New Siri and Apple Maps features coming to CarPlay

At Apple's WWDC keynote today, the company announced a number of updates for its CarPlay in-car infotainment platform. Later this year, when iOS 10 is released, CarPlay will be able to take advantage of new updates to Siri and Apple Maps.

Apple is opening Siri up to developers, adding messaging support for Slack and WhatsApp and VoIP calling with Spark, Vonage, and Skype. Apple Maps is getting a big update too, allowing users to easily search for roadside services along their route, as well as a cleaner user interface and live traffic.

CarPlay, like Google's Android Auto, has been adopted pretty widely by automakers since its initial deployment in late 2014 (though there are still major holdouts like Toyota, which is leaning on Ford's SmartDeviceLink platform for smartphone connectivity). Android Auto just got some major upgrades at Google I/O recently, so it's not surprising to see Apple follow suit.