Kia to offer free Apple CarPlay upgrades on select models

AppleInsider

Kia on Tuesday announced plans to update some of its fleet with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, marking a rare instance in which older vehicles will get access to the phone link technology.

Cars must be equipped with an AVN 4.0 navigation system, or the UVO3 dash interface, Kia said. By the end of July, owners will be directed to myuvo.com to check eligibility and get detailed instructions on the upgrade process. Compatible models will include:

• 2017 Forte
• 2015-16 Optima/Optima Hybrid
• 2015-16 Sedona
• 2014-16 Soul
• 2015-16 Soul EV
• 2016 Sorento
• 2017 Sportage

The mention of the 2014 Soul is particularly notable, since few vehicles that old have access to CarPlay. Native support for the platform didn't expand significantly until the middle of last year, and upgrade options have been rare, often reserved for model years from 2015 onward unless a person pays for an aftermarket receiver. Kia otherwise offers CarPlay on the 2017 Cadenza and the 2017 Forte5. Apple is planning a number of CarPlay upgrades for this fall's iOS 10, such as a revamped Apple Music app, and the ability to rearrange apps or remove them from the homescreen. A "Parked Car" feature will automatically mark a car's location when an iPhone is disconnected from Bluetooth or CarPlay, making it easier to find in Maps.

lord grantham's ulcer

I wish Subaru would do something like this. Starlink is pretty useless.

zroger73

Honda, take notice! At one point, you teased '15 and '16 CR-V owners by offering a limited beta test of CarPlay, which ended without further action. You disappointed a lot of '16 Pilot owners by not offering CarPlay, yet you put it in the '16 Accord and Civic. I love it in my 2017 Ridgeline, but it would have been nice to have had it in my '16 CR-V as well.

wood1208

Honda and many car manufacturers have done it. Wish soon Toyota do the same. We all have experience that these car manufacturer's built-in features like GPS and phone connectivity really sucks and hard to software up-gradable BUT they don't get it to simply support CarPlay and AndroidAuto on their infotainment console. I wish, we all boycott buying new vehicle unless they start supporting these features. OR the way these car manufacturers charge for extra features, ask for price discount because they don't have CarPlay. Stick it to them differently.

edited July 2016

rhbellmor

Don't hold your breath on Kia. They have been promising the CarPlay upgrade for my 2016 Optima I purchased in April since May. They just keep extending the date. Funny thing is Microsoft is the car's software vendor so since we know CarPlay is already working on other cars I guess I am waiting on Microsoft to make Apple's CarPlay work. Does anyone else think that is funny?

robertwalter

And then there is Honda, flipping the bird to its current owners saying they can't do backward firmware updates due to a hardware limitation. 

In in the meantime they continue to push their awkwardly awful Hondalink kludge (and charge the ignorant $1000 for a dated Navi option.)

Bad, bad, Honda. Their lousy display audio user interface makes you wish you could die and their deathly Takata airbags make you pray that you'll live. 

edited July 2016

oneof52

I have a 2016 Mazda Miata that I would love to get updated.

ktappe

Good for you, Kia.  Hey Honda, are you listening? 

nolamacguy

Lord Grantham's Ulcer said:

I wish Subaru would do something like this. Starlink is pretty useless.

you should use their contact form to tell them this. i have.

Starlink sucks. i cant believe there is no way for me to send an address to it from my iphone, even if it were copy/pasting thru their own Starlink app. (if there is i havent found it). and since it does Siri eyes free, i cant use vocal commands to tell the car anything, they all get routed to siri. so that means constantly futzing around in the dask nav/audio system... so lame.

gcornelius

Wish this were offered to 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sports with Navigation.  

macxpress

I wish FCA would follow suit as well, but I bet they'll only make it work on newer car models with the next generation uConnect radios. 

rbonner

zroger73 said:

Honda, take notice! At one point, you teased '15 and '16 CR-V owners by offering a limited beta test of CarPlay, which ended without further action. You disappointed a lot of '16 Pilot owners by not offering CarPlay, yet you put it in the '16 Accord and Civic. I love it in my 2017 Ridgeline, but it would have been nice to have had it in my '16 CR-V as well.

Ditto, 16 CRV owner, dealer kept saying 'Yeah, it's on the way'.

david.ahrens

If only Jeep would follow their example.

creativeoops

My 2012 GMC Terrain could use an update to have Apple Play as the system I have to use is horrible. My system switches from USB to radio without warning. Using an iPod will go from random all songs to random on just one album for no reason. Choosing to shuffle the songs will cause the current song to end and go another song. Basically what GMC has installed is crap.

razorpit

Ford said they would be doing the same back in January for 2016's but so far I haven't seen an update.

I'm new car shopping now and it's unbelievable how bad of reviews products like Starlink, Entune, Sync, etc. get and yet manufactures still try to force them on us.  They don't want to give up the control of the user interface yet none of them can do a decent job with the controls.

bulldogrob

The update is now available at myuvo.com. I updated the software for my 2015 Kia Soul this afternoon. The download took about 2 and half hours and the installation took 30 minutes or so. CarPlay is up and running! Directions for the download/installation are also at the same address and are pretty easy to follow.