Apple preps to give CarPlay full access to your vehicle's controls
People are increasingly factoring in connectivity and iOS/Android integration in their car purchase decision, so Apple is working to take advantage of this trend via CarPlay, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Dubbed IronHeart, the project is still in its early stages but the end goal is for CarPlay to take over your vehicle's most popular and often used controls completely.
The upcoming CarPlay vehicle navigation control list includes:
- Seat and armrest adjustments
- Zone A/C control by reading sensors for temperature and humidity
- Speaker control, including equalizers
- Fuel, speed, and trip gauge reports
Needless to say, IronHeart won't be an easy undertaking as car makers have to be on board, and most of them already have their own proprietary software to manage all of that. Apple is notorious for projecting clout over an industry it wants to enter by the virtue of its iPhone user army and their market power, though.
It may start slow, like with the Apple Card, TV+ streaming service, or ID integration into the Wallet app but ultimately even a small slice of a big market usually pays off for Apple. Well, with the exception of Apple Pay which is still slow on the uptake many years after its launch, but still.
The end goal is, of course, user comfort, as now phone owners have to switch from CarPlay or Android Auto for entertainment and navigation purposes to the car maker's own system for climate control, armrest adjustments, or trip reports.
If Apple manages to pull IronHeart off with a complete CarPlay integration in lieu of the manufacturer's often clunky and user-unfriendly software, it will score a huge win and another market for expansion that would be the next best thing to actually making the rumored Apple Car.
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