Apple CarPlay Ultra Gives Your Car’s Screens That iPhone Look and Feel

The next generation of Apple CarPlay is here, and it doesn’t just transform your car’s center screen into a big iPad with buttons and apps that mirror your mobile device. It works across every screen in the car, including the digital instrument panel display in front of the driver. If you’ve ever lamented that your central screen has the user interface you prefer while nothing else in the car matches it, Apple CarPlay Ultra is for you.

Related: What Is Apple CarPlay?

Apple CarPlay remains one of the most in-demand features in new cars due to its extreme convenience factor: Not only can you bring up a phone-style layout you’re already familiar with, but you can access your preferred navigation and music apps, as well as make calls and send texts, without having to pick up the phone. Not needing to pay for the car’s built-in navigation, data connectivity and music services because they’re on your phone is such a solid money-saving hack that we include phone-mirroring services as a must-have for our annual list of best value new cars.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny to be an early adopter of CarPlay Ultra, as it first rolled out to Aston Martin luxury vehicles on May 15. Existing Aston Martin models with compatible infotainment systems can upgrade to CarPlay Ultra in a software update that will be released in the next few weeks. That being said, this is one cutting-edge feature we expect to trickle down to more mass-market vehicles relatively quickly, so here’s how it works.

What’s New in Apple CarPlay Ultra?

If there’s one phrase to sum up the next generation of CarPlay, it’s “more integration.” Features such as climate controls, driver assists and vehicle status information that formerly would have forced you to exit CarPlay are now accessible from within the system. Likewise, real-time data from CarPlay apps — particularly when it comes to navigation — can now appear on the instrument panel, allowing the driver an easier view with less time spent looking away from the road.

It’s all beautifully integrated into one system, as drivers can use the car’s physical buttons or onscreen controls as well as Apple’s Siri voice assistant to manage both smartphone apps and native vehicle functions. Using Waze on your phone while listening to a car’s terrestrial radio no longer means having to flip back and forth between two systems. CarPlay Ultra’s widgets can split up the screen’s real estate to show multiple functions alongside each other as well on any screen in the car.

Apple CarPlay will now feel a bit more at home in car interiors, too. Automakers can customize the look of the system to match the car’s interior better, saving you from its current technicolor backdrop that can sometimes look out of place. For example, Aston Martin’s gauge display offers users several curated layouts that match the car, with one mimicking the standard Aston Martin speedometer and tachometer while still displaying CarPlay Ultra’s real-time information in the middle. Drivers can even customize the look of CarPlay Ultra further by picking themes, backgrounds and colors that suit their tastes.

Apple also reiterated in its announcement that CarPlay Ultra is subject to the same privacy measures it builds into its iPhone. While no company is perfect when it comes to data security, CarPlay Ultra could be a workaround for those who might be wary of automakers’ potentially invasive or insecure connected systems.

When Will Other Cars Get Apple CarPlay Ultra?

Apple has already confirmed that more automakers will soon get access to Apple CarPlay Ultra, and we’ve already seen images of Porsches with the system when it was announced last year. Apple confirmed in its CarPlay Ultra announcement that Genesis, Hyundai and Kia have already committed to offer the system in future vehicles, and they’re likely just the beginning. Earlier reports noted that Honda and Acura, Audi, Ford and Lincoln, Nissan and Infiniti, Jaguar and Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo and Polestar were all set to offer the system in their vehicles.

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