CarPlay dashboard widget guides

Written from building Otto and testing it in a car, not from the documentation.

• CarPlay dashboard widgets: what actually works in iOS 26 and 27
  Which widgets appear on the CarPlay dashboard, why most look wrong there, what the car screen can and cannot do, and how to pick widgets that are useful while driving.
• How to add widgets to the CarPlay dashboard
  Step by step: where the CarPlay widget setting lives on iPhone, why it is not in the car, how to order widgets, and what to do when they don't appear.
• Why widgets look bare on CarPlay (and what fixes it)
  CarPlay does not draw a widget's container background, so many widgets render as floating text on the car wallpaper. What is happening, why StandBy does the same, and what a fixed widget looks like.
• A clock on the CarPlay dashboard
  How to get a readable clock widget on your car's CarPlay dashboard: faces, contrast at noon and at night, and why the built-in clock is not enough.
• Play a sound when CarPlay connects, and save your parking spot when it disconnects
  iOS won't let an app react to CarPlay connecting on its own. The Shortcuts automation that makes a welcome sound and automatic parking work, and the two settings that break it.
• A license plate widget for the Home Screen and CarPlay
  Why people put their own plate on a widget, plate styles by country, and how it looks on the CarPlay dashboard.