Mockup showing how the new Audi elements might fit in a future CarPlay dashboard — dashboard image credit: Apple
Drawings of what the next version of Apple’s CarPlay may look like in Audi cars have surfaced in a filing with a European Union regulator.
It’s ten years since Audi announced support for Apple’s CarPlay, but now it’s possible that it will soon be extending that to the feature’s major next version. Rather than being confined to a car’s entertainment screen, the next CarPlay will occupy the whole dash, and provide all of a car’s electronic functions.
In what may be a sign of how that feature will look in future Audi cars, Apple has filed drawings with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIP). These are only illustrations, but they at least point to Apple’s aims — and one of them has an Audi logo.
Two illustrations of CarPlay in Audi cars
As spotted by MacRumors, there is little to no detail in the drawings, but they were filed on November 8, 2024. So even if Audi is only used as an example, it’s a recent example of Apple’s plans.
Apple first gave a sneak peek of its ambitions for CarPlay at WWDC 2022, and announced that it would be featured in cars from 2023. It just barely made that date with announcements from Porsche and Aston Martin.
“With the next generation of CarPlay,” Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design Alan Dye said at the time, “we partnered with automakers to design an entirely new, unified experience that enables the very best of Apple and each particular automaker.”
Neither Apple nor Audi have commented. Separately, iOS 18 has introduced new CarPlay features, for all users.
