Apple announces the 'next generation of CarPlay' alongside iOS 16 at WWDC22

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Apple Official Ios 16 Carplay
Apple Official Ios 16 Carplay (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple has updated its CarPlay experience as part of the iOS 16 announcement.
  • The new CarPlay will support cars that have multiple screens.
  • CarPlay with iOS 16 will be able to read information from cars and their own features including the radio and climate control.

Apple today announced iOS 16 and as part of that it also took the wraps off the "next generation of CarPlay." The new update will be live for everyone later this year, with developers able to download the first beta release today.

With Apple's big WWDC22 event now underway and the opening keynote done and dusted, the new iOS 16 is one of the biggest announcements of the day. It brings with it a notable CarPlay refresh that is specifically designed to make better use of cars with multiple screens. Apple says that we should expect a new experience that is "unified and consistent," while the update will also allow CarPlay to tie into a car's built-in systems in a way that is not available with iOS 15.

Carplay on iOS 16

Carplay (Image credit: Apple)

"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. Deeper integration with the vehicle will allow users to do things like control the radio or change the climate directly through CarPlay, and using the vehicle data, CarPlay will seamlessly render the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster. Users will be able to personalize their driving experience by choosing different gauge cluster designs, and with added support for widgets, users will have at-a-glance information from Weather and Music right on their car's dashboard."

Apple also confirmed that vehicles with full support for the updated CarPlay will be announced later this year, so that's something to keep your eyes peeled for.

The updated iOS 16 also includes a new lock screen experience as well as updated Apple Maps and much more — an update that will surely be the best iPhone software to date.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.