Toyota today announced that CarPlay will be a standard feature in the all-new 2019 Corolla Hatchback in the United States.
CarPlay and Amazon Alexa, but not Android Auto, are built into the vehicle's Entune 3.0 system with an eight-inch touchscreen, Siri Eyes Free, AUX, a USB 2.0 port, and hands-free phone calls and music playback via Bluetooth. A tray with optional Qi-based wireless charging is built in to hold the iPhone.
Toyota is debuting the 2019 Corolla Hatchback at the New York International Auto Show next week. The vehicle will be available at dealerships across the United States in summer 2018. Pricing and exact availability has not been disclosed.
Toyota was one of the last major automakers that didn't support CarPlay. That changed in January, when the company introduced the 2019 Avalon as its first vehicle compatible with Apple's in-car software platform, which provides convenient access to Phone, Maps, Messages, Music, Podcasts, and select third-party apps.
Toyota has yet to reveal any other CarPlay vehicles, but if the 2019 Corolla Hatchback is compatible, then the 2019 Corolla sedan likely will be too. The 2019 Camry and 2019 Sienna will also likely feature CarPlay given the 2018 models of those vehicles are already equipped with the Entune 3.0 system.
Lexus vehicles with the Enform 2.0 system will also support CarPlay. Unfortunately, a spokesperson for Toyota told MacRumors that it doesn't have any plans to support CarPlay in pre-2019 vehicles or other countries at this time.
Related: Toyota and Lexus to Offer CarPlay in Select 2019 Vehicles and Beyond in United States
Top Rated Comments
As to whether people choose a vehicle for CarPlay - people are thinking of this the wrong way. Someone isn't going to drop $30K on a certain car only because it has CarPlay. That would be kind of ridiculous. People often shop for different vehicles in the same class (the classic Honda Accord vs Toyota Camry is a good example). In this case, when two vehicles are similar then a feature as simple as CarPlay can be a deciding factor in picking one vehicle over another. At least until such time as every car supports it.
I think that CP is overrated. I have used it since 2015, and having CarPlay as an option would have little influence over my next car purchase.
If CP ever allowed Waze support, then I might raise the priority of it a little.
Waze is so much better.
[doublepost=1521831429][/doublepost]Honestly I've never met anyone who mentioned CarPlay as an important feature in their next car purchase. People have much bigger determining factors in buying a car, and in my experience very few people use CarPlay or Android Auto anyway. I think they're both vastly overrated in forums like this. Yeah, Toyota's EnTune is terrible, but the average driver doesn't care as long as the FM radio works and, possibly, they can link audio over BT.
The EnTune system is some serious trash.