Meta AI Comes to Apple CarPlay
The Race for Artificial Intelligence Assistant in Automobiles Begins
The era of digital assistants we use in cars is changing. For years, when it came to Apple CarPlay, Siri was at the center of voice commands. We were calling Siri to call someone, send a message, turn on music, ask for directions or find out the next meeting on the calendar. On Apple's own support pages, CarPlay's core voice control layer is still described as Siri. But when Apple opened CarPlay to speech-based third-party applications, a much more interesting era began on the car screen. It's no longer just about saying "Hey Siri, give me directions home." The driver will be able to talk to an artificial intelligence from inside the car, ask questions, explain a topic, and perform more complex voice operations as the application allows.
The last participant of this new era was Meta AI. Meta's AI assistant becomes the fourth major third-party AI chat app to begin offering Apple CarPlay support, following ChatGPT, Perplexity and Grok. However, the feature is not fully available to everyone as of the end of August 2026. Although the Meta AI application appears on the CarPlay screen of some users, when the application is opened, a message may be displayed stating that the account is not yet supported. In 9to5Mac's testing, switching to a paid Meta AI account did not change this situation; Therefore, the current table indicates that the feature is in a gradual or limited distribution process.
This seemingly small change may actually be the beginning of a much bigger problem:
Will Siri be the main artificial intelligence we talk to in the car in the future, or will the user choose their own AI assistant?
Why Did Apple Open CarPlay to ChatGPT, Meta AI, Grok and Perplexity?
The change Apple made here is very important in terms of the working logic of CarPlay. Apple opened voice-based speech applications to CarPlay with iOS 26.4 in early 2026. At the official CarPlay developer session at WWDC26, the company clearly defines this category as “voice-based conversational apps.” According to Apple, applications with their own voice features can answer the user's questions and perform various operations in the car. With iOS 27, the Voice Control template is being expanded to other CarPlay app categories.
This change opened the door to CarPlay for artificial intelligence applications.
First came OpenAI's ChatGPT application. Then Perplexity and xAI's Grok gained CarPlay support. Now Meta AI is entering the same field.
Thus, a very interesting situation arose in CarPlay. The user no longer has to depend solely on the voice assistant offered by Apple; Compatible third-party applications on your iPhone can be moved to the car screen. This is essentially an expansion into the AI world of a core advantage that CarPlay has had for years. Apple already allows third-party apps in different categories to run on CarPlay, including navigation, voice, messaging, calling, electric vehicle charging, parking, and more. Now the same app ecosystem is expanding into AI assistants.
This could make CarPlay not just an extension of the iPhone on the car screen, but a new platform where different AI services can reach the user.
What Can Meta AI Do in CarPlay?
Because Meta AI's CarPlay integration is currently in limited distribution, it's too early to say whether all of the features will work the same for every user. However, the speech-based application structure created by Apple for CarPlay shows us the basic logic of the system.
According to Apple's developer documentation, these applications can use their own voice features to answer user questions and perform operations supported by the application. CarPlay's Voice Control interface is designed to simply display the status of the conversation on the car screen.
This distinction is important because the use of artificial intelligence in the car has to be different from the use of chatbots on the phone.
You can write a long text to ChatGPT on the phone screen.
You can review the resources on Perplexity.
You can work on different content with Meta AI.
In the car, your eyes need to be on the road, not the screen.
Therefore, the most natural interface is sound.
For example, theoretically, a driver can ask the artificial intelligence assistant general information about the city he is going to, have it explain a concept, learn the answer to a question that comes to mind during the journey, or develop an idea out loud. More contextual experiences that use location information are also possible, depending on the permissions the application has and the APIs offered by CarPlay. Apple engineers confirm that speech-based CarPlay applications can transfer the location information provided by the device to their own speech logic by using the iOS Location Services infrastructure.
This could lead to some very interesting uses in the future.
“What is famous in my area?”
“Give me brief information about the city I will go to.”
“This journey will take two hours, tell me something I can listen to.”
“Summarize the idea we just talked about.”
Conversations like these can become much more natural in the car than traditional voice commands.
There's an important distinction here again: These are not a list of all the features that Meta AI in CarPlay definitely offers today; Examples of usage patterns that speech-based AI applications can create with the CarPlay infrastructure. Meta AI's true capabilities will become clearer as distribution of the application expands.
What Will Be the Difference Between Siri and ChatGPT or Meta AI?
In our opinion, this is the most important question of the new era in CarPlay.
Because Siri and ChatGPT, Meta AI, Perplexity or Grok are not actually products that do exactly the same job.
