How does CarPlay work?

CarPlay works by serving as the main interface between your vehicle's system and your iPhone. Here's a breakdown of how it functions:

1. Communication Plugin: This plugin is the primary interface that connects your vehicle's system with your iPhone. It handles the delivery of video and audio content from the iPhone to the vehicle and accepts user input from the vehicle.

2. Video Stream: In a typical CarPlay setup, the iPhone provides a single video stream. This stream is then decoded and composed by the vehicle's system before being displayed on the screen.

3. Wireless Experience: The next generation of CarPlay is designed to be a wireless-only experience. It reconnects seamlessly if you were using it on your previous drive, ensuring stability and performance through robust wireless connections.

4. Local UI Rendering: The next generation of CarPlay uses a local UI rendered directly on the vehicle's system. This is achieved with an OpenGL-based renderer and an asset package that includes images and behavior scripts to generate the UI. This local rendering ensures low latency and robustness against Wi-Fi interference or disconnects.

5. Vehicle State Integration: The CarPlay UI relies on the vehicle system to provide up-to-date state information, which is then reflected in the UI. This integration ensures that the data is used only where needed and often does not leave the vehicle, protecting user privacy.

6. Customization: Automakers can create highly customized and integrated experiences using automaker apps that run on the iPhone. These apps can leverage the full power of iOS to create rich and custom UIs, update experiences, and display specific settings, alerts, or notifications.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the session Meet the next generation of CarPlay architecture (02:04) and Say hello to the next generation of CarPlay design system (17:38).