Apple CarPlay Ultra Offers a Seamless Drive with Your iPhone, Here’s a Hands-On Look in an Aston Martin DBX

Apple’s CarPlay has been a reliable companion for drivers for years, turning car screens into extensions of the iPhone with familiar apps and navigation. Now, with CarPlay Ultra, Apple goes deeper, blending vehicle controls into its interface. Recently, YouTuber Marques Brownlee got his hands on CarPlay Ultra in an Aston Martin DBX707 to show us how this system changes in-car connectivity.

CarPlay Ultra goes beyond mirroring your iPhone’s screen. Regular CarPlay displays apps like Maps, Music, and Messages on a car’s central screen before stopping, leaving vehicle-specific features like climate control and drive modes to the car’s native system. Switching between the two seems awkward and takes you out of the Apple environment. CarPlay Ultra solves this by taking over all the car’s screens and integrates vehicle functions directly into its interface. In the DBX707, Brownlee shows how climate settings, radio controls and even drive modes appear alongside your iPhone’s apps, creating a unified experience.

This requires collaboration between Apple and automakers. Aston Martin, one of the first to adopt CarPlay Ultra, worked with Apple to make the system feel tailored to the DBX707. The central screen displays familiar iPhone apps but new icons for temperature, fan speed and vehicle settings sit alongside them. Tapping these opens controls that adjust the car’s actual systems – no need to exit CarPlay. For example, you can adjust the air con or switch to Sport Plus mode without leaving your music or navigation. This keeps the focus on driving, not fumbling through menus.


One cool feature is the “punch-through UI”, a clever hack for settings too specific for CarPlay Ultra’s interface. In the DBX707, adjusting the Bowers & Wilkins audio system’s surround sound settings opens a frame that displays the car’s native interface. Engaging reverse triggers the backup camera feed within CarPlay Ultra. Once the task is complete the system snaps back to the Apple interface. This way you can access every function without feeling like you’ve left the CarPlay environment, even for niche controls.


Beyond the central screen CarPlay Ultra also extends to the driver’s display behind the steering wheel. In the DBX707 this screen takes Aston Martin’s design and Apple’s typography and layout. You can swipe to cycle through views – tachometers, maps or music – each blending car data like speed or range with iPhone content. A subtle sync between screens like matching orange accents across the dashboard ties the whole experience together. These little details make the system feel finished, like Apple and Aston Martin designed the car’s interior as one.


Not everything comes from the iPhone, as things like the odometer or safety warnings are rendered by the car for legal and reliability reasons. If your phone dies these critical readouts stay visible, overlaid on the CarPlay Ultra interface with clear cutouts for legibility. This balance ensures safety and compliance without breaking the system’s flow. Brownlee said these overlays feel like a natural part of the experience not an afterthought.

CarPlay Ultra is wireless only, requiring an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or newer. This means no cables cluttering the console but it also means you need a compatible car. Aston Martin owners can visit a service center for a software update to enable CarPlay Ultra, which means the system is rolling out. But will people adopt it? Companies like Tesla and Rivian who are focused on their own software have rejected CarPlay entirely. Automakers with large screens and custom interfaces may not want to let Apple dominate their dashboards even if it’s good for iPhone users.