Apple’s CarPlay at the moment feels more like a glorified infotainment system. It does what most infotainment systems do, with the advantage that it can link to an iPhone to display messages, notifications, and more, but at its core, it’s still kind of an entertainment system.
However, a report from Bloomberg has revealed that Apple wants CarPlay to do much more than that. The report claims that Apple envisions CarPlay being able to control a car’s instruments and features, like the A/C as well as interact with the car’s dashboard systems and instrument clusters as well.
Apparently Apple is working on a system that would allow CarPlay to access functions like the climate control in the car, speedometer, radio, and even the car’s seats. However, since a lot of those functions are developed by the car manufacturers themselves, Apple would require cooperation from carmakers in order to pull this off.
There have been rumors that Apple is apparently looking to build their own car, so this system could be an alternative to those who might not want an Apple car, but want deeper Apple integration within their vehicles. That being said, the report suggests that this project is still in the early stages of development so it might be a while before we see it.