iOS 26 CarPlay Crashing and other issues

iOS 26 with IPhone 17 pro is a hot mess, and it’s even worse for CarPlay.

i have a 2019 Mercedes, with standard entertainment system which is dial controlled (not touch screen), and which only supports wired only CarPlay connection through one port, so I have a new USB-A to USB-C cable to connect the iPhone.

Problem 1. CarPlay will crash repeatedly, until I suspect the CarPlay service resets itself, and then it will work fine, until I plug in again the next day and we repeat the constant crashing. This cycle of crashing can go on for 30 minutes or more until the iPhone sorts itself out. Restarting the iPhone makes little difference, and is not a reasonable solution every time I want to drive anywhere.

Problem 2. The masterminds at Apple forgot older cars still use input devices, a dial for Mercedes, to navigate the controls. So when I use Siri to navigate, the control/button that has first focus cancels the navigation, so I have to do it again, and now move around the controls to select the journey I want (Go button). They made the UX awful for non-touch screen users , and there’s no justification for it.

Problem 3. CarPlay Siri with Apple Music was a hot mess before, if I wanted to listen to the Queen II ( Queen 2) album, it would always play Queens Greatest Hits 2 instead (Siri was dumb, but I accepted it). Now with iPhone 17 pro, I’ve got Apple Intelligence and connected my ChatGPT account, which gives a slightly different feedback when activated, and supposedly better Siri. I ask it to play Queen II, and it asks me to search again using my IPhone, as if it thinks I’m doing a Siri search. I now have to explicitly state “play Queen 2 on Apple Music” otherwise it’s too dumb to realise what I want (and I still get Greatest Hits 2)

There are many issues with iOS 26, Apple really are having their Windows Vista moment with this release.