Toyota this week unveiled the 2019 Avalon at the the Detroit Auto Show, and the centered 9-inch screen will display a feature that has long been missing from Toyota cars: Apple CarPlay.
Over the past few years, Toyota has been stubborn in adopting support for CarPlay, instead opting to use its in-house proprietary solutions. But the delay was much ado about nothing as Toyota has finally relented, and the 2019 Avalon will be the first car to support CarPlay.
According the MacRumors, only Toyota models running Entune 3.0 and Lexus models running Enform 2.0 will support CarPlay. That may open up the possibility to 2018 models like the new Camry and Sienna gaining CarPlay support, too. For the time being, Toyota is only promising support for 2019 models.
Interestingly enough, Toyota and Lexus cars will only support CarPlay and not Android Auto. No word if that support is in the pipeline.
Even though the 2019 Avalon will have Qi wireless charging, wireless CarPlay won't be available. You'll have to plug in to activate the feature. It's a shame wireless CarPlay isn't available right away, but at this point we'll take anything Toyota gives us to get rid of its atrocious infotainment user interface.
Additionally, the 2019 Avalon will feature integration for smartwatches and Amazon Alexa through Toyota Remote Connect, giving owners the ability to lock, unlock and start the car through a smartwatch or Alexa.
