What Apple CarPlay Ultra means for the future of in-car user experience

Apple announced in a press release that it is rolling out “the future of CarPlay” with its newest iteration of the software called CarPlay Ultra.

CarPlay Ultra is now more than just a simple “container” for your smartphone’s functionality in your car’s infotainment, it aims to replace everything, including your digital instrument cluster.

While the main interface isn’t revolutionary (in fact, it’s still pretty much the same), your iPhone now takes it a step further and integrates deeper with your car. 

Since it now pretty much takes over your instrument cluster and infotainment, it can display a speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauge, and more, alongside widgets that integrate navigation, system sensors, and even your car’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

A feature called pop-in view also allows car-specific functionality (such as the 360-degree camera and bespoke audio settings) to be operated within CarPlay Ultra without you ever leaving it.

Provided you own a fairly recent Aston Martin (DBX, DB12, Vantage, and Vanquish) in the US/Canada and an iPhone 12 (and up) running iOS 18.5, you can use it today, but it should start trickling down to brands like Hyundai/Genesis/Kia, Porsche, and Honda in the coming months.

Apple says that it will work with each brand to offer themes created in collaboration with each automaker, meaning that brands will at least have a say in Apple’s take on how its gauge clusters should look, but of course, there will be a degree of customizability from the user’s end as well.

The introduction of CarPlay Ultra is both a good and a bad thing. For one, I believe automakers should leave in-car interfaces to software companies.

With the shift from physical buttons all over a dashboard to software controls behind a pane of glass, this was essentially a double-edged sword for interior design. 

Automakers now had a blank canvas to design their user interfaces (and as a way to cut costs further since it’s cheaper), but these would only be beneficial to the user if the automaker knew how to make a good interface.

Even now, most touch interfaces are dreadful to use, with tons of basic functionality buried beneath multiple confusing menus and all. Only very few have succeeded in making something easy to use, but even then, people just end up plugging their phones in to utilize the maps and media built into their smartphones instead of whatever the automaker built.

Now, with Apple essentially taking the reins from the automakers, it pretty much guarantees that as long as you have an iPhone, any car’s interface will prove to be less of a chore and more like, well, an iPhone (that is until Google does something similar with Android Auto). And for a company that mainly produces smartphones, you can bet that this will be easy to use.

Of course, automakers could learn a thing or two about designing interfaces from Cupertino or Mountain View, but this approach may also lead to some just throwing in the towel and stifling the creativity and progress of some automakers who are pouring money into researching and developing better user interfaces for their vehicles.

After all, competition spurs innovation, and if this becomes the norm for the future of in-car interfaces, we could be seeing something similar to the smartphone race where you choose a phone that only runs iOS or Android.

Photos from Apple, Aston Martin, and Sam Surla