This is easily the biggest news for the regular version of CarPlay in years, should Tesla actually follow through with offering the system in its vehicles.
As noted by Gurman, this would be a stunning reversal for Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk, who have long ignored customer requests to implement CarPlay. We shall see what ultimately happens, though. Musk could change his mind at any moment.
Tesla plans to offer the regular, wireless version of CarPlay, rather than the more advanced CarPlay Ultra system, according to Gurman. CarPlay would appear within a window inside of Tesla's broader software interface, he said.
Tesla currently offers Apple Music and Apple Podcasts apps through its own interface.
Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp was today updated with expanded support for CarPlay. CarPlay users are able to more easily call and message their friends and family members in WhatsApp directly from the car interface.
WhatsApp had CarPlay integration before, but with limited Siri-based functionality. The new app has a full native CarPlay interface with a list of recent chats and call...
Saturday April 18, 2026 5:59 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra...
Apple today updated its Sports app with weather conditions for F1 Grand Prix races and smaller widget options for both the iPhone's Home Screen and CarPlay.
The widget lets you view scores for your favorite leagues and teams at a glance.
CarPlay gained support for widgets on iOS 26. To view them, swipe right on CarPlay's interface until you reach the Dashboard screen, shown below....
I own a new Tesla and my experience with the UI/Infotainment is that Tesla is years ahead of CarPlay. Unless it will integrate Waze with full self driving capabilities, or even maybe group iMessaging, I can't see why anyone would want to replace the UI with CarPlay. Unless perhaps it doesn't actually replace the entire UI like it does it current vehicles that have CarPlay.
The only reason CarPlay would come to Tesla is to attract new Tesla customers who think they want CarPlay. Any Tesla owner already realizes Tesla’s infotainment system is far better than CarPlay and I’d imagine nearly no current tesla owner genuinely wants or needs CarPlay.
As a Tesla owned for 8 years, I can't disagree more. The music system is terrible. It's got slightly better over the years but it doesn't support half the stuff using the phone natively does. I've never touched it - when I used Spotify their implemenation with the limitations of the Spotify API were no where near as good as the native app and the same goes for Apple Music - the Apple Music app is junk compared to native Apple Music on the phone - it doesn't even support gapless playback!
Couple that with the fact that I use Podcasts, Books, Audible, Prologue and Home whilst on the road, I just have a magnetic charger holder for my phone and use that instead - and that's before we get to Waze.
I worked for BMW years ago (on software/electronics).
BMW thought it would be a great idea to charge a subscription for CarPlay. Customers complained but most still purchased it because they wanted CarPlay. So BMW made money while making customers angry about this subscription.
Then came customers who bought a used BMW (or a lease return) where CarPlay worked but then quit when the subscription ran out and when visiting the dealer to find out why they were told they’d have to fork out money to reactivate it. You can imagine how that went over.
After numerous complaints (CarPlay subscriptions were one of the most common issues brought up by customers) BMW reversed course and made CarPlay free.
But that wasn’t the end of it. BMW at the time had no way to send an OTA update to simply activate CarPlay for everyone. So customers would find CarPlay no longer working one day and had to make a trip to the dealer to get the subscription lock removed for CarPlay so it would be free again.
I don’t have the numbers, but I’d bet they never made a dime when you offset subscription fees with dealer warranty visits over CarPlay.
Dealers underestimate how much people like CarPlay. I’m wondering if any other dealers change course after Tesla (like GM).
I own a new Tesla and my experience with the UI/Infotainment is that Tesla is years ahead of CarPlay. Unless it will integrate Waze with full self driving capabilities, or even maybe group iMessaging, I can't see why anyone would want to replace the UI with CarPlay. Unless perhaps it doesn't actually replace the entire UI like it does it current vehicles that have CarPlay.
No one is thinking it’ll be a replacement, but an addition to, just like any other car system these days.
The problem without CarPlay is that we don’t have an easy hands free way of starting music/podcast etc from our favorite app. Teslas UI might be nice and all but it isn’t my phone.
