BMW Confirms It Won't Support Ultra CarPlay

JAKARTA - German luxury car manufacturer BMW previously avoided its commitment to Apple's CarKey Ultra. Now, they are officially announcing that they will not adopt CarPlay Ultra.

BMW was one of the first manufacturers to adopt Apple's CarKey system to unlock a car using an iPhone since 2020. They also quickly adopted CarPlay, although initially offering it as a subscription service before finally removing the fee after hearing customer complaints.

However, for CarPlay Ultra, BMW did not immediately support it and has not explicitly rejected it until now. In a statement reported by BMW Blog, a BMW spokesperson stated, "BMW currently has no plans to integrate Apple CarPlay Ultra."

Although this statement has not completely closed the possibility, it appears that BMW has decided not to support it. Apple has promoted CarPlay Ultra since introducing it briefly in June 2022.

According to BMW Blog, BMW was originally listed as a future partner, but was not mentioned in the list of companies Apple announced at the WWDC 2022 event.

BMW's closest statement came shortly after the announcement of WWDC 2022, which seemed to show a cautious attitude.

"Currently, we are focused on improving our iDrive user interface system and, as part of this development, will continue to integrate Apple's ecosystem smoothly," BMW said at the time. "The important part of this effort is the evaluation of how the latest innovation announced at WWDC can be integrated into our solutions."

Three years later, it seems unlikely BMW is still evaluating CarPlay Ultra. Unless they are still doing so, BMW seems to have joined a row of car manufacturers who reject CarPlay Ultra, considering it an exaggerated move from Apple.