Proton Apple CarPlay, Android Auto will only come on new model launches

Existing cars will not support it

A lot of you will have been waiting with bated breath for Proton to add the long-overdue Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality to its models. Some will have even bought cars recently with the expectation that these features will be added through an over-the-air (OTA) update. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but the latter has been emphatically ruled out.

That’s right, Proton has confirmed that existing cars – including the X90, S70 and even the just-launched 2024 X50 RC – will not receive Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto, not even OTA as the company previously indicated. This was intimated to paultan.org by deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah and head of group engineering and technical Haizam Ghazali during the X50 launch event.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will likely only be added to the X70 faceliftInstead, the two leading smartphone connectivity services will only be introduced through new model launches, including the forthcoming facelifted X70 and possibly 2025 model year updates for the X90 and S70. This means that existing customers – some of which will have based at least some of their purchasing decisions on that elusive OTA update – will be left out in the cold.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however – Roslan told us that Proton is in the final stages of getting licence approval from Apple, so expect the very next launch, the facelifted X70, to have CarPlay and Android Auto support.

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By Jonathan Lee

Source: paultan.org