The New York International Auto Show is currently going on this week and my inbox is being flooded with press releases from many car manufacturers. One that caught my attention was this one from Mazda Canada. Besides announcing a refreshed version of their CX-3 crossover, there was the announcement that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto were going to start showing up in their vehicles starting with the 2019 CX‑9. But there was also this:
In Canada, these mobile device connectivity technologies will first be offered in the 2019 CX‑9 launching this summer, and then rolled out across the entire model line-up thereafter. In addition, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be available as a Genuine Mazda Accessory retrofit for MAZDA CONNECT systems starting this fall.
So, the way I read this is that if you own an existing Mazda vehicle and you want Android Auto or Apple CarPlay in it, you have to get it from your dealer. Though I suppose it could also mean that it could be obtained in some other way from Mazda Canada directly. Such as a download for example. In hopes of clearing this up, I am reaching out to my contact in Mazda Canada to see if there are additional details. Seeing as this is a holiday weekend in Canada, I don’t expect feedback until next week at the earliest. Thus you might want to bookmark this page for an update.