GM Admits No Technical Reason CarPlay Couldn't Be in Future EVs

[subjonas]

Although, I already eliminated GM and Tesla for other reasons.

I’m also not inclined to get a Tesla, but I’m curious what your reasons are, just if you care to share. For me, I believe they are the best EVs one can buy and good value (particularly the 3 and Y), but I think the brand still causes a lot of people to make assumptions about the owner, assumptions that I don’t want associate with me. I very much like to go low key. Perceptions are definitely changing as Teslas become more commonplace, but there are still many pockets where old assumptions linger. I want to give it more time. And there are also some decent competitors.

Not having CarPlay is a bummer, but the Tesla software seems to be top notch. Also I think there is a rumor it’s getting AirPlay which might be almost as good for me.

 

[MrTemple]

I love a car that lasts 2.5 hours on a charge and talks 30+ minutes to "fill up"

I just got back from a 10,500km Trans Canada road trip in my EV.

Best road trip experience in my life.

I'm going to say something 💯 true, but which you will ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to believe (until you roadtrip your first EV)...

I spent less of MY TIME charging than I would have spent fuelling.

The car could go 3-4h easy, but we didn't want to, we stopped every 1.5-2h. That's just how we wanted to road trip.

And at every single stop I made, I saved 3-5min of MY TIME because I had an electric.

I stepped out of the car, grabbed a handle, pushed a button on it, plugged it in, walked away to do my business. That's it, one second. Less time than it took you to read that sentence.

Fuelling the car, I've had to navigate the crap-ass interface of the payment machine, no I don't have a loyalty card, no I don't want a receipt, open my wallet (?!), enter my pin, wait for the transaction to go through, open the gas cap, grab the stinky handle, STAND THERE WHILE IT FUELS (??!!), hope somebody doesn't arrive and start using the other side of the old pump and cut my rate in half, then after 3-5min I'm full, but I still have to get in my car (lets pretend I don't need to clean my hands) and drive it to a new spot I can park at, and ONLY THEN can I go about my business.

Let me tell you, EVERY SINGLE stop the car was done and pinged us that it was ready to go before we'd finished peeing or getting water, eating or whatever. Most stops we needed to charge about 8-12min, but we wound up way overcharging all the time, spending 15-20min charging.

I literally spent none of MY TIME waiting for the car to charge.

The difference between the highly PARALLELIZABLE CHARGING vs the highly SERIAL FUELLING is supremely underrated. The two are absolutely NOT the same type of time, and truly cannot be compared without looking at the rest of the picture.

Now, this is MY TIME. This may not be your time. Maybe you're a cannonballer, only stopping for that 3-5min to fuel every 4h, peeing in a bottle and grippin' that steering wheel with the love only a man can have for a trimethylpentane burnin extension of his loins. Hey sure, then charging would 💯 be WAY slower for you.

For us? Best road trip experience ever.

And I thought electrics were supposed to be great at everything EXCEPT roadtripping?! We have done SO MUCH MORE road-tripping with our EV these past 3 years than the previous 23 years in our gas cars. The comfort is just off the charts. Hard to describe until you try it. 🤷‍♂️

 

[subjonas]

Tesla had first mover advantage in the EV market. I see Tesla surviving as a niche car brand that primarily handles charging infrastructure.

Niche?? Tesla cars are taking over. Other manufacturers are scared silly of Tesla.

 

[whitby]

This article is a bit light on details but I assume you will still be able to make calls and play music from your smartphone and GM have not assumed responsibility for those functions as well. if GM have indeed tried to replace making calls and playing music, this would make the in car systems useless. I can understand that they feel that mapping based on their own integrated GPS makes sense, but removing the other functions that a smartphone may provide seems rather self destructive. GM are not my current car maker of choice, but they seem to be ensuring they never will be in the future.

 

[MrTemple]

I’m also not inclined to get a Tesla, but I’m curious what your reasons are, just if you care to share. For me, I believe they are the best EVs one can buy and good value (particularly the 3 and Y), but I think the brand still causes a lot of people to make assumptions about the owner, assumptions that I don’t want associate with me. I very much like to go low key. Perceptions are definitely changing as Teslas become more commonplace, but there are still many pockets where old assumptions linger. I want to give it more time. And there are also some decent competitors.

Not having CarPlay is a bummer, but the Tesla software seems to be top notch. Also I think there is a rumor it’s getting AirPlay which might be almost as good for me.

I just took the badges off mine. They're so unassuming. I love my grocery-getter Model Y. Safest car on the road by a mile, power when you need it, studpidly and I mean stupidly comfortable to be in, just a thousand little qulaity of life things that make you wonder why 20th century car makers are so incompetent, gets better with OTA updates, road tripping is amazing (see the post above yours), etc, etc.

