Apple has spent years turning CarPlay into a polished extension of the iPhone for when you're on the road, but Siri isn't much of a conversationalist. If you want to chat with an AI while driving, you can now talk to ChatGPT while using CarPlay.

All you need is iOS 26.4 and the ChatGPT app. Connect your iPhone to CarPlay as usual. From there, the ChatGPT icon appears alongside your other apps. Tap it, and the interface shifts into the same slightly mysterious orb that you see when talking to ChatGPT in its vocal conversation mode. Apple’s rules keep things voice-only, so everything happens through spoken prompts and spoken replies, with just a couple of buttons for muting or ending the session.

Some limits feel very intentional. You cannot wake it with a phrase, the way you can with Siri. You have to tap the app to start. It cannot control your car or your phone, so you cannot adjust the temperature or skip songs by asking ChatGPT. It's more of a well-informed passenger than an omniscient car intelligence.

Thinking of it that way made using it feel a little easier, though, after years of Siri, a talkative car AI assistant feels a little disconcerting.

I first tried it while driving to pick up coffee. I figured something practical and location-based would make sense for the AI to help with, so I asked it, “What’s something interesting I could do nearby if I have 20 extra minutes?”

ChatGPT first wanted to clarify where I was, as it has no internal map, but once I told it where I was located, it suggested I "take a short walk by the river or look for a local bookstore or café with outdoor seating.”

The response did feel a little bit like a tour guide, and not too different from how Google Maps' new Ask Maps AI tool functions. That said, it was more casual in its recommendations and willing to be diffident about them, even saying, "You might not like that park after the rain since the benches will be wet."

I then tried to think of other ways I might use ChatGPT while driving, where I wouldn't just turn to a Map app, and figured I'd ask ChatGPT directly. The AI suggested it would be great for when I'm bored, or am struck by a question I can't look up the answer to because I'm driving.

At that moment, I was stuck behind some slower-moving vehicles, so I just went with the first question in my head and asked ChatGPT to "Explain why traffic jams happen in simple terms." Like a travel companion with access to the internet, ChatGPT pulled up a useful analogy about how one person slowing down in a line of people walking causes a domino effect of people moving slower and slower.

“Even though there’s no accident or obstacle, the slowdown spreads backward. That’s why traffic jams can seem to appear out of nowhere.”

Car games

Happily, not all my trips in the car are alone. So, with a friend beside me on a slightly longer trip, I decided to see if ChatGPT could offer a fun game for the ride.

“All right. Here’s one called ‘Convince Me.’ I’ll give you two silly options, and one of you has to argue passionately for why one is clearly superior. No hedging, just commit to it. First round: Which is the better road trip snack, pretzels or gummy bears?”

After a pretzel-winning debate, ChatGPT came up with a more complex dilemma to contemplate: "Would you rather have a car that can only play one song forever, or one that changes the radio station every time you say the word ‘the’?”

A decent but far from perfect companion

It wasn't a perfect experience; the lack of navigation data meant it took a while to get restaurant recommendations, for instance. And the lack of a wake word became a little annoying when I had to tap the screen each time for a conversation.

Of course, that friction is probably intentional, as Apple has been cautious about how much attention drivers should give to anything other than the road. Traditional voice assistants are built around commands. ChatGPT, even in this constrained form, leans toward conversation instead. It invites prompts that are open-ended and not about immediate needs.

It's not as good as a real travel companion, but if you really want to simulate a conversation or just need a break from music, ChatGPT will at least provide a new car game or two.

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Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.