Apple CarPlay Ultra – 'not bad but a bit pointless'

Some months ago there was some noise around new version of Apple’s car infotainment interface CarPlay, called CarPlay Ultra. Aston Martin was set to be the first to use it, which sounded odd, because you can already run Apple CarPlay in an Aston Martin. And then someone many years younger than me explained what it was and still I shrugged. Then I tried it and shrugged some more with what I think was the equivalent of a confused emoji expression on my face.

The premise is quite simple. CarPlay Ultra takes the functionality of standard CarPlay, which allows a selection of apps on your phone to be accessed via the car’s main screen meaning you don’t have to use a manufacturers outdated sat-nav and can use the skip track function to doom scroll through Spotify trying to find something to listen to after you have caught up on the latest episode of the evo Podcast. 

CarPlay Ultra takes this functionality further and adds a whole new level of stuff that you never knew you needed. Because you don’t. It will turn your car’s instrument pack into an Audi style ‘virtual cockpit’ complete with full screen map, album covers should you find something to listen to on Spotify and various permutations of instrument displays that add very little to those that have been designed by the manufacturer whose instruments Apple has infiltrated. 

I tried Ultra in the new Aston Martin DBX S, and for Aston to be one of the first to sign up makes sense because its infotainment system, whilst better than the Volvo and Mercedes-Benz stuff it previously relied on, is fiddly and near impossible to use on the move. Regular CarPlay addresses this, Ultra does… not a great deal more. It allows you to change the climate control settings via the touch screen (clearly they’ve never driven a modern Peugeot or saw the memo that VW fired its CEO for thinking this was a good idea) switch between drive modes and pretty much everything else that Aston Martin has already created a neatly designed and/or positioned control for. 

But because CarPlay Ultra requires you to control these functions via a screen it’s no quicker, is slow to respond and far less convenient than using any of the physical controls already laid out across the cabin that don’t require you to take your eyes off the road to use. 

CarPlay Ultra is literally the answer to the question asked in an Apple ideation meeting held by people trying to think of something to do. I’m sure there are some who will swear by its functionality and usefulness. But I suspect these are also the people who have yet to work out how to speak into a mobile phone, who hold it out in front of them and shout at it rather than hold it to their ear to speak and listen. 

It doesn’t add anything genuinely useful. All CarPlay Ultra does is provide an alternative interface and process to interact with a car’s HMI system. It doesn’t improve it, which is the missed opportunity.

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If the car you are buying is available with CarPlay, take it, pay for it if it’s an option if you have to because the standard system is still all you actually need and integrates into how people interact with a car seamlessly. If someone tries to upsell you to CarPlay Ultra and tells you it’s better, they’re lying. And if you think this is an anti-Apple user having a rant, I’ve used Apple products exclusively for 30 years and have to raise a ticket with IT every time I need to start the PC based laptop that runs evo’s timing gear.