Starting with iOS 12 later this year, Apple CarPlay will let you use Google Maps, Waze, and other third-party navigation apps, not just Apple Maps
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
CarPlay has been a walled garden since launch: Apple Maps was the only navigation option on the dash, even as Google's Android Auto app update let drivers run the interface from their phone in any car. Apple's iOS 12 announcement flips that — the dashboard becomes a surface any navigation developer can target.
The move matters because the in-car screen is where Google's mapping advantage has been locked out of iPhone users' drives. Google Maps shipped for CarPlay within months of iOS 12's release (September 2018), with Waze following weeks later.
First-order effects
- iPhone-driving Google Maps and Waze users can finally replace Apple Maps on their car's built-in display starting with iOS 12, ending Apple Maps' exclusive default position on CarPlay.
Second-order effects
- Google gains access to the CarPlay audience it had been shut out of, and its later CarPlay Dashboard support shows it investing to deepen that foothold rather than treating the platform as an afterthought.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the car dashboard becomes a contested app platform rather than a captive extension of the phone maker's own services — visible in Apple later pushing transactional features like the WWDC-demoed ability to navigate to a pump and buy gas from the dash, and Google stuffing native-Android cars with apps from Waze to Zoom.
The trend: In-car software is shifting from a bundled default owned by the platform vendor to an open app layer where Google, Apple, and third parties compete for the driver's attention.