Siri has been working as the system assistant of Apple devices for years. On CarPlay, you can ask Siri to call a contact, send a message, start directions, change music, tell you the weather, check the next meeting or remind you of something when you get home. In supported vehicles, it can be used via the voice command button on the steering wheel or the “Hey Siri” command.
The area where third-party AI applications are strong is mostly in open-ended conversation and information processing.
Siri:
“Take me home.”
A conversational assistant like ChatGPT or Meta AI:
"I have a two-hour journey. Tell me about the collapse of the Roman Empire in a way that will not be boring."
Perplexity:
“Research and summarize what I need to know about the city I will go to.”
Grok:
“Pick an interesting topic we can talk about along the way.”
It can become the natural address for much more open-ended requests such as
.
Of course, it is important to remember that each of these examples depends on the current capabilities of the relevant application in the CarPlay version. But it explains the basic difference between product categories well.
The advantage of Siri is that it is located at the system layer of the iPhone and Apple ecosystem.
The advantage of third-party AI assistants is that their speaking and reasoning abilities can be spread to much wider areas of use.
The most interesting future scenario may be that these two are used together, rather than canceling each other out.
Why Does Apple Buy Its Competitors?
It looks strange at first glance.
Why would Apple allow competitors like ChatGPT, Meta AI, Grok or Perplexity to work on CarPlay when it is developing its own AI strategy?
Because CarPlay's biggest strength was never just consisting of Apple applications.
The value of CarPlay is that it brings the iPhone ecosystem to the car.
If you are using Spotify, you see Spotify.
If you use Google Maps or other supported navigation applications, you can benefit from them.
Compatible messaging, audio, navigation and vehicle applications can be accessed on the CarPlay home screen.
Apple is now applying the same philosophy to artificial intelligence.
This can be a very powerful decision strategically.
Because user:
“I want to use Meta AI in my car.”
Apple's response:
“Then use another car operating system.”
It's not happening.
Makes room for Meta AI in CarPlay.
So while AI services compete with each other, Apple remains the platform where all this competition takes place.
This platform approach may even be more valuable in the long run than having a single AI assistant.
Everything Could Change When Siri AI Comes
But Apple's real move will be the new generation Siri.
According to the current schedule reported by 9to5Mac, the redesigned Siri experience is in beta as part of iOS 27 and is expected to be available for general use in September 2026. It is also seen in the official developer notes that Apple is actively developing CarPlay and Siri in iOS 27 beta versions; For example, in the latest beta notes, it is listed as one of the known issues that Siri in CarPlay may respond slower than expected under certain conditions.
It is necessary to make a careful distinction between sources here. Apple's official documentation confirms iOS 27 and CarPlay improvements; However, the calendar stating "Siri AI will definitely be available to all users on this day" does not come from Apple's official support documents at this stage, but from the beta and launch expectations conveyed by current technology publications.
The advantage of the new Siri in terms of CarPlay can be huge.
Because no matter how smart a third-party AI application is, it does not have the same system integration as Siri.
Apple's own assistant can connect iPhone, messages, calls, calendar, navigation, music and other system services much more naturally.
Therefore, there may be two different AI layers on CarPlay in the future:
Siri for system tasks.
Your AI assistant of choice for information, research, and open-ended conversations.
If this model comes true, users will ask "Siri or ChatGPT?" He may not even need to make a choice.
We can use both for different tasks.
CarPlay Could Be the Next Big AI Battleground
The race for artificial intelligence on smartphones has already begun.
ChatGPT.
Gemini.
Meta AI.
Grok.
Perplexity.
Apple Intelligence and Siri.
But for AI companies, there is another area that is extremely valuable after the phone screen:
automobile.
Because the automobile is one of the environments where voice artificial intelligence naturally gains meaning.
There is a keyboard on the computer.
The phone has a touch screen.
In the car, the driver should keep his eyes on the road and his hands on the steering wheel as much as possible.
Therefore, speech is not just an alternative user interface in the car; The most logical interface in most cases.
Apple has been designing CarPlay with this logic for years. The company describes CarPlay as a way to "use iPhone smarter and safer in the car" and focuses on voice control of basic functions such as directions, calling, messaging and music via Siri.
When Generative AI enters this structure, the concept of voice assistant itself changes.
Old car assistant:
“Start directions to Ankara.”
New car assistant:
"I'm going to Ankara. I have about three hours. Along the way, tell me about the history of Anatolia, starting from the Hittites, but don't make it sound like a lecture."
The second request is not a classic voice command.
A speech.
And the real change that big language models bring to the automobile is exactly here.