IMO the only downside to it is the CEO of the company. Which is a MAJOR downside.

They are very palpably a 21st century vehicle. I've driven plenty of other EVs. They are FANTASTIC around town (still a bit of a gamble for about 3-4 key reasons on road trips, though that will change in a few years as they get better about charging integration with the Tesla network). But these other electrics still feel like last century vehicles.

I can't wait for the Apple Car. They'll take a few years to catch up, but they'll be better out of the gate at certain things that Tesla is still a bit dumb about. Either way the tech companies are WAY more prepared to make a modern heavily software driven car (literal driving and UX experience) than the legacy auto makers are. I mean they could pivot. They could buy or start up a high tech culture within them. But I don't see them being able to do it.

 

[MrENGLISH]

I’m also not inclined to get a Tesla, but I’m curious what your reasons are, just if you care to share. For me, I believe they are the best EVs one can buy and good value (particularly the 3 and Y), but I think the brand still causes a lot of people to make assumptions about the owner, assumptions that I don’t want associate with me. I very much like to go low key. Perceptions are definitely changing as Teslas become more commonplace, but there are still many pockets where old assumptions linger. I want to give it more time. And there are also some decent competitors.

Not having CarPlay is a bummer, but the Tesla software seems to be top notch. Also I think there is a rumor it’s getting AirPlay which might be almost as good for me.

CarPlay has always been the #1 reason. Other concerns have been build quality issues. I actually love the external look of the Cybertruck. But I'd be lying if I said that my opinion of Musk over the past year hasn't had an impact on my opinion of Tesla.

 

[MrENGLISH]

Air conditioned seats are nice too 😁

It's funny that you mention that because I currently drive a 2015 Dodge Charger with vented seats. Dodge didn't introduce CarPlay in the Charger until 2017 model year. While I can install a 2017 Charger uConnect head unit in my 2015 model, I would lose the ability to manual control my vented, heated seats as well as the heated steering wheel due to the differences in the model years. As tempting as it has been to do the swap, I just can't give up those features for it. But that is also why CarPlay has become such a big selling point for me. I'm tired of mounting my iPhone when using it for directions.

 

[webkit]

Niche?? Tesla cars are taking over. Other manufacturers are scared silly of Tesla.

Taking over?? Despite all of the press/publicity, EV incentives, etc. BEVs still only account for around 9% to 10% of the overall automotive market and Tesla's share of the EV market is declining. Tesla is "scared" of other EV manufactures which is a reason why they drastically cut prices, increased inventory discounts, etc. this year.

 

[JPack]

RCS is only Google's attempt to horn in. Not nearly as capable as iMessage

RCS is a standard established by the GSM Association.

It's basically like USB. Apple wants to keep using Lightning, which is fine.

 

[macguru212]

It's funny that you mention that because I currently drive a 2015 Dodge Charger with vented seats. Dodge didn't introduce CarPlay in the Charger until 2017 model year. While I can install a 2017 Charger uConnect head unit in my 2015 model, I would lose the ability to manual control my vented, heated seats as well as the heated steering wheel due to the differences in the model years. As tempting as it has been to do the swap, I just can't give up those features for it. But that is also why CarPlay has become such a big selling point for me. I'm tired of mounting my iPhone when using it for directions.

Ford also waited until 2017 IIRC. A slow adoption it seems. I can't live without CarPlay now. Odd about the seats tho!

 

[ilikewhey]

I’m also not inclined to get a Tesla, but I’m curious what your reasons are, just if you care to share. For me, I believe they are the best EVs one can buy and good value (particularly the 3 and Y), but I think the brand still causes a lot of people to make assumptions about the owner, assumptions that I don’t want associate with me. I very much like to go low key. Perceptions are definitely changing as Teslas become more commonplace, but there are still many pockets where old assumptions linger. I want to give it more time. And there are also some decent competitors.

Not having CarPlay is a bummer, but the Tesla software seems to be top notch. Also I think there is a rumor it’s getting AirPlay which might be almost as good for me.

i'm curious what assumption you are referring to, i'm a defensive driver and always cautious when other cars are within vicinity of me, however when i see a tesla i go into a relaxed state cause theres a heap of onboard tech that prevents its driver from silly road adequate.

 

[tripsync]

I see Tesla surviving as a niche car brand

I find this super hilarious.

