Back in 2022, Apple announced that the next generation of CarPlay will learn a new trick. Not only will it be able to over your touchscreen, it will be able to take over every screen in your vehicle. Now, it is showing what its bespoke designs will look like, with a little help from a couple of high-end sports car manufacturers.
Apple has shared renderings of what the system will look like an Aston Martin and a Porsche, to show just how different they can be. For instance, in the English car, it takes over the infotainment screen (as you’d expect) as well as the instrument cluster, which features classy silver gauges, with racing green outlines, that bracket the album cover art of the media being listened to.
Meanwhile, over at Porsche, the system controls the center touchscreen, the instrument cluster, and the passenger screen. All feature the houndstooth (or Pepita) pattern that has long been associated with the brand, and the instrument cluster features a central dial with a speedometer to its left, and a lap timer to its right.
Read: Apple’s Next-Gen CarPlay Will Be Able To Take Over Both Your Touchscreen And Gauge Cluster
While the designs are far from groundbreaking, they do hinge on some interesting technology. At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple promised that the new CarPlay will be able to take data straight from the vehicle to run things like the speedometer, battery gauge, gas gauge, and more.
The aim is to seamlessly integrate the iPhone experience into a vehicle, and allow drivers to access all of their apps, contacts, and other details through their vehicle’s infotainment system, and also offers drivers plenty of customizability. The tech company says that information from your car will not be stored on your phone, and that the interfacing will happen in a “privacy-friendly” way.
In fact, in the latest Cayenne, CarPlay users can already control “core functions” like the audio system, the climate control, and the ambient lighting. Apple has combined those into “wellness modes” with names like Relax, Warm Up, and Refresh. It also means that Siri can be used to control a variety of functions using voice controls.
Unfortunately, it is not yet clear when this fully integrated CarPlay will be introduced into Porsche vehicles. However, Car and Driver reports that Aston Martin has promised that its upcoming infotainment system, which is launching in 2024, will be compatible with it.
