Apple’s CarPlay Ultra Hits the Road in Aston Martin—More Cars to Follow

Following on from our report last month on Aston Martin’s pioneering launch of Apple’s next-generation CarPlay experience, the tech giant has confirmed that “CarPlay Ultra” is rolling out to vehicles in the U.S. and Canada—albeit exclusively to owners of the luxury marque, for now.

By more deeply integrating with the vehicle, the next-gen CarPlay provides information for all the driver's screens, including real-time content and gauges in the instrument cluster. It also reflects the automaker's look and feel and offers drivers a customisable experience.

While still exclusive to Aston Martin, other manufacturers, including Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Genesis, have committed to bringing CarPlay Ultra to their vehicles. However, we suspect this list will expand quickly.

Apple says drivers can choose to show information from their iPhone, like maps and media, along with information from the car, such as advanced driver assistance systems and tyre pressure, right in the instrument cluster. Further enhancements include using onscreen controls, physical buttons, or Siri to manage standard vehicle functions like the car's radio and climate and advanced vehicle-specific features and controls like audio system configurations or performance settings, right from CarPlay.

CarPlay Ultra also introduces widgets powered by iPhone that perfectly fit the car's screen or gauge cluster to provide information at a glance. These are all welcome additions to a platform reported to be used over 600 million times per day globally.

It's not just its new CarPlay Ultra upgrade; it's receiving updates, though. At WWDC 2025 this week, Apple also announced a major redesign of CarPlay that will roll out with iOS 26 later this year. For those using navigation, calls, and media via CarPlay, the updates promise a more seamless and less distracting experience behind the wheel.

Apple says one of its most practical updates concerns incoming calls, which will no longer occupy the entire display. Instead, they will appear as a banner at the bottom of the vehicle's display screen. Apple is also introducing a new look called "Liquid Glass", which it says "brings sleeker visuals, translucent menus, and glossy icon effects to all Apple devices, including the CarPlay interface".

Emily Schubert, Apple's Director of Car Experience Engineering, during the WWDC 2025 keynote commented:  

Everything will look and respond more smoothly, matching what you see on your iPhone or iPad. It also has redesigned icons suited specifically for light and dark mode while using CarPlay.

For messaging options, iOS 26 will allow you to send "tapbacks", in other words, emojis, from your car screen, view pinned conversations, and see Live Activities such as flight updates or calendar events directly from your iPhone apps.

One emerging, if not alarming, outcome is the potential for subscription-based 'enhanced' services. Some vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla and Mercedes-Benz, have already adopted this approach to unlocking additional vehicle features for a fee or ongoing subscription. Given that CarPlay Ultra is currently reserved for Aston Martin, a premium and luxury car maker, there is potential for Ultra to be a paid subscription when it rolls out to other manufacturers. It is no different from how the purchase of some AV components includes a Dirac Live license, whereas the end user must purchase a license for other products and brands.

BMW attempted to charge customers annually for CarPlay support in 2019 before backing down on this idea shortly afterwards. Apple purportedly treats CarPlay as a loss leader to sell more phones and lock consumers into its ecosystem rather than a model that makes money from subscriptions, so for now, we live in the hope that this does not change.

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