I was disappointed to learn the CX-5 Turbo I'm getting (hopefully next week) will require a wire for Car Play. For anyone wanting wireless Car Play: I ordered an Ottocast 2022 u2-Air dongle from Amazon this week. It's working with my 2015 Mazda 3 GT. I added Car Play to my 3 a little over a year ago and have had to deal with the cord ever since. It's a pain because I don't drive it long distances very often. My husband ordered this Ottocast item for his Honda Ridgeline because he's also tied to a wire and it kept locking up on him. The Ottocast also worked well for him. It connects through Bluetooth so you have to grant that connections permission. It just plugs into the same spot where you would plug in the Car Play wire. I plan to keep this and hope it works in my CX-5. : ) It's a great option if you have a wireless charger and don't want to plug it in for short trips. Be aware the pricing on the Ottocast item fluctuated wildly over a two-week period, so you might want to watch the price. He got his 2021 version for $79, I paid $109 for a 2022 version but a few days prior it was $125.Today I can see it's down to $89. (I'm spoiled and impatient and I wanted to make sure it will work on my 2022 vehicle.) After I get my CX-5 I'll log back in and let you know if it works there too.

Update As of 4/11/22 - the Ottocast is still working pretty well in my Mazda 3. Waze locked up one afternoon. I tend to "clean up" my iPhone by closing out all the open apps from time to time. The afternoon after I did that the Waze locked up. It opened Waze in Car Play just fine but it could not tell that I had driven away from the office. It acted like I was still there and kept telling me how to start my trip. I tried to close Waze while I was at a stoplight and reopen it but that didn't fix the problem. The only thing that fixed it was turning off my car when I got home and starting my car again. I did a little research on other people's experience with Car Play w/ dongle additions and I've learned if you have the Apps you want to use open before starting the car it responds better. Also, not making changes while the vehicle starts up and the system engages seems to be important to some other users' experience with similar products, so I'm not touching it until the car is fully started, screens activated and the Car Play is open. I wait to enter a new address on Waze or to change Pandora stations. I've had a few skips in the middle of a Pandora song while driving, where there is no sound for a second, but it has not locked up. Car Play opens every time I start the car and it has navigated well since the first time it locked up.

To report on my husband's experience with his 2021 Ottocast version in his 2021 Ford Ridgeline - his Ottocast locked up in Waze several times in one 2.5 hour trip. He had to keep re-engaging the CarPlay by going to the vehicle home screen. It would lock up again right away or wait a bit. It was really random. On the way home he just submitted and used the navigation in the vehicle. I'm not sure if Ottocast just works better on Mazda. He might send that one back and get the most recent version.

The latest estimate for delivery on my CX-5 is that it will arrive on April 15th, which is when I fly out of town for 5 days. : ( I'm trying not to be too salty about that delivery time because I chose to go to Las Vegas. : ) If I could do it over I'd stay home with my new vehicle.

I'll check back and report on this again when I can use the Ottocast in my CX-5.

 

Following…don’t know why it wouldn’t work well on a CX-5 if it works well on a 3.

 

I've never had luck with the wireless adapters. On both Kia and Toyota, Carplay2Air and Carlinkit were both absolute garbage. Both were very laggy and had frequent disconnects. The Carlinkit even went as far as completely locking up the Tundra's headunit. Curious to see if the ottocast is any better. If so, I'd like to get one and add a wireless charging tray.

 

I’ve bought U2-AIR-2023 adapter

It woks fine and connection is quite fast but it’s horrible to switch between phones.

For some reason it keeps connection to the last phone used while I have only another phone.

Unless I reset all configurations or unplug and plug back device I can’t connect to another phone.

Does anyone experience the same.

While my adapted is still eligible to return I’m thinking about another brand.

Do you have any good experience with other adapters?

 

Well I contacted manufacturer and they said me that all wireless CarPlay adapters work the same way when switching phones.
Since device itself works quite well I decided not to return it