Apple CarPlay Ultra All but Replaces Native Infotainment System
Apple CarPlay Ultra brings CarPlay's UX to the gauge cluster, allowing users to access key information from the phone-based system.
CarPlay Ultra debuts in 2025 Aston Martin models ordered on or after May 15, though older 2025 Astons and the 2024 DB12 can be updated to go Ultra.
Apple iPhone 12 and newer models are CarPlay Ultra compatible, provided they're running iOS 18.5.
Apple is putting native infotainment systems on notice with the arrival of CarPlay Ultra. The latest iteration of the company's phone mirroring tech now takes over interface duties for both the center-mounted infotainment screen and the digital gauge cluster screen. But those working on automakers' native infotainment systems can rest easy, because Apple works directly with the manufacturer itself to preserve a bespoke look and feel to the CarPlay Ultra interface.
Car and Driver
Though Apple has announced partnerships with Porsche, Kia, Hyundai, Genesis, and Aston Martin (with surely more to come), it's the latter brand that gets first dibs on the Cupertino-based tech giant's latest CarPlay iteration. Starting today, new Aston Martin models ordered for the U.S. and Canadian markets will include CarPlay Ultra compatibility. Owners of older 2025 model-year Astons and 2024 Aston Martin DB12s can head to their dealer and upgrade to the new setup in the coming weeks.
Those already acquainted with CarPlay will quickly adapt to CarPlay Ultra, which carries over much of the run-of-the-mill CarPlay interface. Still, it's not exactly a copy-and-paste situation. The familiar home screen that includes navigation and media functions remains. However, Ultra introduces a new widgets page that's accessible by swiping right from the home page. This customizable page allows users to highlight a handful of key insights, such as time and weather-related information.
Swiping left on the home screen once again takes users to their CarPlay-compatible apps, except Ultra adds a trio of new widgets missing from lesser CarPlay variants: Vehicle, Radio, and Climate. Each operates functions related to their titles, allowing Ultra users to remain in the CarPlay environment while adjusting the likes of various vehicle-specific settings, climate control functions, and radio bands or stations, be it AM, FM, or SiriusXM.
Car and Driver
Apple renders many of these functions locally (as opposed to mirroring it from the phone itself) courtesy of an assist from the vehicle's built-in processing tools, maintaining a largely linear user experience. Some functions, however, retain the native UX and UI.
Even in these instances, though, there's no need to manually leave the Ultra interface to operate these mechanisms. Rather, Apple includes in-CarPlay shortcuts that, when pressed, overlay the native system's interface onto its own, allowing users to retain access to certain functions that CarPlay Ultra itself cannot. In other words, there's no need to exit CarPlay Ultra, search for a certain tool within the native infotainment system, make any needed changes, and then search for a dedicated widget to reenter CarPlay. Instead, you just find the menu in CarPlay, make any changes needed on the overlaid page from the native system, and then exit the page to return to CarPlay.
The company pulls this basic stunt in the gauge cluster display, too, overlaying certain native menus and displays onto the Apple-derived graphics. Though the font and style of the cluster graphics have a distinctly Apple look, the design itself includes several automaker-specific details as a means of retaining the distinct character of the given auto brand employing CarPlay Ultra. For instance, the Aston Martin DBX 707, the car in which we experienced CarPlay Ultra, featured a gauge cluster option that included the Aston Martin insignia itself and the verbiage "Handbuilt in Great Britain."
Car and Driver
Apple offers several alternative display options, with some skins taking a simpler and less visually busy approach. There's also an infotainment-focused option, which uses the majority of the cluster's digital real estate to display functions such as the navigation map or audio information. This information, and more, is also available to view with the other cluster themes; however, it lives on a smaller slice of the screen between the speedometer and tachometer.
Ultra fixes just about every issue we ever lobbed at CarPlay, but it's still not perfect. Upcoming calendar events continue to pop up on the home screen and cut into the space typically reserved for the media player function for apps like Spotify, resulting in pertinent details, such as song and artist information, going undisplayed on vehicles with smaller center screens, such as the 10.3-inch unit of the DBX 707.
Car and Driver
Additionally, there's an initial brief lag between connecting your phone and using the system. This is because your phone must first download a vehicle-specific package to boot up the Ultra bits. In Palm Springs, California, where we sampled CarPlay Ultra, our phone needed less than 30 seconds to do this—an admittedly small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.
Plus, this lag only happens at the initial connection, after which CarPlay Ultra comes online seemingly as quickly as traditional CarPlay. Owning an iPhone alone is not enough to use CarPlay Ultra in a compatible vehicle, either, as the system is only compatible with iPhone 12 and newer models running iOS 18.5.
Car and Driver
Unless you're in the market for, or happen to own, a 2025 Aston Martin model or 2024 DB12, you have some time to get your hardware and software up to CarPlay Ultra spec. Just how much time you have is a bit of a mystery, though, as Apple has been mum on specifics related to when CarPlay Ultra will ultimately find its way to other automakers' dashboards.
Greg S. Fink
Senior Editor
Despite their shared last name, Greg Fink is not related to Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's infamous Rat Fink. Both Finks, however, are known for their love of cars, car culture, and—strangely—monogrammed one-piece bathing suits. Greg's career in the media industry goes back more than a decade. His previous experience includes stints as an editor at publications such as U.S. News & World Report, The Huffington Post, Motor1.com, and MotorTrend.
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