In this video, I check out what new features iOS 18 has to offer for Apple CarPlay. iOS 18 has consistently released alongside Apple’s new suite of iPhone hardware each year, usually around September or October 2024. Since its first release in June 2024, Apple app developers have had early access to iOS 18, and in July 2024 Apple will releases its public beta for anyone to upgrade and use the features I showcase in this video (and maybe more!).
At the time of this article iOS 18 is currently at developer Beta 3, and with just a few months away until its public release later this year, I thought i’d jump in the car and show you exactly what’s new and what’s soon to come with Apple’s Next-Generation of Apple CarPlay.
Déjà Vu Home Screen in iOS 18 for Apple CarPlay
So it feels like déjà vu again when launching CarPlay in iOS 18 when comparing it against Apple’s current iOS 17.5.1. Apple hasn’t visually altered CarPlay too much in iOS 18, and after two years since it was last announced, the next generation of CarPlay is still waiting for many car brands to adopt. But we have seen Apple step forward, and I’ll go into this further a little later in this video.
When you load up CarPlay in iOS 18, the first striking change you’ll notice is that the side dock home button has changed. The home button now resembles the physical home button from past iPhones. Tapping the home button switches the button to another new app grid icon.
Richer Siri Popups
The rest of the home screen and dashboard screen haven’t had any updates as yet. However, when you ask Siri for the weather or recent team scores, you’ll now see a new overlay popup that displays a much richer overview of the weather and a digestible glance view of any sports scores on screen.
Profile Pics in Text Messages & App
Receiving a text message will also display the contact’s profile pic alongside their name in the message popup, while diving into the CarPlay Messages app will show the profile pic alongside the contact’s name. If a contact doesn’t have an image assigned to it, a generic avatar icon or their initials will be displayed in this area.
Record Video With Audio Playback
In iOS 18, you can now launch the camera app and record video without the audio stopping in CarPlay. This is a welcome feature for anyone wishing to record video while CarPlay audio playback is active. However, the audio swaps to your phone instead of continuing over your car speakers, which is odd. Hopefully, this will change back to the car speakers in future versions.
Apple Maps Update
Apple Maps has also had a few graphical and UI changes. Beta 2 had a subtle gradient added to them but this has now been removed in Beta 3. What remains is that each place of interest (POI) icon now has a white outline and a gradient has been added to them all. The colours are a little darker and richer also. The maps themselves are slightly darker in colour, and I found houses are also more pronounced and darker. This is less as obvious as in Beta 2.
Settings App
The biggest updates in iOS 18 for Apple CarPlay are in the Settings app. There is a new icon for Siri & Suggestions which marks a new identity for Apple’s upcoming AI driven assistant, and alongside this there are two new high-level Settings options: Silent Mode and Accessibility.
Silent Mode
In Silent Mode, you now have the option to make CarPlay automatically turn your iPhone’s silent mode, on or off, while CarPlay is active. This option is a quick way to silence system sounds and alerts from apps while connected to CarPlay.
Accessibility
The biggest update in iOS 18 for Apple CarPlay is accessibility. This area offers a number of enhancements in CarPlay for visual, hearing and motor-impaired users.
Colour Filters
The first option addresses visual impairments. From here you to apply colour filters to the whole CarPlay user interface. Turning this feature on allows the entire CarPlay interface to display in Greyscale for a monochrome, vintage look. There is a Red/Green filter, a Green/Red filter and finally a Blue/Yellow filter. Each of these filters can also have up to three levels of intensity set, to make CarPlay’s visual interface more accessible.
Bold Text
Another vision-based accessibility option is to bold text in the CarPlay UI. This also might be a feature that any users might switch on themselves as it does make the CarPlay experience a little stronger and easier to read whilst on the move. Almost all text elements are affected with this option switched on.
Voice Control
There is a new option in iOS 18 to control CarPlay with your voice for people with physical or motor impairment. You will have to have voice control enabled at least once on your phone in order for this to work. Once enabled, you can simply navigate CarPlay by saying commands such as Open Maps, Go Home, Open Spotify, Tap Play, Press Pause, and by saying Tap or Press alongside any other button you can visibly see on the screen. It works fairly well and also over low-volume music.
Sound Alerts
People with hearing impairments are also covered in CarPlay in iOS 18 where you can receive onscreen alerts when car horns and sirens are detected from the iPhone’s microphone. I couldn’t get this feature to work in CarPlay personally when using sound effects played from another iPhone, and it might also be region specific or the iPhone might need to be in motion to avoid false triggers.
This has been removed in Beta 3, or it has been hidden remotely from the settings area in iOS 18 Beta 3. It was present in Beta 2, so maybe we will see it return in the next few updates as they flesh out its reliability.
Speaking of motion, there’s a new Vehicle Motion Cues feature in iOS 18 that is meant to tackle motion sickness whilst browsing the iPhone in a moving vehicle. The feature involves a series of small and large black and white dots that covers the iPhone screen and these dots move in the opposite direction to the motion that it detects. This feature can be toggled from the control centre and is meant to appear when vehicle movement is detected.
