With this direction, Apple CarPlay users can soon chat with their favorite AI chatbot.
Apple CarPlay is an application running on iPhone and communicating wirelessly with the car's infotainment system. It projectes some applications on the user's phone onto the car's infotainment screen. The driver can interact with these applications, including Apple Music, messaging and navigation, through the Siri voice assistant.
Apple's next-generation CarPlay Ultra takes another step, including a central touch screen and a digital dashboard right in front of the driver, allowing users to control some car settings.
In theory, Apple's latest move will bring Gemini of Google, Claude of Anthropic and ChatGPT of OpenAI into cars.
Accordingly, CarPlay users will be able to access ChatGPT to ask questions without using their hands, although these applications will not be able to control the functions of cars or iPhones.
Third-party AI voice applications will not be accessible via activated keywords and will not replace Siri, so users will need to open the application to access the chatbot.
Application developers will be able to design the car experience so that voice chat mode is started when the application is opened, which will make this process easier.
Apple is planning to support third-party AI applications "in the coming months", which may coincide with the launch of the company's smarter Siri version. With iOS 26.4, Apple is introducing a more personalized Siri version, using large language models.
