the new features. A word of warning – all new software can have bugs when first released, so may be wise to wait for bug fix upgrades before upgrading to iOS 16.
Coming next year – a new generation of Apple CarPlay
The biggest announcement was what Apple is calling the “Next Generation of CarPlay”. This overhauled version of CarPlay will gain the ability to communicate with a much wider range of systems within cars, including heating/cooling, the instrument cluster, and radio. CarPlay will be able to run on a large variety of displays, replacing the instrument cluster and any number of other screens that carmakers want.
Users will also be able to customise the controls, layouts and design of the displays. CarPlay will become one stop cohesive experience of interacting with a vehicle, controlling almost all aspects of the driving experience. However, carmakers will have to work with Apple to support this new generation of CarPlay and the first cars to support it will be announced in late 2023, so it will be a long time until drivers get to actually experience these changes.
The latest Apple CarPlay is available to download with the iOS 16 update. Stay tuned to DiscoverAuto for the latest automotive news and reviews.
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