Forget about iPhone vs Android, the next battle between Apple and Google will be played out in the car.
Announced this morning at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), the next-generation of CarPlay will be integrated deeper into new cars than the current, phone-based system.
Along with the central infotainment display, the next-gen CarPlay system will integrate with the driver’s readout and supplementary screens used to control things like climate.
Apple announces next generation of CarPlay with widgets, climate control, and a customizable instrument cluster at #WWDC22 pic.twitter.com/iPEE2VV4tr
— The Verge (@verge) June 6, 2022
Owners will be able to customise their dials, for example, in the same way they can customise the face of an Apple Watch. Along with a typically clean, phone-inspired design, it looks like Apple has taken inspiration from older cars with analogue-style dials.
The update will also feature a more customisable infotainment home screen than before, with iPad-style widgets taking pride of place.
Apple says the system is designed to integrate with a range of screen shapes and sizes, not just landscape-oriented readouts, and has confirmed Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Nissan, Ford, Audi, Honda, Volvo, Renault, Infiniti, and Polestar are working to integrate the updated system in their next-gen vehicles.
The first cars featuring the system will debut late in 2023. It’s not yet clear if the system will be run solely from a phone, as is currently the case, or whether it’ll be integrated more deeply into the vehicle.
The Google rival to a more deeply-integrated CarPlay is Android Automotive. It’s already in use in Volvo, Polestar and Stellantis products, and is essentially the software base on which a manufacturer can build their own infotainment system.
It currently doesn’t support Apple CarPlay in Volvo and Polestar products, although the brand says that will change with an update.
Keyword: Next-generation Apple CarPlay will control more than media