Apple may have only recent announced CarPlay – formerly iOS in the Car – but there’s already plenty of positive news for the Cupertino based company. A number of high profile manufacturers have already committed themselves to integrating Apple’s tech in their vehicles this year, and it looks like that list is set to continually grow as time passes. Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer based on sales volume, has confirmed via an official blog post that it will introduce vehicles with Apple CarPlay compatibility.
Consumers interested in technology and the automotive sector will already be aware that Toyota is keen to embrace the latest and greatest when it comes to in-car technology. Unlike Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, Toyota is choosing to take a little additional time to get their integration just right before hitting the market.
The Toyota blog post does no more than confirm from internal company sources that CarPlay will be coming to part of its vehicle line-up. Apple has happily listed the Toyota badge under the title of "future models from these committed partners" on its website since the official introduction of CarPlay. Toyota is yet to announce which of its models will be benefitting initially from the introduction of Apple’s Infotainment dashboard. We are also being kept in the dark about whether or not the company’s CarPlay adoption will ultimately spill over into its luxury Lexus models.
We do however know that any vehicle kitted out with CarPlay will immediately offer a richer, more in-depth information and entertainment service to the driver. Owners of a compatible iOS device will be able to read and write messages and emails through seamless dictation, get voice guidance navigation thanks to Apple Maps, stream music from first and third-party apps as well as immediately invoke Siri using the vehicle’s steering wheel mounted hands-free options.
At this point it’s not confirmed when CarPlay will hit the dashboard of Toyota vehicles. But according to an older version of Toyota’s blog post, we were given a 2015 launch date, but that has been pulled and now Toyota says that ‘No announcements have been made about if and when Apple CarPlay will arrive in Toyota cars’. But since this happened without the actual blog post being pulled, therefore it’s safe to say that CarPlay will happen, but there’s no timeframe for it.
We’re sure Apple will add to its "committed partners" list going forward, but for now we know we have a lot to look forward to.
(Source: Toyota)
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