Hyundai upgrades older Azera, Sonata & Veloster models with Apple CarPlay
Hyundai on Monday signaled the arrival of Apple CarPlay on 2015 and 2016 models of the Azera, as well as 2016 versions of the Veloster and Sonata Hybrid/Plug-In Hybrid.
People with one of those vehicles can perform the update by following instructions on MyHyundai, or driving to a dealership if they're willing to pay a fee. The company has been upgrading a number of older vehicles with CarPlay, including the Genesis, Tuscon, Elantra GT, and other Sonata models.
The carmaker noted that the 2017 Santa Fe and Sante Fe Sport now come with CarPlay by default, and the same will apply to other 2017 models as long as they have supporting dash interfaces.
Upgrades for older cars are still relatively rare in the CarPlay world. Companies have instead focused on adding the platform to new models, presumably considering it a better investment of resources.
Apple is planning to make significant improvements to CarPlay with this fall's iOS 10, including the ability to hide or rearrange homescreen icons, and an automatic parking marker in Maps whenever an iPhone disconnects.
12 Comments
I've been using Apple CarPlay in my Hyundai all summer going on many long trips. I love the maps feature. I have the expensive built-in navigation in two of my vehicles, but the CarPlay maps are much easier to use and so much quicker to input addresses. Plus updating maps on my iPhone is free, but to update the maps in the built-in navigation costs almost $200. I'll never pay for the expensive built-in navigation again when I purchase a car. I give CarPlay five out of five stars.
Other manufacturers (Subaru) need to get with the program and allow updates to the software in late-model vehicles (2016 Outback) that already had a measure of iPhone integration but could seriously use CarPlay support.
Pretty soon I'm going to start picking vehicles and manufacturers on the basis of continual software updates and start ignoring those who seem to think that an "upgrade" consists solely of buying a new car.....
agreed and hope Subaru does right by me on a 2016 model...tho i leased just in case they dont
Honda, you listening?