In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra features deeper integration with a vehicle's instrument cluster and systems, built-in apps for radio and climate controls, rear-view camera feed support, and more. The connected iPhone provides app-related data, while the vehicle provides information like the current speed, fuel level, tire pressure, engine temperature, and more.
The interface is tailored to each vehicle model and automaker's identity, and drivers can choose from various preset design options.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said he was told that CarPlay Ultra would come to at least one major new Hyundai or Kia vehicle model "in the second half of this year," so hopefully an expansion is just a few months away.
Wednesday April 22, 2026 12:10 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 was released last month, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps.
To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....
Apple's CarPlay system for accessing iPhone apps on a vehicle's dashboard screen has received six popular apps in recent weeks: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Google Meet, WhatsApp, and the indie artist streaming platform Audiomack.
Make sure you have the latest version of each app and they will automatically appear on CarPlay.
ChatGPT
Starting with iOS 26.4, CarPlay supports voice-based...
SpaceXAI has released Grok Voice mode for Apple CarPlay, allowing CarPlay users to ask the chatbot questions and make requests directly from their vehicle dashboard, handsfree.
Previously, Grok for iPhone displayed a placeholder app in CarPlay saying the handsfree support would be coming soon. Grok comes built-in on Tesla vehicles, but now almost any other car can access it.
Apple...