My first car was a 2002 model, which required an annoying setup of a phone stand, FM transmitter, and tapping a tiny screen to enjoy navigation and music in the car. When it came time for a replacement, I made sure my new car had Android Auto and Apple CarPlay so I wouldn’t have to deal with that clumsy setup again.
I’ve had that car for almost 8 years, and after more than five years with Apple CarPlay, I’m happy with it overall. It’s convenient, and I can’t imagine having a car without it. However, it’s not perfect. CarPlay could be even better by sorting several issues out.
A tacked-on afterthought
Widgets are one of the few (non-visual) changes made to CarPlay with iOS 26. They’re accessible by swiping from left to right to reach the leftmost page of CarPlay’s interface.
In theory, these are neat, as they allow you to access key info while driving and thus minimize distractions. However, these widgets are near-identical to the ones for your iPhone’s home screen, and I’ve never found myself swiping over to see them in the car.
Getting updates from LinkedIn, Reddit, Zillow, Amazon, Substack, or any number of other apps is unnecessary and dangerous when you’re on the road. My car (and many other cars with standard-sized screens) can only display one widget at a time, and you can’t view them while you have navigation or music showing.
Widgets would be much more useful if they could display alongside navigation or another app, which requires a larger car screen. For now, while they’re one of the few ways to customize CarPlay, they’re underbaked; other methods are much more impactful.
Siri rarely gets commands right
Voice isn’t more convenient when you have to repeat 3 times
I’m consistently disappointed by how poor Siri is (with Apple Intelligence disabled). It fails on even basic questions, so I try to avoid giving it more complex commands. That’s an issue in the car, when your main way to play music, start navigation, or send a message is via voice.
Playing the music you want is a huge hassle in CarPlay. I’ve asked Siri to play a certain album or artist, only to have it hear and play something completely different. I’ve asked Siri to play my created playlists, using their exact names, and it spins up something else instead. Trying to play an album that shares its name with a title track can be difficult, too.
It’s usually good at transcribing my messages, but because of all these other issues, I always want to double-check what it reads back before sending. That means more time to potentially be distracted.
Not all car features are supported
Why can’t I interact how I want?
Depending on your car, you might be locked out of certain CarPlay functionality. My vehicle’s display is a touch screen, but for some reason, I can’t use the tuning knob to interact with CarPlay.
That knob is used to change radio channels, scroll through files on a USB stick, change the selection in menus, and similar. While I definitely prefer touch controls over using a knob, it would be nice if both worked. That knob could be a convenient control for quickly scrolling through long playlists, switching between apps, scrubbing through a podcast or song, and similar.
Depending on your car, there might be other CarPlay functions you can’t enjoy.
Sporadic connection issues
It doesn’t always launch the first time
As straightforward as connecting your phone to your car with a USB cable should be, I still run into problems sometimes. On occasion, my car’s display will be all-black after tapping the CarPlay icon; I have to unplug and reconnect the USB-C cable to fix it.
And even though I have the Allow CarPlay While Locked option enabled under Settings > General > CarPlay > [My car], it refuses to connect sometimes. When I don’t see the CarPlay icon appear on my car’s infotainment system within a few seconds of connecting, I know I have to grab my phone and unlock it with Face ID. There’s no notice of this anywhere else.
Minor quirks add up
CarPlay has little imperfections everywhere
While the above issues are the most consequential, lots of little annoyances lurk around the platform. None of them ruins the experience, but I wish they would be streamlined (especially since most have been around since I started using CarPlay in 2020).
On the Now Playing page for a music app, you can tap the album to play other tracks from it, but you can’t tap the artist name. I could understand if they didn’t allow you to open either for safety reasons while driving, but if one, why not both?
Speaking of Now Playing, I wish resuming music was easier and more consistent. CarPlay seldom continues playing what I was last listening to when I get back into my car. Sometimes the Now Playing icon appears at the top-right of Spotify and lets me resume the album/playlist, but not always. And even though I have my Liked Songs playlist downloaded for offline listening, the Spotify app in CarPlay still gets stuck on “Loading” when my signal is poor.
These apps make Apple CarPlay so much better
Revolutionize your driving experience with these game-changing CarPlay additions.
iOS 26 fixed an annoyance where incoming calls would take up the whole screen, blocking your navigation directions. But outgoing calls still take up the whole screen with non-vital info; you have to switch back to the other app you want to see.
CarPlay could really use new and more varied wallpapers. The ones released with each new iOS version are simple and not exciting; more options, including the ability to use your own photos, would be great.
Finally, not being able to remove the Music app from the CarPlay home screen is a small pain. I don’t use Apple Music, but I have to keep it on the final page of apps rather than tidying it up.
CarPlay is more good than bad
While no utility is perfect, pointing out the flaws in something doesn’t mean it’s all bad. Even though these issues can be frustrating, and CarPlay feels slow to update since it’s tied to iOS releases, I’m happy to have it.
I appreciate being able to see where I’m going, plus enjoying music and podcasts in the car, by plugging in one cable. I hope CarPlay continues to improve, and perhaps some of these issues will be cleared up in the future with another car.