Things Are Getting A Little More Complicated for Auto Manufacturers
We should not only look at the Apple, Meta or OpenAI side of this development.
There are also automobile manufacturers.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and other manufacturers are developing their own digital assistants and AI integrations. Google, on the other hand, wants to have a strong position in the automobile experience through Android Automotive and Gemini.
But when the user connects to CarPlay, a different expectation arises.
A person who uses ChatGPT on his phone can also request ChatGPT in his car.
The person using Meta AI may want to continue using the same assistant in the car.
The Perplexity user may not want to let go of their preferred research assistant.
Thus, the automaker's own assistant, Apple's Siri and third-party AI applications can come together in the same car.
This situation raises the question "who will be the default artificial intelligence assistant?" in cars in the future. It will make the question very important.
There has been talk about who the default search engine on phones is for years.
We may experience a similar debate in automobiles over the default AI assistant in the coming years.
The Real Competition is “Who is the Smartest AI?” Might not happen
Is ChatGPT better?
Is Gemini better?
Meta AI?
Grok?
Siri?
These comparisons will continue to be made.
But CarPlay shows us another dimension of AI competition.
The winner may not just be the company that develops the strongest model.
The winner may be the company that places AI at the right moments in the user's daily life.
When we pick up the phone in the morning.
While working on the computer.
With our headphones on.
When using smart glasses.
And when we got into the car.
The future of artificial intelligence is moving towards becoming constantly accessible within the devices we use during the day, rather than opening a single application and asking questions.
CarPlay is a very strong example of this.
Because the user does not have to pick up his phone to use artificial intelligence.
He gets into the car.
iPhone is connecting.
CarPlay is opening.
And the AI assistant he uses comes to the car with him.
What about Security?
The most important issue of using AI in automobiles is naturally safety.
No matter how impressive Generative AI is, an interface that will distract the driver is not acceptable in the car.
The basic logic of Apple's CarPlay design is based on the user performing important operations without holding the iPhone. The company explains that the common purpose of CarPlay applications is to enable users to perform necessary tasks without taking out their phones.
For this reason, we should not expect the AI experience in the car to be a copy of the experience on the phone or computer.
Audio instead of reading long texts.
Conversation instead of complex menus.
Short and understandable feedback instead of constantly looking at the screen.
In addition, the ability of artificial intelligence to produce false information becomes more important in the context of automobiles. A mistake on a general history question can be annoying; But the accuracy of the information provided by AI is much more important in matters such as driving safety, emergency or critical navigation.
So while generative AI in the automobile is growing, it's not just about "how smart is it?" not the question, but “on what can he be trusted?” We will also have to ask the question.
Why is Meta AI Coming to CarPlay Important?
The addition of Meta AI may not seem revolutionary on its own.
After all, a new application is coming to CarPlay.
But when we step back a little and look at the big picture, we see a significant change.
There is no longer a single AI world in CarPlay.
Apple has its own Siri experience.
ChatGPT exists.
There is perplexity.
There is Grok.
And now comes Meta AI.
Moreover, on Apple's official developer platform, voice-based speech applications are now clearly among the categories supported by CarPlay.
So Meta AI integration isn't just about a new app gaining CarPlay support.
One of the signs that Apple is starting to open the choice of AI in the car to the user.
This is a pretty big strategic change.
The Era of a Single Artificial Intelligence Assistant in the Automobile May Be Over
For years, the digital assistant experience in the car was pretty simple.
Siri if you're using an iPhone.
Google Assistant if you're using Android.
An assistant of the automobile manufacturer if it has its own system.
Generative AI is disrupting this order.
With Apple opening CarPlay to voice-based speech applications, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok and now Meta AI began to reach the user on the same platform. Although Meta AI's support seems limited on some accounts at the moment, the direction is quite clear.
What is even more interesting for Apple is that the company includes its competitors in the CarPlay ecosystem instead of blocking them.
This approach could turn CarPlay into one of the important AI platforms in the automotive world in the future.
Maybe a few years later, when we get into the car:
“Which voice assistant do you use?”
We won't ask.
“Which artificial intelligence do you use?”
We will ask.
A driver will use Siri.
Another one is ChatGPT.
Another one is Meta AI.
Whoever wants to do research will open Perplexity.
Someone else will choose Grok.
And maybe we will use them all in the same car for different jobs.
Meta AI coming to CarPlay is therefore a small but very significant development.
Because the real beginning of the artificial intelligence race in automobiles may not be a company's development of the most powerful model.
It may be possible to give the user the right to choose which artificial intelligence they want to talk to.
Nur Oğuz