User Adds Car to HomeKit for In-App Controls and Automations, Showing Future Potential

Blogger Siobhán Ellis has successfully integrated their electric car into their Apple HomeKit setup, adding in-app toggles for door locking, climate control, and more.

jaguar car homekit
The setup, which is outlined in detail on the blog Practical HomeKit, allows multiple elements of a Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicle to be monitored, controlled, and automated using the Home app.

Using a HomeBridge plugin for the Jaguar InControl API called homebridge-jlr-incontrol, Ellis was able to feed data about the vehicle, such as charging status, charge level, pre-conditioning, and more, into ‌HomeKit‌, as well as send back basic commands. The plugin apparently required "a fair amount" of manual configuration and presented a few warnings, but it works correctly just like many other HomeBridge-based workarounds for ‌HomeKit‌.

jaguar homekit climate control 2
Many functions of the vehicle, including climate control, pre-conditioning, locking and unlocking, and charging, are now viewable and controllable in the Home app from any location.

jaguar homekit home app
Integration into the Home app allows automations to be created based on battery level, such as automatically charging the car from a HomeKit-enabled power outlet when the battery percentage is low. Ellis also has an automation to pre-condition the temperature of the car and its batteries based on events in the Calendar app. It is also possible to automatically unlock the car at a time of day or under certain conditions.

To accompany the Apple-oriented vehicle upgrades, Ellis added wireless CarPlay. Jaguar does not support wireless ‌CarPlay‌, but Ellis was able to implement the feature herself using a wireless ‌CarPlay‌ adapter called CPLAY2air. Ellis also mounted a MagSafe charger on the dashboard for convenient iPhone charging.

magsafe on dashboard
Although this setup has to be created manually via HomeBridge, it shows how it may be useful to add a vehicle to ‌HomeKit‌. Integration with ‌HomeKit‌ opens up the possibility of creating useful Shortcuts as well as Home automations for the vehicle.

With services such as ‌CarPlay‌ available in most new vehicles, new services such as Car Keys expanding, and Apple collaborating with brands such as BMW and Porsche to bring Apple-integrated features to vehicles, it is not inconceivable to think that an official ‌HomeKit‌ integration for cars could be added in the future, especially in view of proof-of-concept projects such as this.

Related Roundup: CarPlay

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...

Top Rated Comments

Siobhan Ellis Avatar
55 months ago
Oh wow. I’m the person who did this. I’m just writing a blog on what I do with home integration. Never expected this to get such wide attention.

I knew about the Tesla plug-in, as I’d told a friend of mine about it, so I wondered if there was one for the Jaaaag, and there was.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThexBurning Avatar
55 months ago

You write this like they’ve done something only they have achieved. Why is this article worthy? I’ve been automating my Tesla from HomeKit for 4 years!
You need a hug, bro?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0815 Avatar
55 months ago
pretty sweet ... that is the future. Does one need this? No. Do I want this? YES.

Should try to do the same thing for my Tesla - shouldn't be too hard since Tesla has 3rd party API. Homebridge is awesome to bring unsupported devices to HomeKit (the Ring integration e.g. is even better than what Ring integrates into Alexa which is surprising since both are owned by Amazon).

EDIT: just looked on homebridge ... Tesla integration for Apple HomeKit does already exist: https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-tesla
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannys1 Avatar
55 months ago
You write this like they’ve done something only they have achieved. They've installed a Homebridge plugin someone else wrote in October...Why is this article worthy? I’ve been automating my Tesla from HomeKit for 4 years as have hundreds of other people.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannys1 Avatar
55 months ago
You write this like they’ve done something only they have achieved. Why is this article worthy? I’ve been automating my Tesla from HomeKit for 4 years

I had no idea this was possible. I thought HomeKit was completely locked down and nothing that didn’t have support built in could be integrated with it. If I ever get into automation and IoT, I’ll be sure to give HomeBridge a go!
it’s probably the most open and flexible platform there is with Homebridge. There’s more third party integration than even SmartThings or Hubitat
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
55 months ago
Even used a MagSafe. That’s impressive!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)