Toyota chooses Ford over Apple, will eschew CarPlay in favor of SmartDeviceLink

Future Toyota models will offer in-dash infotainment systems compatible with Ford's SmartDeviceLink system rather than Apple's CarPlay, the Japanese automaker announced on Monday.

SmartDeviceLink is an open platform based on the AppLink framework developed for Ford's own vehicles. It fills essentially the same role as CarPlay or Android Auto, but allows the vehicle manufacturer to retain control over the look and feel of the user interface.

Toyota's announcement comes nearly a year after the company first discussed its plans not to adopt CarPlay, despite being one of the first automakers to sign on.

"We may all eventually wind up [with CarPlay or Android Auto], but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions," a Toyota spokesperson said at the time.

Ford has continued to push SDL as an industry standard — with some success — even as it enables CarPlay and Google's rival Android Auto in its own vehicles. Major automotive software supplier QNX has announced support for SDL in future products, while automakers including Mazda and Subraru have shown public support.

45 Comments

magman1979 1301 comments · 11 Years

About 8 years ago

Thank you Toyota, you've just eliminated yourself even more so as a potential purchase in 2-3 years when I enter the car buying market again. Wasn't enough you had recall after recall, now you want to side with shit software too?

Good on you!

sjsterling 3 comments · 8 Years

magman1979 said:

Thank you Toyota, you've just eliminated yourself even more so as a potential purchase in 2-3 years when I enter the car buying market again. Wasn't enough you had recall after recall, now you want to side with shit software too?

Good on you!

I agree with you. This is sad, but not terribly surprising. It's why Apple has to do something big in this arena.

rogifan_old 725 comments · 9 Years

And yet people still say Apple's car efforts shouldn't be about building their own vehicle but designing the OS for existing manufacturers. This is exactly why Apple needs to control the whole thing. Why be beholden to the whims of existing auto companies?

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

magman1979 said:

Thank you Toyota, you've just eliminated yourself even more so as a potential purchase in 2-3 years when I enter the car buying market again. Wasn't enough you had recall after recall, now you want to side with shit software too?

Good on you!

Toyota's US operations CEO has been making a lot of really questionable decisions.

pelted 3 comments · 8 Years

I just bought a new car last week after test driving several vehicles that met my needs (6-7 passenger, AWD, etc). I really wanted something that would support Car Play, and the Ford Flex was on my short list because of SYNC 3 and the alluded to support. In the end after driving so many cars with all the tech options most manufactures have moved so much to the touch screen that I just don't hold out hope for this anymore. Even 3rd party head units don't stand much chance when it comes to newer cars when all the in car controls are in the unit. I hold out a little hope for a 3rd party system like the the SYNC lock pick device that could potentially bring aftermarket (hacked) support for car play to SYNC, enTune, and UConnect.