An all-new design for CarPlay
CarPlay was originally launched as “iOS in the Car” as part of iOS 7 and was rebranded as CarPlay shortly thereafter. Since that rebrand, CarPlay’s interface hasn’t changed much. The biggest design change came with iOS 13, when Apple introduced a new Dashboard interface with different “cards” for apps like Maps, Music, and more.
The “next generation” of CarPlay, however, will pretty much give the CarPlay interface a complete overhaul. While we haven’t gotten a chance to try the new CarPlay design, Apple’s imagery from WWDC offered a sneak peek.
The new design still relies on a grid of app icons as its primary user interface element, but there are plenty of other changes surrounding that app grid. There will be a split-view style interface for showing multiple apps at the same time, as well as a Dock at the bottom with quick access to recently-used apps.
Where the new CarPlay interface really shines, however, is with how it can take over your car’s entire infotainment system. This includes the center console display in its entirety, as well as any other displays like one behind the steering wheel.
Apple explains:
CarPlay has fundamentally changed the way people interact with their vehicles, and the next generation of CarPlay goes even further by deeply integrating with a car’s hardware. CarPlay will be able to provide content for multiple screens within the vehicle, creating an experience that is unified and consistent.
One of Apple’s mock-ups of the new design uses a car that’s similar in style to the Mercedes-Benz EQS, where there’s basically one large display that stretches from behind the steering wheel to the passenger side. The interface looks to be completely modular, with different tiles and widgets for apps like weather, HomeKit, and more.
Another mockup (at the top of this story) shows a car that’s very similar to the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which features a portrait-oriented center display and a smaller instrument cluster behind the steering wheel.
In these images, you can see how the CarPlay interface can adjust based on different screen sizes. It’s where the “modularity” of the widgets and cards comes into play. But the key to this new design is that it completely replaces the car manufacturer’s software interface.
Deeper integration with cars
If CarPlay is going to take over your entire in-car experience, then it needs to be able to access all of the features and functionality of your car. With this in mind, the “next generation” of CarPlay will have access to a much broader range of car features than before. Apple says that this is accomplished by your iPhone communicating with your car’s real-time system
This includes things like climate control, fuel and battery charge levels, radio controls, instrument cluster data, and more. “CarPlay will seamlessly render the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster,” Apple says. “Deeper integration with the vehicle will allow users to do things like control the radio or change the climate directly through CarPlay.”
Think of it this way: everything you previously had to use your car’s native interface for will now be fully integrated with CarPlay itself. In an ideal implementation, this means you’ll only ever interact with CarPlay.