CES 2015: Volkswagen Adding CarPlay Support in Late 2015

Monday January 5, 2015 4:40 pm PST by Husain Sumra

Car manufacturer Volkswagen today revealed that it would add support for CarPlay and Android Auto to its vehicles at the end of the year, bringing Apple's in-car experience to the popular car brand. It'll debut alongside VW's new in-car infotainment system, referred to as MIB II.

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Later this year, VW will introduce the second generation "modular infotainment platform" (MIB II) in the United States. Along with the new infotainment system, MirrorLink™ will also be made available for the first time, integrating the apps and operating layout of numerous smartphones (including Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony) into cars. When MirrorLink™ is introduced, two other interfaces will also be launched under the App-Connect label: CarPlay™ (Apple®) and Android Auto™ (Google®). Simultaneously, VW will also launch CarPlay™ and Android Auto™ in the European market.

When CarPlay was first announced, Volkswagen was one of the few major car brands not involved. The company isn't listed on Apple's CarPlay partners page on its website either. However, the CarPlay integration debuting alongside VW's new infotainment system indicates the German manufacturer may have been waiting until it sorted out the future of its in-car technology before committing to Apple's.

While VW cars in both Europe and North America will get CarPlay support in late 2015, it's unknown how much VW's new infotainment system will cost.

Related Roundup: CarPlay

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Top Rated Comments

utsava

154 months ago

Hopfully VW doesn't price this system out of contention for most people. CarPlay/AndroidAuto will be a bullet feature that is par for the course in a short 2-3 years. I hope VW understands this and doesn't position this feature in premium packages only. This feature should be included in every trim within a year.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MacOG728893

154 months ago

My Passat has passed your reliability test...

Volkswagens are hardly known for their unreliability.

It's cliche, but take care of your car and it'll take care of you. My 2007 Passat is still going strong. I've gotten all scheduled maintenance and no problems thus far. Only 45K miles on this sucker though!

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

venom600

154 months ago

For those of us VW owners thinking about retrofitting this, it should be possible. However, previous high end head units (like the RNS510) were well over a thousand dollars, so you may want to seriously think about how much this functionality is worth to you.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ikramerica

154 months ago

Hopefully others will follow VW and embrace all interfaces rather than locking into one. These aren't the days of having a Mercedes specific Startac phone as a $600 option. There is no reason Android auto, CarPlay, and the other competing interfaces can't corxist in one head unit considering the interfaces are platform agnostic.
I'll be getting my 2015 Touareg before this integration but I'm not really interested in in car apps and like the RNS system in the top VW so it's no loss, but my wife might get a VW after her Mazda lease is up and this should be available by then.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)