Mazda has long been a holdout on Google’s and Apple’s smartphone connection technologies (Android Auto and Car Play respectively), but all that’s about to change this year, according to automotive news site Car Advice.
The good news for existing owners is that Mazda will offer an upgrade kit to its own in-car entertainment system, MZD Connect that will bring owners the ability to connect Australia’s two most popular smartphones to their car and use car-specific features and user interfaces. The bad news? There’s no price on the upgrade kit just yet.
Mazda Australia’s marketing director, Alastair Doak, told Car Advice:
It will be available for all customers with an MZD Connect system that first went on sale with Mazda 3 in early 2014.
It’s been a long wait for Mazda afficionados. The features were announced back in March to be coming to North America, so it’s good to see their arrival in Australia. The company has been listed as an Apple CarPlay partner for some time with no products yet released. Mazda’s upgrade solution, while involving a hardware and software upgrade, won’t involve any visual impact and should be available to car models with MZD Connect dating back to 2014.
the Mazda system has been hacked to add Android Auto https://mazdatweaks.com/ so its good that its going to be an official thing