Acura NSX office chairs up for grabs.

Put these in your office, next to your iPhone wall art.

Just beautiful.

More in-depth CarPlay Ultra coverage by Ars Technica.

Finally, someone tested what would happen to the CarPlay Ultra UI when your iPhone restarts or is shut down. It’s what I expected, but a reboot still has annoying connectivity issues:

I tested Ultra with an iPhone 16 Pro, but the software requires an iPhone 12 or newer and the latest iOS 18.5 update. As a type of simple failure exercise, I turned my phone off while driving more than once. Doing so reverts both the gauge cluster and infotainment screen to Aston's native UI, the former almost instantly and the latter just a few seconds later. However, once I turned my phone back on, I struggled to reactivate either traditional CarPlay or Ultra until I forgot the device in my Bluetooth settings and started over from scratch. This held true for every attempt.

There’s more issues such as lag in the gauges…of a super car:

Call me old-fashioned, but I still enjoy seeing a tachometer, speedometer, drive modes, and fuel level versus range remaining and a digital speed—especially on an engaging performance vehicle like the DB12 Volante. Apple might be skilled at making new tech easy to use, but it's hard to beat the power of millions of minds adapting to analog gauges over the past century or so. And in this case, Ultra's tach(s) showed a bit of latency or lag while ripping that 671-hp twin-turbo V8 up through the revs, something I never noticed in the native UI.

This article claims that CarPlay Ultra is more holistic with access to more controls, but there are several instances where Michael either prefers the native Aston Martin UI or CarPlay Ultra. The gauges are laggy and the default Aston Martin ones are better, but the climate controls in CarPlay Ultra are better than the defaults. Opening the convertible top had issues, and specific audio controls required going into Aston’s control menu. It sounds like the mess that is iPad multi-tasking.

Other things to consider:

• Photos 2-6 in the first set of 12 photos showing the setup process are labelled incorrectly, and are Aston Martin’s setup terms and not Apple’s even though they’re attributed to CarPlay Ultra. I don’t think Apple is going to share your information with insurance companies.

• Read the comment by UnnDunn to get more information about how CarPlay Ultra interacts with the vehicle’s in terms of safety systems.

• They completely murdered Apple’s Style Guide rules by referring to CarPlay Ultra as “Ultra” the whole time, which is just confusing and sounds unprofessional.

CarPlay Ultra needs to be “crash tested.”

I can’t seem to find a single CarPlay Ultra hands-on where the driver tries to see what happens when you disconnect your iPhone from the vehicle. It would be interesting (and important) to see what happens to the UI of the vehicle when the phone inevitably has connection issues.

The only person to address it from what I could find: Joe Rosensteel from Six Colors:

CarPlay Ultra disconnects won’t affect the instruments and essential functions of the car because they’re rendered locally by the vehicle. I have no safety concerns about dropped connections. However, we haven’t seen how gracefully the phone-generated part of the non-essential interface degrades when there are connection issues. I don’t believe Apple wants to be the one to show people anything less than ideal function, even if we all know that’s not realistic.

I think people will find it jarring to go from an immersive Apple Maps screen with a simple digital speedometer and fuel gauge to a default instrument cluster with no maps in a split second. It’s like asking a digitally immersed, spoiled child to tell you the time after taking away his iPhone and leaving him with just a Meridian analog clock.

Lost and traumatized.

I may be exaggerating (a little), but CarPlay’s issues are multi-dimensional since it relies on Apple and the car manufacturer’s software to have good communication, which is also troublesome.

I rented a few Nissans recently, and the physical CarPlay connection was perfect. A few years ago I rented a Kia for a work trip that had wireless CarPlay, and it worked about 85% of the time. I loved the fact that it was wireless, but I hated it when it lost connection and I had to navigate to my destination while holding my phone. I’m not against CarPlay or CarPlay Ultra, but I’m happy with my current Moment MagSafe setup since it never fails.

Every car has its quirks with CarPlay, and I’m sure every car that will support CarPlay Ultra in the future will have its own quirks in terms of features, but also reliability.

There should be a POV video where the driver is driving with CarPlay Ultra fully engaged, and there should be a passenger who takes the phone and simulates a lost connection by rebooting the device just to see what elements of the interface stay functional and what features roll off a cliff.

With cars becoming more and more “tech on wheels,” the question now becomes, is this a test car reviewers should do, or tech reviewers?

Regarding CarPlay Ultra, car maker says, “Don't try to invade our own systems.”

