Apple is preparing to open CarPlay to third-party AI chatbots later this year, but it has not indicated that Elon Musk’s Grok will be among the options. Bloomberg reported Apple plans to allow outside voice-controlled chatbots in CarPlay, but Apple has not publicly detailed which assistants will qualify. For the millions of drivers who rely on CarPlay daily, the rollout could shape which AI assistants are available behind the wheel for years to come.
CarPlay Opens to Rival Chatbots, Not Grok
Apple plans to allow outside voice-controlled AI chatbots in CarPlay, a shift that would let drivers summon alternatives to Siri without leaving the interface. The move signals Apple’s willingness to loosen its grip on the in-car AI experience, at least selectively. Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT stand to benefit from the expanded access, giving iPhone users a richer set of options while driving and potentially redefining what drivers expect from in-car voice assistants.
Grok’s status in CarPlay is unclear. Apple has not published a detailed rationale for which assistants will qualify, and Bloomberg’s report did not specify whether Grok would be included. If Grok is ultimately not supported, CarPlay users who want an xAI-powered assistant would have no native path to one even as competing products gain a direct line into the car dashboard. That gap matters because CarPlay is installed in vehicles from nearly every major automaker, and integration there often determines which AI tools drivers actually use on a regular basis. In a market where default options tend to dominate, being left out of the default in-car experience could slow Grok’s growth in ways that app-store availability alone cannot offset.
Musk’s Legal Threats Over App Store Curation
The CarPlay standoff is part of a wider conflict. Musk has said he plans to sue Apple, alleging that the company’s App Store “Must Have” curation process is biased against both X and Grok. According to Musk, neither app has been featured among Apple’s top editorial picks despite strong user interest, a pattern he frames as deliberate suppression rather than editorial judgment. By Musk’s telling, Apple is not just another platform operator but an active competitor in AI that is tilting the playing field in favor of its own services and preferred partners.
Apple has pushed back on that characterization. The company describes its App Store curation as the product of objective expert review, not targeted exclusion, and maintains that editorial teams independently evaluate apps for quality, safety, and user experience. From Apple’s perspective, the absence of X or Grok from promotional slots reflects standard criteria rather than retaliation against Musk. Whether that claim holds up under legal scrutiny is an open question, but the dispute has already hardened the public rift between Apple and xAI. A lawsuit, if filed, could pressure Apple to disclose more about how it selects featured apps, potentially shedding light on internal processes and drawing additional attention from regulators and rivals.
Content Safety Concerns and Congressional Pressure
Apple’s approach to Grok also comes amid scrutiny over content safety. Earlier this year, Democratic U.S. senators urged Apple and Google to take action regarding Grok’s availability in their app stores, citing reports that Grok had generated and spread nonconsensual images on X, including content depicting real people in sexual or violent poses. The lawmakers argued that such material could violate the companies’ app-store rules and raised questions about whether those rules were being enforced consistently.
That congressional pressure creates a regulatory backdrop that Apple cannot easily ignore. Even if the company chose not to pull apps from the App Store outright, granting an assistant deeper system-level access through CarPlay could raise additional risk and scrutiny. CarPlay integration is not the same as a downloadable app sitting in a marketplace; it means embedding an AI assistant into the operating layer of the vehicle interface, where content moderation failures could surface in a hands-free environment with limited user control. For Apple, the risk calculus is different when the AI is speaking directly to a driver rather than appearing as text on a phone screen, especially when lawmakers have already signaled that they are watching how the company handles harmful or exploitative content.
Why Selective Access Raises Fair Competition Questions
The core tension in Apple’s approach is the gap between its stated principles and its selective enforcement. If CarPlay is opening to outside AI chatbots as a category, the decision to exclude a specific competitor invites scrutiny about whether the criteria are genuinely neutral. Apple has long faced antitrust questions about how it manages access to its ecosystem, from commission disputes in the App Store to regulatory battles over how tightly it can control iOS integration. Blocking Grok from CarPlay while welcoming rivals adds another data point to that pattern and offers critics a fresh example of Apple’s role as both platform owner and market gatekeeper.
Musk’s allegation of curation bias gains weight in this context, even if his legal theory remains untested. The “Must Have” complaint and the CarPlay exclusion share a common thread: both involve Apple choosing which AI products reach its users and under what conditions. Apple’s defense, that its decisions reflect objective quality and safety standards, is plausible on its face, particularly given the controversy around Grok’s content. But when the excluded party is run by one of the most prominent figures in technology, and when the exclusion coincides with political pressure from lawmakers, the line between editorial discretion and strategic retaliation becomes harder to draw. For regulators in the United States and abroad who are already studying large platforms’ self-preferencing behavior, the Grok case could become another example in a broader narrative about concentrated control over digital distribution.
What This Means for the AI-in-Cars Race
The fight over CarPlay access reflects a broader contest to control where AI assistants live. Cars are one of the last major screen environments where users interact with technology for extended, uninterrupted periods, often while their hands and eyes are occupied. Whichever AI tools gain native integration in vehicle systems can have a structural advantage in building user loyalty and collecting real-world interaction data. If Apple opens CarPlay to select chatbots but does not support Grok, that would give approved partners an early advantage while forcing xAI to rely on less seamless workarounds like phone-based voice control and Bluetooth connections.
For drivers, the consequences will be felt less in headline disputes and more in everyday routines. If Grok is not supported in CarPlay, those who prefer Grok or who use X as a primary platform would not be able to access xAI’s assistant through CarPlay, while users of ChatGPT and potentially other chatbots could have that option built into their dashboard. Over time, that asymmetry could influence which AI tools gain traction in the automotive space, where habits form quickly and switching costs are high once drivers have customized their in-car experience. As Apple calibrates its balance between safety, regulatory risk, and competitive advantage, the CarPlay rollout underscores how choices made in Cupertino can shape the emerging landscape of AI behind the wheel.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
