Google Maps is now available on Apple CarPlay with iOS 12, which previously just supported Apple Maps; Waze also plans to support CarPlay in a future update
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac :
Context & Ripple Effects
The door opened in June, when Apple confirmed that iOS 12 would let CarPlay run third-party navigation apps for the first time, ending Apple Maps' exclusive hold on the dashboard. Google Maps is the first major app through it, and the related coverage shows why speed mattered: Waze followed within a week with its own CarPlay release and customization features.
Both apps are Google properties — Waze had already been folded into Android Auto alongside Google Maps in 2017 — so this move puts two of the most-used navigation apps on Apple's own in-car platform.
First-order effects
- iPhone drivers can now run Google Maps or Waze on the CarPlay screen instead of being routed into Apple Maps, making the choice of navigator a user decision rather than a platform default.
- Apple Maps loses its captive audience in the car, where turn-by-turn guidance is one of CarPlay's core uses.
Second-order effects
- With Google Maps and Waze both live on CarPlay, Google effectively controls the navigation experience on a rival's dashboard, pressuring Apple to make Apple Maps competitive enough that users switch back voluntarily.
- Other third-party navigation developers now have a proven template for CarPlay adoption, raising expectations that the category fills out quickly.
Third-order effects
- The car dashboard becomes a contested app surface rather than an extension of the phone maker's defaults — a trajectory Apple itself acknowledged by later deepening CarPlay into a full dashboard system, including the WWDC-demoed update that lets users navigate to a pump and buy gas from the dash.
- If users treat navigation as swappable software, map providers compete on data quality and features across both auto platforms, mirroring how Waze's Android Auto arrival normalized cross-platform availability.
The trend: In-car infotainment is opening from platform-locked defaults to third-party app marketplaces, with navigation as the first battleground between Apple and Google.