CarPlay support coming to Tesla as Apple works to resolve compatibility issues

Apple is working with Tesla to bring CarPlay support to its vehicles, according to renewed reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Gurman has revisited a claim he first made last year that Tesla was planning to add CarPlay, integrating it as a “window inside its broader interface” rather than allowing it to fully replace Tesla’s own software.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman explains why CarPlay has so far remained absent from Tesla models, despite apparent progress behind the scenes.

According to the report, Tesla encountered several compatibility issues between Apple Maps and its own in-house mapping system, which underpins the company’s driver assistance and autonomy features.

One key problem involved turn-by-turn navigation. Gurman says Tesla found that guidance from its own maps did not properly synchronise with Apple Maps during autonomous driving, creating the potential for conflicting directions if both systems were visible at the same time.

To resolve this, Tesla reportedly asked Apple to make engineering changes to Apple Maps to improve interoperability with Tesla’s software.

Apple agreed and implemented the requested adjustments in a bug-fix update to iOS 26, alongside updates to CarPlay.

However, Gurman notes that the rollout hit an unexpected obstacle: adoption of iOS 26 has been slower than previous iOS releases.

Apple’s own figures show that around 74% of iPhones released in the last four years are running iOS 26, with 66% of all active iPhones updated so far. While still strong by industry standards, the numbers trail slightly behind iOS 18 at the same point after launch.

That slower uptake reportedly concerned Tesla, as too few users had the updated Apple Maps changes installed by the end of last year.

With iOS 26 adoption continuing to rise and Apple having addressed the technical hurdles, Gurman suggests the path is now clearer for Tesla to move forward with CarPlay integration.