Tim Hardwick from MacRumors reporting from a paywalled Financial Times report:

Apple is facing mounting resistance from automakers over CarPlay Ultra, the next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles that was announced last month.

A new (paywalled) Financial Times report claims several major brands are walking back their earlier commitments to support the upgraded dashboard software. German luxury manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and Audi have both distanced themselves from the system, along with Volvo, Polestar, and Renault.

It's a major retreat from Apple's 2022 announcement, which originally named 14 automakers as future CarPlay Ultra partners, including all of those mentioned above.

CarPlay Ultra goes far beyond traditional CarPlay by taking control of the entire dashboard experience. The system displays vehicle information like temperature, speed, and fuel levels alongside iPhone apps, creating what Apple calls "a unified and consistent experience across all the driver's screens."

Mercedes-Benz had previously expressed reluctance to cede dashboard control to Apple. Now other premium brands are following suit, citing concerns about maintaining their own software experiences and revenue streams from in-car services. From the report:

Some companies have found Apple's foray into driver screens as over-reach. One executive at Renault, which is developing a vehicle mainly controlled by software with Google and Qualcomm, said the French carmaker told Apple: "Don't try to invade our own systems."

My take a few months ago:

But it begs the question for car manufacturers:

Why go through a redundant process and work with a second UI that is less reliable?

The car manufacturer already has to make a UI with all of its features for their vehicles, so why try to reproduce that same experience with CarPlay 2 that requires phone projection? Phone projection or tethering (call it what you want) will always have a less reliable connection than the car’s built-in software. It just seems like a waste of resources for automakers in an already low-margin industry, not to mention a safety concern if an entire dash filled with CarPlay 2 projection all of a sudden disconnects from your phone because of some bug. […]

With Apple’s huge stance on privacy, there has to be some friction with how deeply CarPlay 2 integrates into a manufacturer’s system, and how much of that data Apple doesn’t want to be made available for sale.

There’s a tug of war between automakers and Apple. If something goes awry, who is to blame for an accident? Likewise, if data is being sold without people knowing about it, who is to blame? Neither party wants to bear the brunt of bad news, but if accidents happen, both the automaker and Apple will be blamed. [...]

As the industry moves towards more automation, CarPlay 2 will be even less relevant since there are huge safety concerns and no manufacturer wants to rely on software that is not 100% in their control.

Most automakers will stick to regular CarPlay and treat it as a built-in app, but don’t put all your hopes in CarPlay Ultra making it into your next vehicle unless you’re buying an Aston Martin.

The new 2026 Toyota RAV4, America’s best-selling car, debuts with the new Arene software platform that could indicate CarPlay Ultra compatibility in the future.

Woven by Toyota:

Arene is built to enable the safe, secure, and scalable development of software. By applying Toyota’s manufacturing expertise to modern software engineering, it empowers developers with a more unified, human-centric approach to building and deploying high-quality software. In doing so, Arene moves Toyota and WbyT closer to their shared vision of a software-defined future with zero accidents.

Other key points about their software:

Traditionally, software and hardware in vehicles have been tightly coupled, requiring custom development for each application and vehicle model. Arene’s SDK helps decouple these dependencies by enabling developers to build modular software components that can be reused across multiple applications and vehicle models.

Arene Tools consist of a suite of enterprise-grade tools that allow software to be visualized, tested, validated and managed within virtual environments, reducing the need to rely on physical prototypes. This virtualization accelerates development cycles across vehicle models and shortens time-to-market for new features.

The Arene SDK and Arene Tools help shorten development times, and together with Arene Data, they accelerate the delivery of new and improved features even after the vehicle leaves the factory floor. This results in a driving experience that becomes more personalized, more adaptive, and continuously refined over time.

Some of their other highlights from their infographic include:

Faster, seamless upgrades from a single update

More seamless, consistent and stable experiences

Greater personalization and customization

Quicker access to the latest technologies

This sounds like a tease for CarPlay Ultra if you’re really optimistic, but I think Toyota is heading in the direction of GM and Mercedes and wants to provide customers with an experience that doesn’t rely on embedding a 3rd party platform deep into their driving experience.

Toyota is not one of the brands that has committed to offering CarPlay Ultra, but if they ever do decide to change their minds, this new software platform should make it feasible to port it to the 2026 RAV4 and onward.

The new RAV4 still offers wireless Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto) as standard.

Apple CarPlay 2 is now CarPlay Ultra, currently exclusive for the elite car buyer.

