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After Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay Is Also Making Its Way to Tesla Cars

One of the biggest annoyances of a brand-new Tesla is, without a doubt, the lack of support for Android Auto and CarPlay, even though these cars are perfectly capable of running both.
CarPlay in a Tesla 15 photos
Photo: Michal Gapinski
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And if you ask Elon Musk, you’d better not hold your breath for a future update to bring such functionality to either old or new Teslas.

This is why the third-party dev community out there decided to step in.

Not a long time ago, Emil Borconi, the developer who launched the very famous AAWireless project (which turns wired Android Auto into wireless) came up with a solution to get Google’s app up and running in a Tesla. Using a dedicated app installed on a mobile device and a connection to your phone’s hotspot, you should be able to get Android Auto in a Tesla via the pre-loaded browser.

The app has become impressively refined lately, so at first glance, everything runs as smoothly as possible through the browser.

Another developer has now created what appears to be a very similar way of bringing CarPlay to a Tesla. Michal Gapinski explained on Twitter that his third-party hack relies on CarPlay loaded in the car’s browser, pretty much like how Borconi’s Android Auto implementation currently works as well.

According to a recent report, the whole concept is based on a custom build of Android installed on a Raspberry Pi, allowing the CarPlay UI to be loaded through the browser. The experience so far still requires some additional polishing, but a video published on Twitter says the application is more or less usable, with even steering wheel controls currently supported.

At this point, there’s no ETA as to when Tesla owners out there would be able to get their hands on this hack, but without a doubt, many are very eager to do this, given there’s no sign that such functionality would be included in a future software update.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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