Apple CarPlay could soon control A/C, seats, radio, speedometer: Report

Apple Inc is planning to expand the features offered via its CarPlay interface for vehicles that is used by various motorists to control functions such as music, navigation and make phone calls inside vehicles. The company is looking to add functions that would allow one to control climate-control system, speedometer, radio and seats using their iPhones, Bloomberg quoted sources.

The agency report added that the project called ‘IronHeart’ internally, is still in its early stages and would be successful with cooperation from automakers. To get into the details of what all would be offered new via the Apple Carplay functionality, the report stated that drivers will be able to control inside and outside temperature and humidity readings, temperature zones, fans and the defroster systems, settings for adjusting surround-sound speakers, equalizers, tweeters, subwoofers, control seats and armrests, the speedometer, tachometer and fuel instrument clusters.

Apple could eventually allow access to controls and instruments spanning nearly the entire car via the CarPlay interface. In future, the data gained could also could be used by Apple or third parties to create new kinds of apps or add features to existing functions to enhance customer experience.

Apple CarPlay is a part of more than 600 car models worldwide and through its IronHeart project, the company is making its strongest push into cars since the CarPlay was released in 2014. However, the report stated that automakers could be reluctant in sharing the control of key features inside vehicles with Apple. Car manufacturers such as Tesla have completely disregarded the efforts of Apple and Google and have chosen to build their own infotainment ecosystems.

While Apple's plans for its own autonomous and electric car has faced several setbacks, and is still far away from reality, the company is continuing to make inroads into the auto industry with its CarPlay system.