Apple Newsroom:

Starting today, CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, is available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada, and will be available for existing models that feature the brand’s next-generation infotainment system through a software update in the coming weeks. CarPlay Ultra builds on the capabilities of CarPlay and provides the ultimate in-car experience by deeply integrating with the vehicle to deliver the best of iPhone and the best of the car. It provides information for all of the driver’s screens, including real-time content and gauges in the instrument cluster, while reflecting the automaker’s look and feel and offering drivers a customizable experience. Many other automakers around the world are working to bring CarPlay Ultra to drivers, including newly committed brands Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.

The Top Gear video showing off CarPlay Ultra is a nice refresher showing all the new features. Now all I need is a minimum of $200,000 to experience it.

Personally, I think Aston Martin had nothing to lose to go all-in on CarPlay Ultra because they are already bleeding cash, and CarPlay Ultra will sell more cars. Now they just have to import them to the US.

GM’s Apple CarPlay issues get worse.

There was one GM dealership in the whole United States that was allowed to install a “phone-mirroring system” to allow Android Auto and Apple CarPlay back inside GM’s EVs, but now that has been defunct.

Nico Demattia from TheDrive:

For some frustrated owners of GM‘s new electric cars, White Automotive seemed like a lifesaver. After GM decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support in its Ultium-platform EVs, and soon its entire lineup, White stepped up with an aftermarket setup that dealers could install to restore both phone-mirroring systems to those models for new buyers. But that effort has already met its predictable end, as GM recently pushed the only Chevy dealer in the country that was installing them to stop—thereby also forcing White Automotive to discontinue the kit.

A source within GM confirmed to The Drive that the automaker had investigated how the integration was being done and found that it could have adverse impacts on “critical” vehicle functions and stop working altogether with future software updates. Meanwhile, the dealer in question—LaFontaine Chevrolet in Plymouth, Michigan—told us that GM instructed them to stop offering and installing White’s kit. And without that distribution channel, or any chance of getting another dealer on board, White Automotive—who declined to comment directly for this story—had to shut down the project.

Considering this aftermarket system gave users full control of the entire dash including the gauge cluster, it is a high-risk and safety concern if something were to go wrong.

The kit supported both wired and wireless projection for Apple and Google’s smartphones and integrated them across the cars’ infotainment screens, digital gauge clusters, and heads-up displays. It was a comprehensive implementation; drivers could even summon Siri or Google Assistant just as they would if those features were integrated from the factory.

Quite frankly, I’m surprised GM even allowed this one dealership to perform these installations. If they have a hard stance against CarPlay and Android Auto, just stick to it and don’t give people false hope that there is a solution. Now these poor customers are out probably several grand with hardware that is obsolete overnight:

If you check the listing on the company’s page now, its title merely reads, “This product has been discontinued,” and the associated image is blank. Below, a statement addressed to “valued customers,” reads:

“We have made the difficult decision to discontinue this product. Rather than removing it from our website entirely, we wanted to leave this notice so customers are aware of its discontinuation. This was not a decision we made lightly, but due to a variety of factors, continuing to offer this product is no longer viable in the long term.”

Where is the EU when you need them?

Your high tech car is probably spying on you.

If you’re buying a modern vehicle, there is a very high chance that your driving is being monitored. You might now know it, but all your driving metrics such as speed, location, and how fast and what angle you’re turning are all being recorded by your vehicle. All this data is then being saved into the car’s computer, and sent wirelessly to the manufacturer. 

The manufacturer could then use these driving metrics to do investigations for warranty claims, and they can deny your warranty since they think you might be a dangerous driver. 

Could they also be working with insurance companies and furnishing them with this information, to determine if the customer violated their insurance policies by driving dangerously? 

It wouldn’t surprise me. 

Take this GR Corolla for example, where 2 of them caught on fire and one person was denied a warranty claim because they were driving “dangerously.” 

How did Toyota know that?

They said at some point in the car’s life it sent out a data packet that included the car’s speed. They won’t tell me when or where so I don’t know how relevant it is, but they said the car had gone 114 mph and that is abuse of the vehicle. They don’t care that the car comes with a track day, it’s abused as soon as it’s over a certain speed, apparently.

The point of this article isn’t to determine who is at fault with the claim, but to let you know that your modern high tech vehicle knows what you’re doing, and that data can and will be used against you.

The GR Corolla is almost like a track car disguised as a street car, and even comes with a complimentary free track day where you will easily go over 114 mph, but somehow that data was used against this person whose hot hatch (pun intended) burned down to the ground. 

Check out this video that explains more in depth about these metrics being collected by your car, specifically Toyota.