AI on the Road? Apple May Open CarPlay to Third-Party Chatbots
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While it’s already possible to interact with Siri through CarPlay — and ChatGPT by extension — Apple may soon allow the whole new range of iPhone AI chatbot apps to run on the dashboard.
In a new report, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shares information from insiders who have told him that Apple is working to support “voice-controlled artificial intelligence apps from other companies” in CarPlay. The project is already underway and could be announced in “the coming months.”
If accurate — and if everything goes according to plan — that likely means this could be one of the new CarPlay features coming to iOS 27, which Apple typically unveils during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) conference in June.
Gurman refers to the move as a “strategic shift” for Apple in letting users swap out Siri for another voice assistant of their choice. This would be done through standard iPhone apps like Gemini and ChatGPT, which would be permitted to interact with CarPlay — something that’s not possible right now as Apple strictly controls what’s allowed to show up on the dashboard.
That means a driver could, say, ask ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations without taking their hands off the wheel. Apple customers have been clamoring for such an option for months, but there’s no guarantee that outside developers will follow through and take advantage of the capability.
Mark Gurman
The Regulatory ‘Writing on the Wall’
While this mirrors a similar shift in Japan in iOS 26.2, that one was legally required under the country’s Mobile Software Competition Act. Still, it’s possible Apple sees the writing on the wall here, and is trying to head off additional regulation at the pass.
We’ll have to wait and see if iOS 27 expands the configurable Siri button beyond the Land of the Rising Sun, but it doesn’t look promising, as Gurman says that “Apple won’t let users replace the Siri button on CarPlay or the wake word that summons the service.” Users will need to specifically open the app from their dashboard to initiate a conversations, sources say. That makes this more about simply opening up a new category of apps to CarPlay than baking in any special features for these apps.
It will also be up to developers to release versions of their apps that will interact with CarPlay, but the opportunity to put their own chatbots front and center on hundreds of millions of iPhone-powered dashboards should be a pretty big incentive for them to get with the program.
After all, Google wasted no time in updating Google Maps when iOS 12 added CarPlay integration for third-party maps apps in 2018. Similarly, Google and Alexa have already added the ability to take over the side button on iPhones in Japan, and that’s only for a single country; a worldwide rollout of CarPlay support should garner a lot more interest from AI companies, and since the two biggest players — Google and OpenAI — are already locked in an AI arms race, they’ll be vying to become the “go-to car chatbot” for iPhone users.
Beyond the ‘Ask ChatGPT’
Still, Gurman’s choice to use ChatGPT as an example is a bit misleading, as it’s already possible to talk to OpenAI’s voice assistant through CarPlay on any Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone. However, you still have to go through Siri, either prefixing your request with “Ask ChatGPT” or hoping that Siri will decide it needs to pass on your request instead of trying (and likely failing) to answer it on its own. There’s also no way to continue the conversation with ChatGPT — you get a one-shot answer, which is fine for a quick restaurant recommendation, but won’t let you easily narrow it down by asking for more specifics, or things like directions.
Presumably, native ChatGPT (or Gemini) support through CarPlay will allow for these more natural chatbot-style interactions. Of course, that’s also what Apple is reportedly planning to bring to its next-generation of Siri in iOS 27. The iPhone maker undoubtedly hopes that the new “Campos” Siri, which should offer full conversational threads, will be good enough that most users won’t want to switch — especially if it requires manually launching a specific app rather than just pressing a button on the steering wheel.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
