It wasn’t long ago that Apple appeared to have just begun rolling out a premium version of its free CarPlay in-car software. You know CarPlay, that Apple bit of software that bridges the connection between your iPhone and the car’s in-dash screen that controls the radio, air conditioning, heating, vehicle settings, and, well, basically everything?
They call that in-dash gadget the infotainment system, by the way. Yeah, it sounds awful, and I’ve always thought it unwieldy and cumbersome. And it reminds me of those LaserDisc programs we used to laugh at in school in the 1990s.
Now, BMW has become the latest major automaker to snub CarPlay Ultra, as Apple’s calling it. Saying CarPlay Ultra is dead already, though, is way too premature.
abandoning ship
As a BMW spokesperson told BMW Blog last week, “BMW currently has no plans to integrate Apple CarPlay Ultra.” That puts BMW in the company of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Polestar, and Renault, according to a June 2025 story by Financial Times.
As Car and Driver pointed out, “These brands had all initially stated their intent to implement CarPlay Ultra but have since reportedly backed out.”
Differing from the standard CarPlay we’re accustomed to, CarPlay Ultra allows you to add iPhone-style widgets to the main screen and, if the vehicle features a digital dashboard, to the gauge cluster.
It’ll also let you use the car’s physical buttons, on-screen controls, or Siri to control not just the usual CarPlay features, such as navigation and music, but also aspects of the car-specific systems, including heating, air conditioning, performance driving modes, and more.
“Apple says that CarPlay is only debuting on Aston Martin’s cars,” I wrote back in May 2025. “It’ll come to other brands, the kinds most of us can actually buy, later.”
Some brands haven’t yet backtracked on their public commitment to CarPlay Ultra, such as Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, though, as of now, it remains only available on Aston Martins, whose prices begin at $200,000.
The post Apple CarPlay Ultra Isn’t Dead. Yet. appeared first on VICE.
