The compatibility of cars with Apple Carplay and Android Auto interfaces has become a vital criterion for most customers of modern cars. For some of them, it is even a non-purchase reason when the vehicle is not equipped with these devices.
Aside from Tesla who continues to resist this technology, preferring to capitalize on her own home interface, all car manufacturers on the market offer this compatibility with Apple Carplay in their cars. The system began to democratize at the start of the previous decade and is now essential on the market.
Apple Carplay Ultra, the next step that is not unanimous
After Apple Carplay which allows you to project certain phone applications on the central screen of your car, dictate messages or take calls directly, the American hi-tech giant is currently deploying Carplay Ultra: a more advanced version of this interface allowing for example to display navigation on the instrumentation handset screen but also to directly manage certain car settings such as air conditioning.
While Aston Martin has already communicated on the arrival of this Carplay Ultra system in its cars (and that it must also land at Porsche), the journalists of the Financial Times explain that several car manufacturers see it with a very bad eye: Mercedes, Polestar, Audi and Volvo no longer want to install it in their cars contrary to what they were initially planned.
Competition with manufacturers’ systems
It should be remembered that when the Apple Carplay system operates in a car, a certain number of data related to the use of the occupants of the vehicle is transmitted to Apple and escapes the control of the automaker. In addition, the integration of this system also has a cost. It is also for these reasons that the General Motors decided to completely remove Apple Carplay compatibility from all its cars.
We imagine that these car manufacturers will probably change their strategies if Apple Carplay Ultra is also judged by customers as an essential tool in cars.
