Is Tesla about to finally surrender to Apple CarPlay?

Tesla, one of the original Apple CarPlay holdouts, may finally be close to actually adopting the immensely popular phone projection system for its cars, Bloomberg reports today. The company has started testing the capability internally, anonymous sources tell the publication, and could be close to releasing it publicly, perhaps in a few months — or perhaps not at all. Tesla has a history of toying with various features for months or even years before eventually deciding to kill them. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are typically two of the most sought after features for new car shoppers. But despite loud protests from fans, Tesla has never allowed phone mirroring in its cars, arguing that it can provide a better, more integrated software experience than a smartphone — a position that is strangely growing popular among some legacy automakers, like GM. In the wake of the Great Elon Musk Backlash of 2025, Tesla is now in a sales slump and looking for ways to juice demand. Bloomberg reports that adopting CarPlay, as outlandish as it seems, could be part of a broader strategy to get people interested again in Tesla’s cars. Read more: [https://www.theverge.com/news/820065/tesla-apple-carplay-develop-phone-mirror](https://www.theverge.com/news/820065/tesla-apple-carplay-develop-phone-mirror)

[deleted]

Tesla? Demand problem? Impossible.

>> strangely growing popular among some legacy automakers Strangely? In the current enshittiscene era, the way you really make money is to own a platform and charge people rent to use it. The infotainment system in a car is a platform. Of course the automakers are trying to find a way to screw their customers so they can accrue more value to themselves. It’s just business.

Yeah. Suddenly back in 2014

My guess has always been that Tesla would finally adopt CarPlay when it was desperate. And here we are, 9 months after I sold my 2018 Tesla and moved on to a much better EV - which has CarPlay

Waze in our 2020 Model Y might take the sting out of massive depreciation and a fascist ceo.

As cars get more and more "always online", I'm not at all surprised that manufacturers don't want to hand off their customers to Apple. if Tesla did go ahead with this, after holding out for so long, as well as its biggest fans claiming that the Tesla UI has never needed CarPlay, etc - it would be pretty desperate, I think.

That's a REALLY weird move. It may be a show of desperation. A way to steal market share back from GM. Of course GM could just put Carplay back in too.

The top two reasons why customers say to Tesla are Elon and CarPlay. You can't do anything about the former but its amazing things have gotten so bad that the latter may be in play.

I like driving my tesla but holy SHIT the navigation is terrible. Can't wait

Cuz ELON = 🤡

I hope so!

It will definitely happen before FSD gets to level 3

No

Hopefully this forces General Motors’ hand to make a reversal on their decision to abandon smartphone mirroring.

Ah man, i would have loved for Apple to build a car. I know car business its a low margin messy business but that would have been cool. I guess with carplay they can be in the game without all the hassle.

And Hell will freeze over before FSD gets to level 3 as well! 😊

what did you get instead

2025 Genesis GV60. A huge upgrade on our Tesla Model 3 midrange. We took a lease because we made the choice abruptly, in about 10 days, and anticipate a more careful/thorough buying experience next time. For our purposes the only downside is the limited range - but we don’t do road trips that require on the road recharging more than 1-2x a year. Not worse than the car we disposed of, but not in line with the rest of the market. Like - great handling and suspension. Great interior finishes. Shock absorbers that work. Car Play. Physical buttons. A lot more space than our old car. Same sticker price as the 2018 we dumped.

I have CarPlay in my Lightning and a Tesla. I far prefer the Tesla UI.

At this point, Tesla is probably digging into any options that might hype up sales. Something like this, if it actually happens, will do it.

Oh don’t worry, those fans will be guaranteed to do a complete 180 and will perform the necessary mental gymnastics to tell us why this was a genius power move

Well CarPlay is a great addition to a car because you have everything on your phone and usually have a data plan. Which many cars don’t have, also as a former BMW owner I had to update the cars navigation maps every year. You don’t have to but according to some statistics there are roughly 20% of roads changes yearly so having an up to date maps is pretty important. With CarPlay or android auto you get that for free, also contacts and audio integration is smoother and is always up to date. And even using different navigation apps instead of the built in one is an advantage. I have 3rd party display with CarPlay support and use both because sometime one doesn’t report a traffic jam while the other does. Maybe Tesla will CarPlay support but I would guess they would open an AppStore for Tesla first.

Advantages, Tesla does not have to pay google data for its maps functionality and does not have to pay for wireless connection.

Lord I hope so. Tesla’s implementation of Apple Music is horrible. Now if they would just give Elon the boot I could go back to driving a Tesla.

GM, I hope you are listening. None of us want a data plan for our car when we already pay for one on our phone.

Oh I get it. I love CarPlay. I put an aftermarket car stereo with CarPlay into my 2003 Honda Accord and it’s the best investment I’ve put into the car.

😂

Capitalism, baby!

Not having Android Auto on a new vehicle in 2025 is insane to me.

There are a bunch of clueless Tesla owners that think the Tesla software is better than having CarPlay. Most of these fools have never actually used CarPlay.

For me car play is a hard requirement at that point. I won't even look at a car which doesn't have it. I don't care whether the infotainment the car comes with is world class. I won't trust it because in a few years it will feel old but CarPlay will still feel up to date because it will have the current iOS running on my current iPhone.

Unless the CarPlay protocol changes

I doubt that this happens. Maybe they will make a 2.0 version of it but I would be very surprised if Apple wouldn't support the old version for very long. The reason for this is obvious. Apple has no financial benefit in incentivizing users to buy new cars. It rather works the other way, Apple would probably not support a newer version on older phones. So if you get a new car, you would have to upgrade your phone. This is also why car manufacturers dislike CarPlay so much, they have an interest in the infotainment of an old car feeling old so that people get new cars but Apple has not, so they can't use the infotainment for planned obsolescence. The only thing that could change the situation would be if Apple would release a car, then you could be certain that a few years down the road, CarPlay would stop supporting older cars.

I really hope they do add it. Not because I want a Tesla but because maybe that'll get Rivian to change their mind also. I like the R2 and would probably get one eventually if it had Carplay.

Which is one of many reasons why I won't buy a new car.

I do not have, nor will I ever buy another Iphone! Locking someone into a different ecosystem is not a good thing.

Not true, they not going to get rid of maps in Tesla, also all teslas come with 8 years of internet connection for free.

Having used car play and android auto, and Tesla Infotainment, Tesla infotainment is much better

I like Tesla infotainment, but do think it's odd android auto and carplay are not an option. Also crazy the standard models don't have lane keep assist. You can get both on a new Toyota since 2019

When the driver has already cellular connection with his phone, why do we need Tesla need to provide free internet connection? And also if carplay has google maps app, why does tesla need to provide navigation? Does not tesla save money there?

Sure it is, because you can use apps like Apple Maps and iHeart Radio. /s

I wonder how FSD would work with Apple CarPlay for navigation?

You like it better than sync4? Why?