Vehicle Motion Cues
iOS 18 Public Beta Availability
The Public Beta of iOS 18 is meant to release in this month of July, usually later in the month once developers reach Beta 4. At that point, beta users might start to see new iOS 18 wallpapers in CarPlay. For now, there haven’t been any additional wallpapers in iOS 18 yet, but at least one or two new wallpapers are to be expected.
Siri & Apple Intelligence
Apple’s Siri assistant is also due an update in iOS 18, along with the addition of Apple Intelligence- Apples flurry into A.I. support on iPhone. Whether we will see Apple’s A.I. trickle down into CarPlay remains unknown. Especially when support in the EU remains uncertain or at least be delayed after its release in the US. But CarPlay users should at least see the new surrounding Siri trigger animation that mirrors how it looks on the iPhone. This would make Siri less obstructive on screen whilst being activated in CarPlay.
What About Custom Icons & Weather…?
It would also be nice to see Apple carry over its new customisable app icons feature in CarPlay to enable further customisation within CarPlay. Apple could just copy the customisation settings from your iPhone and apply it immediately within CarPlay, whilst giving the option to do so in the CarPlay Settings app.
I do still think (and hope) that we will also see the Weather app take a more prominent feature within the existing CarPlay user interface. Looking over Apple’s WWDC CarPlay sessions for iOS 18, I noticed a few times where the weather is persistently displayed in the top status bar of the main central CarPlay display screen, whilst also being displayed in the screen that contain their new instrument cluster. There’s also a weather widget panel shown on wider displays, so I hope this is being captured from your location and the weather app, rather than being taken from the outside temperature from the vehicle’s own data. If so, this means it will come to existing CarPlay displays too.
Next-Generation of Apple CarPlay
It has now been over two years since we were first shown the next-generation of Apple CarPlay. This year, Apple took a step forward in showing a little more of it in two CarPlay developer sessions. Its new instrument cluster framework is now present in iOS 18 for brands and developers to play around with. However, the wait is still going to be long before we see brands consider and release new car models that accept it.
Back in December 2023, only Aston Martin and Porsche has publicly shared images of how they plan on bringing the next-generation of CarPlay to their upcoming vehicles. But many interested brands that were shared by Apple in its first introduction have yet to show theirs. Hopefully by the end of the year we will see a few new vehicle announcements that integrate Apple’s next-gen CarPlay.
Meanwhile, I discovered the team at BlackBox Infinite has already been busy designing some iconic instrument cluster designs using Apple’s next-generation CarPlay framework for iOS 18. They have created some great-looking designs that are very faithful to the original instrument clusters found in cars made in the mid-’70s, such as the Porsche 911 Turbo, to the ‘80s with the DeLorean, the Lancia Delta Integrale and the Ferrari Testarossa and the Chevrolet Corvette C4.
Even the iconic instrument cluster from the Honda S2000 has also been closely replicated by the team using Apple’s new instrument cluster framework. Looking at these shows that Apple has offered plenty of customisation within the instrument cluster design alone, from fonts, line weights, dial types and much more. And that’s before we see what car brand UI designers can do with other available areas of the car’s infotainment screens.
When is iOS 18 Out?
iOS 18 will release some time in September/October, aligned with the release of Apple’s iPhone 16 suite of phones. iOS 18 will no doubt bring some exciting times for Apple CarPlay in newer vehicles over the next 12 months. So if you’re interested in getting the next-generation of CarPlay in your car, you’d best start saving!
So that is a good look over iOS 18 for Apple CarPlay and also what’s to come in the next generation of Apple’s infotainment platform. I hope you’ve found this video helpful. If it has, please do consider sharing this page with others and help bring more awareness to what I do. Thank you!
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:46 – Home button
1:06 – Siri Weather & Sport Scores Popup
1:20 – Profile Pics in Message Popup & App
1:40 – Record Video & Playback Audio
1:50 – Apple Maps updates
2:09 – Settings
2:26 – Silent Mode
2:40 – Accessibility
2:50 – Colour Filters
3:16 – Bold Text
3:33 – Voice Control
3:53 – Sound Recognition (Removed in Beta 3)
4:20 – Vehicle Motion Cues on iPhone
4:45 – iOS 18 Public Beta Availability
4:55 – iOS 18 Wallpapers for CarPlay
5:05 – iOS 18 Siri & Apple Intelligence for CarPlay
5:35 – Custom Icon Colours in iOS 18 for CarPlay
5:53 – Weather in iOS 18 for CarPlay
6:34 – Next-generation of CarPlay in iOS 18
6:57 – Audi & Porsche Integration
7:17 – BlackBox Infinite CarPlay Instrument Cluster Designs
8:09 – iOS 18 for Apple CarPlay Availability
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