I can once again recommend our Lexus specialist, Melissa

Do you mean speaking to Siri through the car?

Yes, saying "hey siri, send text to wife" out loud in the car and having carplay ask "what do you want to say to wife?".

thanks, I give “Lexus” verbal orders. Never thought about using Siri even though my phone is always connected in the car.

Cheers!

You can view photo albums while driving through the widget? Seems like a safety issue. If they are going to allow that, what I really want is to be able to see images embedded in text messages - far more useful than browsing static photo albums. Does IOS 26 CarPlay have the ability to see images in text messages?

Those of you who have upgraded - Does IOS 26 allow pinch to zoom in/out of Google and Apple maps ? That's been a painful missing function. The native Lexus allows it, so the hardware is clearly supports it.

I'm waiting to upgrade, until Apple figures out their field-deployed software defects in their IOS 26 (such as battery life issues etc) - and the above would be a great to have.

No pinch to zoom yet, probably needs an update from Lexus.

As far as bugs (software defects) and battery life issues. There are really no issues and the battery life for me and my family is just as good or better then IOS18. After the first 24 hours of indexing.

I had some weirdness in my 2024 RX 500h with my iPhone 16 and OS 26. I asked Siri to call someone and it did, but when the person answered the voice was coming through the phone speaker only. This has never happened in the year-and-a-half that I've owned the car. There was one other similar issue a couple of days ago.