Roger Fingas
Perhaps the longest major CarPlay holdout, Toyota on Monday announced that it will be bringing the platform to the 2019 Avalon, as well as other vehicles in the 2019 model year — including some from its luxury Lexus brand.
The new Avalon is shipping this spring, and will have CarPlay standard on all trims, Toyota said in a press release. The interface will display on a 9-inch touchscreen.
Unusually, while Android Auto support hasn't been announced, the car will also support some remote control functions by way of smartwatches and Amazon Alexa, such as starting the engine, locking and unlocking doors, and gauging fuel levels.
CarPlay will require Toyota's Enform 2.0 or Entune 3.0 multimedia systems, a spokesman told MacRumors. In theory that could allow the technology to appear on some 2018 models such as the Camry and Sienna, but so far the company has only confirmed 2019 model support. Drivers will moreover have to use a wired iPhone connection, rather than wireless.
In 2015 Toyota infamously declared that it intended to stick with proprietary platforms for the foreseeable future, even as other automakers were preparing or already adding CarPlay. Apple's software began picking up traction in 2016 and is now on numerous vehicles, though availability on low-cost models remains an issue.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
41 Comments
It's good they finally realize that car makers are absolutely terrible at designing in-car entertainment systems.
Now can they put more leg room in their cars too? A subcompact Honda has as much legroom in the driver's seat as a compact Toyota.
Toyota, what took you so long to realize, get on CarPlay train. Probably loosing too many of your loyal customers to competitors. Lesson learned. Make sure your most popular models like Camry,Corola,RAV4 etc comes standard with CarPlay to bring back customers in dealership. This time don't mess it up.
"In theory that could allow the technology to appear on some 2018 models such as the Camry and Sienna, but so far the company has only confirmed 2019 model support."
Toyota owners of 2018 Camry or Sienna... start complaining as a Toyota person told the Car Connection that they will not be retrofitting 2018 models with this capability: http://bit.ly/2D4PFuY
I have been a Toyota owner since 1999. I only ever owned one car since then that wasn't a Toyota, and boy was I sorry. I have to say while their Infotainment systems aren't the worst I've ever seen, they are nothing compared to CarPlay. I have to admit that their lack of support nearly caused me to dip my toe into the world of autos that are not Toyota once again. I just bought a Toyota in December, but it was a close decision between it and a comparable Ford. If the Ford model year I was looking at had have had CarPlay, I would have bought it. It was really that close. Toyota came very close to loosing a 20 year customer because they decided they didn't want to support a feature that is sweeping the car industry. I wonder how many other customers they did eventually loose (even if only for the "current" purchase) based on Infotainment offerings. They must know or have a pretty good estimate and hence this announcement.
Last year I needed a hybrid. Went with Honda after finding out I couldn't get CarPaly on a Toyota.