CarPlay is Apple's in-car system that allows you to use some apps from your iPhone responsibly while driving. Think of calling via Siri, starting your favorite playlist in Apple Music or Spotify and navigating with Apple Maps or Google Maps. But CarPlay is still all about operating your iPhone in the car. Apple wants to change that: in the future it should be possible to control many functions of your car via your iPhone and the CarPlay system, Bloomberg reports.
‘CarPlay soon too for your air conditioning, seats and other car settings’
Now if you use CarPlay and listen to the radio through your car's system itself, you often have to get out of the CarPlay environment to adjust your radio station (if you don't have controls on the steering wheel). You can also use the system of the car itself to adjust other settings, such as those of your speakers, temperature in the car and more. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is working on a new project called IronHeart that will change that.
Your climate controls, including outside the car, ventilation, settings for speakers, equalizers, tweeters, sound balance and more, seats and armrests and fuel gauge should all be accessible via CarPlay if it's up to Apple. For this it is necessary that automakers give access to this information. If the IronHeart project actually gets off the ground, availability will therefore also depend on the make and car model.
With this project, CarPlay becomes a means to operate almost everything in and around the car. With the extra data, more apps and other applications are also possible, the source says. In recent years, Apple has offered more options to CarPlay apps, also for controlling the heating, but only very limited use is made of this. Apple has also had the Car Keys for over a year, but that too only works with BMW. Bloomberg says car companies may be hesitant to cooperate.
Useful info for Apple Car?
A possible reason for this reluctance is that this data may give Apple insight into details of cars or in how users use the features. That information can be used to build your own Apple car, also known as Apple Car or Project Titan.