Top Gear gives us a detailed look at Apple CarPlay Ultra [Video] - 9to5Mac

It’s taken a very long time, and it’s so far only being offered by a single, niche car-maker, but next-gen CarPlay – which Apple has branded CarPlay Ultra – is finally here.

It’s currently limited to Aston Martin, and is available with new orders, alongside a software update being made available to owners of existing (recent) models …

Apple still claims a lengthy list of other brands will be rolling it out, but the company hasn’t gotten any more specific on timings.

Top Gear has provided an in-depth video run-through of the system, in which Apple can take over a car’s own screens to mix-and-match Apple apps with the car’s instrument displays.

A key feature is that there are multiple UIs available for the main display, and owners can choose between a very modest adjustment to the default car-maker’s display – for example, incorporating a tile for Apple Maps or Apple Music album art into the standard digital instrument cluster – or a really major change, to a very Apple-like UI for everything.

For example, you can have this very classic Aston Martin dash:

Or you can go almost 100% Apple, and opt for this incredibly minimalist look, in which even the speedo and rev counter are just lines:

That kind of flexibility really looks to be the strongest argument for wanting CarPlay Ultra – instead of being stuck with whatever look the car-maker has chosen, you can choose between multiple different looks.

In addition to choosing your UI (which Apple calls Themes), you can also customize the colors.

The reverse is also possible: you can now control more of the car’s built-in features from the screen previously dedicated to CarPlay.

Finally, we can see punch-through in action, where when you select the Bowers & Wilkins sound system fitted to the car, that interface is overlaid on the CarPlay screen. You are now seeing the B&W UI exactly as you would without CarPlay installed.