Tesla is continuing to work on adding CarPlay support to its cars, according to a new report from Bloomberg. However, the company faced some technical obstacles that required Apple’s intervention to make certain software modifications.
Initially, previous reports had indicated that Tesla was planning to integrate CarPlay into its interface as an integrated window within the car’s basic system, with the feature being launched within a few months.
But according to the latest information, the project is still ongoing, with continued cooperation between Tesla and Apple to finish it as required.
During testing, Tesla revealed compatibility issues between Apple Maps and its own mapping platform, which it relies on for self-driving features. Specifically, turn-by-turn navigation from Tesla’s Maps app wasn’t syncing properly with Apple Maps during self-driving, which could lead to a confusing experience if the two apps were running side by side.
As a result, Tesla asked Apple to make engineering modifications to its maps to improve compatibility. Apple has already approved and implemented these modifications in a patch update in iOS 26 and the latest version of CarPlay.
But another problem arose; iOS 26 adoption has been slower than previous versions. As a result, Tesla saw that the number of users who got the update that included CarPlay fixes was not enough until the end of last year.
Although Apple announced that 74% of iPhones released over the past four years are running iOS 26, this does not necessarily mean that all of them received the sub-version that includes compatibility updates.
So far, Tesla has not set an official date for the launch of CarPlay support, and it seems that it is waiting for the prevalence of updates to increase to ensure a stable experience for users. However, the report confirms that the feature is still under development, and that its delay is due to technical and organizational reasons related to the readiness of the two systems.
