GM Says It’s Ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for Your Safety::undefined
GM says Apple and Android have access to a ton of data on consumer habits in their vehicles that those systems don’t share with the auto manufacturer, so they’re ditching those systems in favour of their own that gives them direct access to all that user data under the guise of a safety change.
This feels like something a C-suite came up with to carve out extra profit and had some bean counters crunch the numbers on, fluffed them up a bit and then had the company roll with it on his idea.
I’m usually disappointed by consumer apathy, but from everyone I talk to who has a car with a screen, if they have CarPlay/Android Auto they couldn’t do without it, and if they don’t have it it’s the biggest thing they wish they had.
I’ve ridden with a friend who has it and uses it a lot, and I can understand the attraction for users who like to be connected while driving. The speech to text stuff actually worked pretty well. I don’t feel desire for it myself, but for me its absence is at most a minor inconvenience.
It does seem like it could mostly be replaced by a software app though, plus some kind of dash mount for a phone.
Fwiw there are aftermarket options do add it through USB.
The hardware would have to support video input via USB though. I think if we’re talking about car electronics, more than likely those addons use wired Android Auto and are really meant for cars that don’t support it wirelessly.
Unless, of course, you’re talking about some aftermarket head units as well in which case all bets are off.
Lmao. Shortly followed by their own systems that are subscription based.
What they mean is that you have zero reason to pay GM $20 a month for their substandard, unsecure garbage navigation and cloud services, and that’s not allowed.
Even if they manage to get big players like Spotify to develop apps for them, a lot of people - at least on the Android side - have smaller, niche apps for audiobooks and podcasts that would never bother to port their apps to GM services. Heck, even Apple Music and YouTube Music wouldn’t bother. I smell an upcoming BOGO deal on their overstocked dealerships, just before they get another bailout check.
They’ll probably just form android auto or something and roll their own. So you can still probably use android apps.
Currently, this a dealbreaker for me. As in I won’t buy a vehicle that does this, or charges me a subscription fee for a built in feature like heated seats.
There really needs to be a standardised open protocol rather than Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to use a non-Apple/Google app for my in-car infotainment. Apple and Google just want our data.
Let Android Auto and CarPlay be options in a competing market, rather than zero choice and just having to use whatever your phone provides.
There are aftermarket options to support screen mirroring over usb, so I think it is possible. Is anyone else putting in the work to compete with Google and Apple? I’ve been watching as Google ads integration to various cars - as an example they didn’t show turn by turn directions on the screen behind the steering wheel a while ago, and added it on Honda at some point. These features take investment, and perhaps the OSS options aren’t keeping up?
There needs to be a lot more to it than just screen monitoring, it needs to recognise touch inputs, high-fidelity, low-latency audio (both ways), and importantly the car needs to be able to send information back to the device (is the handbrake on, are the headlights on, etc). That requires integration from the carmaker.
Open source solutions at the moment cannot be used with in-car infotainment, because of that requirement that the car needs to send information to the device. I think there should be an open protocol for this that all cars implement.
Imagine if we had a functioning Congress that could respond to these (and other) new tech advances with real standards that move technology forward safely and responsibly.
What a world we could have.
I just want to buy a 90’s car without a stupid iPad bolted to the dashboard, an electronically actuated parking brake, or hundreds of worthless, permanently enabled nannies keeping me from doing what I want to with my own car and making repairs hundreds more expensive than they should be.
Imagine being able to buy a brand new 90s Corolla for 10k. That’d be nice
I recently saw a 94 corolla with like 2400 miles on it while car shopping online. I guess it just got bought, parked, and forgotten about. It was in spectacular condition.
It was also $26,000.
It was a Honda Accord iirc. Saw the same post…
I have a 2019 car, manual transmission, knobs and switches for climate and heated seats, and a touch screen for carplay. It’s the best.
I love the ones that pop up as soon as you start driving that say “keep your eyes on the road!” 🤦♂️
Good reason to continue my GM boycott of their garbage vehicles.
GM is seriously so fucking trash. Everyone I have ever known with a GM product had seriously regretted it within 6 months.
I own a 2001 pickup and the transmission went once. Other than that no major repairs in the 15 years I’ve owned it.
Thousands of broken sun shells in that era
I’ve put 160,000 miles on my Impala. I’ve had to replace a vent solonoid once, took like 10 minutes in the driveway. Also had an evap solonoid go bad. Other than that it’s been oil, brakes, and tires. 8 years on and still my daily driver.
Just like every other brand, you have to know which models, years, bodystyles, powertrains, etc have excessive issues and avoid them, then hope you don’t get the 1/100 that’s a lemon.
Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, gave MT a better explanation at a press event for the new Chevrolet Blazer EV, the flagship vehicle in the no CarPlay or Android Auto strategy (and our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year winner). According to him, there’s an important factor that didn’t make it into the fact sheet: safety. Specifically, he cited driver distraction caused by cell phone usage behind the wheel.
How exactly will this disincentivize phone use? Wouldn’t this encourage hands-on phone use instead of using a UI that limits interaction?
I feel like this is a solvable engineering problem.
Sounds more like an excuse to double down on their own “infotainment” development.
I thought ford had a garbage interface until I drove a gm. They’re about to officially be an old fart car only. No one below 40 will buy a car without apple or android interfaces.
Has anyone jailbreaked one of these cars? Can you install your own OS on them? Seems like that should be doable.
safety
Lol
They’re going to sell a self-developed product at some monthly premium, for sure.
I have a GM vehicle I like. I already don’t pay them for OnStar. I’m certainly not going to pay them to replace my phone. And then likely have to pay for cellular access for my car.
Interesting… 🍿
Hyundai and Kia it is, then.
Their warranty isn’t a sign that their cars are good, it is a ploy to make you think their cars are good.
