The system has been designed to provide hands-free interaction with the iPhone and is being debuted at Geneva on vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. Meanwhile Apple said future takers include BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota Motor Corp.

‘CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car,’ said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing. ‘iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimised distraction. We have an amazing line-up of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we’re thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva.’

After connecting an iPhone to a vehicle with CarPlay integration, drivers can use Siri to access their contacts, make calls, return missed calls or listen to voicemails.

The system also uses Maps to anticipate destinations based on recent trips via contacts, emails or texts, and provides routing instructions, traffic conditions and ETA. You can also simply ask Siri and receive spoken turn-by-turn directions, along with Maps, which will appear on your car’s built-in display.

CarPlay can also be used to listen music, podcasts and audiobooks with easy navigation and supports select third-party audio apps including Spotify and iHeartRadio.

Apple CarPlay is available as an update to iOS 7 and works with Lightning-enabled iPhones, including iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5. It will start being rolled out in models from later this year.