Apple CarPlay Will Soon Get a Fourth AI Chatbot

Apple CarPlay will soon become host to yet another AI chatbot, with Google set to enter the fray.

Code in the Google Maps iOS app spotted by MacRumors suggests Gemini integration is coming to Google Maps on CarPlay, allowing drivers to ask the assistant for directions and information hands-free.

The Google Maps app actually supports Gemini on iPhone already, but the chatbot isn't available for use in Google Maps when connected to CarPlay. Gemini in Google Maps adds an "Ask Maps" feature that can answer complex, real-world questions about locations and destinations.

When Gemini arrives on your dash – and there's no word on when that will be just yet – Google's large language model will become the fourth AI chatbot available in CarPlay, joining ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok, the last of which arrived earlier this week.

The recent flurry of AI assistants in CarPlay is largely thanks to iOS 26.4, which opened the door to third-party voice-driven conversational apps for the first time. Developers need a special entitlement from Apple and have to use its voice control template. The rules aim to limit visual clutter to a maximum of four action buttons, and they bar chatbots from displaying text or imagery in responses so as not to distract the driver.

What's notably absent from the AI chatbot lineup is Apple's own Siri, which still can't carry on a real-time conversation in the car (or anywhere else, for that matter). Things should change soon, however, with an enhanced Siri – including a dedicated app – expected to arrive in iOS 27 later this year. Ironically, it will reportedly be powered by Gemini under the hood.