Add CarPlay to your Tesla with this clever hack

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CarPlay on a Tesla
A Raspberry Pi makes it all possible.
Photo: Michał Gapiński

Tesla drivers can add CarPlay to their vehicles, thanks to a workaround by a Polish developer. This is something Tesla itself has shown no interest in.

The hack was first shown off in January, 2022, and the developer has now made the code publicly available.

A Tesla with CarPlay

Tesla refuses to add CarPlay to its vehicles, instead requiring drivers to use the company’s own infotainment system even though it lacks Apple Music, Apple Maps and more.

But developer Michał Gapiński found a way to add CarPlay to his vehicle using a pair of Raspberry Pis and Tesla’s built-in web browser. He created a custom version of Android for the Raspberry Pi that streams the CarPlay interface to Tesla’s built-in web browser over Wi-Fi.

“We all know that Tesla vehicles are not designed to support Android, CarPlay or Android Auto,” said Gapiński. “This project changes that by turning the browser into an interactive Android tablet that works when the vehicle is being driven.”

Previous demos by the developer show Apple Maps working as intended for turn-by-turn navigation, while Apple Music continues to play in the background.

But there’s still plenty of work to be done. Gapiński calls the new release an alpha version. “The focus is starting to shift towards better integration and simplification,” the developer promises. One goal is to reduce the requirement to a single Raspberry Pi.

Read more about Tesla Android on Gapiński’s web site, or download the code from Github. There’s an installation guide to get started.

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