Apple CarPlay Just Got A Bunch Of Cool New Features With iOS 18

• Apple’s iOS 18 dropped on Monday, bringing new features to both iPhones and Apple CarPlay. 
• CarPlay will soon feature updates to Siri that are coming to new iPhones, like Apple Intelligence. 
• The phone-mirroring system now has new accessibility features, including color filters. 

Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 18, dropped on Monday. Say goodbye to any storage space you had left on your iPhone, and say hello to some interesting new updates to Apple CarPlay. 

YouTuber Nick O’Leary ran through the major new features in a new video, which you can check out above. Or stick with me for some of the highlights. 

One of the most noticeable changes is new animations accompanying Siri, just like you’ll find on newer iPhones. In CarPlay, the screen’s border will glow and pulse to indicate that the voice assistant is listening.

New Siri-related features, however, will only become available to the public in the next update (18.1) and will only apply to the iPhone 15 Pro and later models. 

Those features should bring Apple Intelligence, the company’s new artificial intelligence system, to your car’s cockpit. We’ll be eager to check out what sorts of AI capabilities add to the driving experience, if any. Apple says the new Siri will be able to understand more natural language and do more across a user’s many apps. 

The Messages app got a redesign and now includes your contacts’ photos alongside their names, per Digital Trends. That should make it easier to pick out the right contact at a glance. 

CarPlay also gets a bunch more accessibility features, bringing it more in line with what’s available on the iPhone. The latest version of CarPlay offers color filters (for those with color blindness), bold text and voice controls. The latter lets users control CarPlay without physically tapping or swiping the screen. Something called “Sound Recognition” can detect car horns and sirens, and alert the driver to them.

CarPlay also gets a few new wallpapers but still doesn’t allow users to add in a custom background. And now you can ping your misplaced devices straight from the CarPlay screen using Apple’s Find My function. So you can quickly determine whether your phone is lodged deep under your seat—or if you actually lost it somewhere. 

The updates come at a time when many automakers are trying to convince customers that they have, in fact, upped their software game after many years of terrible user experiences. Some manufacturers like Rivian, Tesla and (perhaps most infamously) General Motors do not offer CarPlay on their EVs at all as they prepare customers for a future driven by their own software services—and the subscription fees to run them.

But many drivers are die-hard CarPlay loyalists and, if our emails are any indication, it’s something they just aren’t willing to go without. It’s tough to conclusively say any automaker is “catching up” to a tech powerhouse like Apple, but they aren’t willing to let them control the future of the in-car software experience, either.

Ultimately, it’s good to see Apple pushing out new automotive features to try and stay ahead of the curve, and it may inspire the competition to be better too. At least, until Apple takes over all your car’s screens, anyway. 

What do you think about the new CarPlay features?

Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com