Ease the seat back and watch some video in your car with next Apple CarPlay

Only while parked

Apple is enabling video playback on its CarPlay automotive operating system and has integrated it into iOS 26, as long as you're parked.

CarPlay, which is now on more than 800 vehicle models, has never allowed streaming video for the perfectly understandable reason that this might fall afoul of regulators. Plenty of states have distracted driving laws that prohibit watching video in the line of sight of a driver, such as Vehicle Code Section 27602 in Apple's home state of California.

A CarPlay-enabled app called Sidecar briefly offered a $10 fee for users to browse the web and watch web-based video directly on the car's dash screen, alongside other features such as navigation functions and analyzing on-board diagnostics. But Apple asked the developer to yank the service almost immediately.

Now, Apple has its own version of video playback coming soon with the Cupertino seal of approval. It will use AirPlay to stream video directly from the user's iPhone running iOS 26 to the dashboard screen. Vehicle manufacturers will need to enable the update to CarPlay, so your mileage may vary before you can lean back and watch. While parked.

CarPlay is pretty good at identifying when a vehicle is moving - for instance, it won't let drivers scroll through their music library while the vehicle is in motion - so we don't imagine it will be easy to break this limitation to watch videos on the road, although people will probably try. Regardless, it could be a useful way to pass time while idling in a parking lot, or in the case of an electric model, during charging.

"AirPlay video in the car enables people to watch their favorite videos from iPhone right on their CarPlay display when they aren’t driving," Apple said. "Integrate support for CarPlay with AirPlay video to enable this feature in your car."

Elsewhere, CarPlay is getting an update to improve its latest "Liquid Glass" user interface, which will be a key visual part of Apple's operating systems. With some cars, the driver can use Smart Display Zoom to configure the screens to suit the vehicle's occupant.

Other new driving features include smaller app-launching widgets to distract people less, a smaller call screen so that navigation instructions aren't blocked, and the ability to curb Live Activity alerts to encourage drivers to keep their eyes on the road. ®