What is the difference between Apple CarPlay and CarPlay Ultra?

Overview

CarPlay provides a great iOS‑like experience in your vehicle. CarPlay Ultra expands that, but isn’t widely available yet. Both bring iPhone apps to your car, yet CarPlay Ultra takes it a step further by controlling more aspects of the vehicle and offering deeper customization.

Standard CarPlay

The well‑known core version of CarPlay was introduced in 2014 with iOS 7.1. You simply connect your iPhone to your car via USB or wirelessly, and the dashboard screen shows a simplified iOS‑like layout designed for the car. CarPlay makes it much easier to access the apps on your device without distractions. Available apps focus mainly on navigation, streaming, and messaging. With just a few taps or Siri requests, you can stream Apple Music playlists or start a route in Maps. It’s much more convenient (and safer) than having to pick up your phone all the time.

Limitations of Standard CarPlay

Because CarPlay isn’t deeply integrated with your car’s system, you might have to exit CarPlay to change some of the car’s native features that also use the screen. Depending on your vehicle, this could include actions like switching driving modes or adjusting the climate control. This adds extra steps to common tasks, which is more dangerous while driving.

CarPlay Ultra

Back in 2022, Apple teased an ambitious expansion for CarPlay: instead of being limited to a single screen, CarPlay would now be across all the screens in your car. That’s what CarPlay Ultra is all about. Beyond showing apps, it also handles key aspects of your car such as the speedometer and fuel gauge. It even lets you customize them, just like in a racing video game. Vehicle controls such as the air conditioning and radio are also integrated with CarPlay Ultra, so you never have to leave the interface. It really feels like you’re using a car system designed entirely by Apple.

Availability

• Luxury Aston Martin models (currently only in the US and Canada)
• Porsche teased support for CarPlay Ultra, but that day never came

Requirements

• An iPhone 12 or later is needed to take advantage of the new CarPlay experience.
• CarPlay Ultra works wirelessly only.

Future Outlook

Apple has mentioned that CarPlay Ultra will eventually be available in more cars. However, based on what we’ve seen, this expansion will likely take even longer to happen.