Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are a technical achievement in their own right, but the company has been asleep at the wheel in one very important way: Supporting smartphone screen mirroring technology. Finally, the carmaker has come around and decided to include support for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its 2019 line of vehicles.
The ability to mirror your smartphone on your vehicle’s in-car dash will be available to you if you pay for the optional Smartphone Pack in the 2019 lineup of Jaguar Land Rover cars. The add-on will run you about $300, according to CNET. It will be available in all vehicles with an InControl Touch Pro or Touch Pro Duo infotainment system, which includes navigation tools, InControl apps, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Support for CarPlay and Android Auto features also comes standard in the 2019 I-Pace, the first all-electric car produced by Jaguar.
If you’re not ready to upgrade your car yet to buy into the 2019 models, there is some backward compatibility with Jaguar Land Rover vehicles produced in previous years — though it’s on the tricky side. Older cars with the previously mentioned InControl Touch Pro or Touch Pro Duo infotainment systems are technically eligible, but the vehicle must also have the right type of USB ports to work. To make sure you meet all of the requirements to run Android Auto and CarPlay in your car, Jaguar Land Rover recommends swinging by your local dealership and having them figure it out.
Actually getting support for these services in the older cars also requires going to the dealership. The cost of the upgrade is at their discretion, so be prepared to potentially pay a fee in order to get access to CarPlay and Android Auto in your previous model Jaguar or Land Rover.
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay have made their way into a number of newer vehicles and are increasingly becoming a standard feature. The features are important tools for making sure drivers don’t get distracted by fiddling with their phones and can keep both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road without feeling too far from their device of choice.
