CarPlay audio hijacked by iPhone apps during passenger use

I’m running Wireless CarPlay on iOS 26.2, and I’ve run into what appears to be a hard system limitation rather than a configuration issue.

Problem:

While CarPlay is connected, if someone uses the iPhone itself (for example, a passenger watching TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc.), any app that plays audio immediately takes over CarPlay audio. Music or navigation audio from CarPlay is interrupted, and there is no way to prevent or block this.

What I’ve confirmed so far:

• Driving Focus no longer allows adding/removing apps (no “Allowed Apps” section exists anymore)
• Other Focus modes do not control CarPlay audio routing
• There is no per-app CarPlay audio permission
• Screen Time and notifications do not reliably prevent audio takeover
• This happens with any media app, not just TikTok

Key issue:

There appears to be no way to lock CarPlay audio or restrict audio playback to specific apps while CarPlay is active. If the phone is handed to a passenger, audio control is effectively lost unless CarPlay is disconnected (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth off).

Questions for the community:

1. Has anyone found a reliable system-level way to prevent non-CarPlay apps from hijacking audio?
2. Is this an acknowledged design change or limitation in recent iOS versions?
3. Are there any official Apple recommendations for passenger use of the iPhone while CarPlay is active?

This seems like a significant usability and safety gap, especially for families or shared cars. I’m posting mainly to confirm whether this is expected behavior or something Apple plans to address.

Thanks in advance for any insight.