Apple CarPlay was launched back in 2014 it has enabled drivers to control basic car features with minimal distraction while driving. It mostly uses Siri voice assistant to give turn by turn navigation and reading out notifications from your phone. So far, it’s biggest competitor is Android Auto, however, most modern cars support both platforms but Apple wants to take their offering to the next level.

At the moment CarPlay only controls basic functions such as the cars music, maps, news, calendars and notifications from apps installed on your phone, that last part helps avoid situations where a driver would need to pick up their phone to check out an incoming alert. Bloomberg has however revealed that Apple is working on a technology called IronHeart.

IronHeart will enable CarPlay to control core functions of the car such as climate control, defrosting, seats, speedometer, and others. Previously, such functions were done via the infotainment system of the car via automaker made applications. The advantage of having CarPlay do all this functions is consistency, that is, the driver doesn’t have to spend time learning new apps every time they switch or buy a new vehicle. Currently, drivers have to go out of CarPlay and into the infotainment system in order to change the AC settings or seats configuration which is not ideal especially due to the poorly optimized apps that come with some vehicles.

For Apple to achieve this, they will have to get the automakers on board. Google has already announced partnership with several companies to have Android Automotive embedded deep into the cars core, they include Ford, General Motors, Nissan and recently Honda. Let’s wait and see how Apple will implement their Iron Heart technology.