Welcome to CarTech Brief. Apple is dialing up its in-car game with CarPlay Ultra, a bold new step that “takes over interface duties for both the center-mounted infotainment screen and the digital gauge cluster.” Rolling out first in 2025 Aston Martin models ordered on or after May 15—and even upgradable in older 2025 Astons and the 2024 DB12—Ultra transforms CarPlay from a phone mirror into a fully integrated UX. Swipe right for a customizable widget page, swipe left to access apps plus three fresh widgets—Vehicle, Radio, and Climate—letting you adjust car settings, radio bands, and temperature without leaving CarPlay. Apple even “overlays certain native menus and displays onto the Apple-derived graphics,” preserving each brand’s bespoke character. Expect a brief initial lag while your iPhone downloads vehicle-specific software, but after that Ultra springs online as quickly as today’s CarPlay. You’ll need an iPhone 12 or newer running iOS 18.5. No word yet on other brands’ release dates, but CarPlay Ultra has set a new benchmark for in-car infotainment.
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