During today’s World Wide Developers Conference 2022 (WWDC) Apple unleashed many new products and rather intriguing updates to software on their devices. What stood out for us was the announcement of Apple CarPlay becoming a much more integrated part of future automobiles where it will go far beyond just the infotainment add-on that we find in about 98% of new cars now, which 79% of users consider the Apple CarPlay feature before buying a new car.
We already knew Apple was interested in becoming a larger force in transportation and automobiles with the development surrounding an electric autonomous vehicle. While the Apple Car hasn’t announced or even confirmed (for now), Apple does plan on becoming more integrated into the automotive world by expanding greatly with Apple CarPlay featuring new widgets and be used to integrate with vehicle climate controls and a customizable instrument cluster. That means Apple CarPlay will handle some of the interfaces where you interact with essential core vehicle controls and allow for customization of the displays in your instrument cluster adapting to different screen designs and sizes.
The future is bright, and we’ve been a proponent of having more smartphone integration for vehicle controls so we can at least settle on a more streamlined method of interacting with cars. After all, today’s vehicles are extremely technology-focused and each manufacturer has its version of how we should interact. Wouldn’t it make sense for automotive manufacturers to pave a path for more streamlined and consistent interfaces that closely resemble our smartphones since we all use either an Apple iPhone or Android smartphone? This is a good step in the right direction – if manufacturers work closely with Apple to ensure the integration actually works and is reliable – because right now we see way too many hiccups and software bugs in new vehicles that we review and test drive.
Bring it on, Apple!
