“What if you could get iOS on the screen that is built into your car,” Apple SVP Eddy Cue asked onstage at WWDC. Turns out he wasn’t just being rhetorical — Apple has confirmed that it is working with a slew of car manufacturers to bring the iOS experience into cars (the initiative is called, unimaginatively enough, “iOS In The Car”) starting in 2014.
So far, that list of manufacturers includes Honda, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Ferrari, Chevy, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Jaguar, and Acura. If Apple gets its way, users will be able to coax their iDevices into playing music, displaying maps, and dictating messages out loud, all while pertinent information (tricked out with the sort of light, ethereal style that’s now a hallmark of iOS 7) is shown on the car’s touchscreen. Naturally, since Apple has a vested interest in its users not dying in tragic, fiery wrecks, there’s little need to actually take your hand off the wheel to interact with that touchscreen — the newly-updated Siri will be there to field your requests.
Cue’s revelation at WWDC confirmed some curious reports from April that Apple had been pushing to bring its influence into cars within the next few months. Apple isn’t exactly new to the automotive space (it’s enjoyed a close relationship with Volkswagen dating back to the days of the 3rd generation iPod), and this new approach is much savvier than the notion of a completely distinct Apple iCar. After all, why limit yourself to enhancing the in-car experience of a single vehicle when you can influence a slew of them all at once?
