Porsche Previews New CarPlay Interface

Remember last year at WWDC, when Apple previewed the next generation of CarPlay, with support for screens that span the entire dashboard? Here’s a MotorTrend report on the 2024 Porsche Cayenne SUV. Slide 2 shows a CarPlay interface that I had first wrongly presumed spans the entire dashboard, but in fact does not.

Update 1: A few readers have chimed in to suggest this is not next-gen CarPlay 2, it’s just extended use of CarPlay 1. It’s definitely improved, but it is not the new stuff Apple previewed last June. My question: If this is not CarPlay 2, when, if ever, will we actually see a carmaker announce CarPlay 2 support? (Voice from the cheap seats: “When Apple makes their own car.”)

Update 2: Here’s a hands-on report by Jameson Dow for 9to5Mac from last month:

We got a chance to test out some of its features on a 2024 Cayenne, and it’s the first time we’ve felt an Apple-like experience from software made by a traditional automaker.

We’re still waiting for the next-gen CarPlay experience which Apple announced last year, which promises greater integration with vehicle functions than today’s version of CarPlay. In the meantime, though, Porsche has taken it upon itself to build its own app which offers the best of both worlds — a snappy, CarPlay-like user interface, along with control of some vehicle functions which were heretofore unavailable through Apple’s software.

So it might be the best CarPlay interface yet to ship in a car, but it’s not the next-gen CarPlay announced by Apple last year. It’s just CarPlay in the middle with other displays showing built-in stuff from Porsche based on PCM, their own in-house software platform.

Update 3: I’ve now received feedback from three different readers who’ve all said more or less the same thing: they paid extra for these extra screens in their Cayennes or Taycans, and the software experience on them is terrible. They regret paying for it. “A wasted useless screen” said one.

★ Monday, 28 August 2023