With 0 TV ad campaigns and the CEO pretty much pissing everyone off, Model Y still achieves #1 sales worldwide. https://www.motor1.com/news/669135/tesla-model-y-worlds-best-selling-car-q1-2023/

 

[subjonas]

Taking over?? Despite all of the press/publicity, EV incentives, etc. BEVs still only account for around 9% to 10% of the overall automotive market and Tesla's share of the EV market is declining. Tesla is "scared" of other EV manufactures which is a reason why they drastically cut prices, increased inventory discounts, etc. this year.

BEV adoption rate is growing every year and as far as anyone can see they are eventually going to take over. ICE vehicles will become niche, the writing is on the wall on that. Of course Tesla market share is decreasing as all other car manufacturers are scrambling to transition to BEV. But Tesla has such a big head start in so many areas that other manufacturers will be playing catch up for years to come. Many are not profitable and won’t be for some time. Some companies will not be able to catch up (unless maybe with government help) and will fall to the wayside. This is why they’re scared, and at the very least shaken up. Opening up Tesla superchargers is a game changer, however, as it gives other manufacturers a fighting chance. Lowering prices doesn’t equate to scared. There are many factors involved.

 

[subjonas]

i'm curious what assumption you are referring to, i'm a defensive driver and always cautious when other cars are within vicinity of me, however when i see a tesla i go into a relaxed state cause theres a heap of onboard tech that prevents its driver from silly road adequate.

I mainly just mean the “only for the elite rich” assumption, which isn’t true as they cost about the same as or less than competitor models from all the major brands. Teslas were initially for the well-to-do, and first impressions are hard to shake. It also doesn’t help that many early adopters were pretty smug haha.

 

[lartola]

In the future meaning after Tesla puts them out of business? 😂

Well if Tesla puts them out of business (which I doubt since Tesla only makes expensive high end cars) it won’t be because GM isn’t supporting carplay and Android car. Tesla isn’t supporting those either.

 

[tripsync]

Tesla's share of the EV market is declining.

Doing the math:

For Tesla to maintain 75% marketshare, Tesla would have to sell 3 cars for every single non-Tesla EV sold

If Ford built a factory that does 1 million cars, Tesla would need to build 3 factories that do 1 million cars each. Then if GM builds a factory, and Tesla would need to build another 3.

Using Tesla marketshare dropping as an argument is funny when Tesla's marketshare was above 70% at one point this year.

 

[lartola]

BMW tried this. It didn’t work. Customers had a fit. They had to give up.
I don’t think that GM is going to do any better. I have been a GM customer all of my life, over 40 years. But I won’t be buying anything from them until they put the CarPlay back on.

PS If they had CarPlay and found out that they were right about the non ev data they could easily make an app that would show any data that they felt you needed to see. Just like some manufacturers have a carplay app that has the name of the brand on it. They already have a Cadillac app.

Tesla doesn’t support carplay either (or android car), yet they’re still selling.

 

[tripsync]

since Tesla only makes expensive high end cars

No.

it won’t be because GM isn’t supporting carplay and Android car. Tesla isn’t supporting those either.

never said it's because of carplay.

 

[Dionte]

I’m not buying a car without CarPlay, rented a Tesla without CarPlay and it was a horrible week.

 

[rgwebb]

I find this super hilarious.

With 0 TV ad campaigns and the CEO pretty much pissing everyone off, Model Y still achieves #1 sales worldwide. https://www.motor1.com/news/669135/tesla-model-y-worlds-best-selling-car-q1-2023/

I don’t see them being able to sustain. The legacy car manufacturers are getting better at batteries quicker than Tesla is making better interiors. Hell, in many respects they are making even more perplexing interior decisions for the sake of being Epic or Different.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Backing away from elimination decision … GM announcement Car Play is back in 3, 2, 1.

 

[britflix]

Sorry GM, but you lost a sale when you pulled away from Twitter & mentioned no CarPlay. I’ve already purchased a Ford because your decision making hasn’t been the best lately.

 

[tripsync]

I don’t see them being able to sustain. The legacy car manufacturers are getting better at batteries quicker than Tesla is making better interiors.

GM is targeting 1 million EV production by 2025 best case scenario. They're already hitting issues with battery production: https://www.investopedia.com/gm-sha...es-are-holding-up-ev-production-again-7636650 so that 2025 date is very unlikely.

Tesla produced 1.3 million EVs last year and they're growing 50% annually. They're targeting ~2 million this year.

Hell, in many respects they are making even more perplexing interior decisions for the sake of being Epic or Different.

Despite the bad reputation of interiors for years, Tesla still managed to rank worldwide best selling car. Interior is not an issue.

And Tesla has plenty of margins to work with. They can absolutely lower the price of their cars even more if they need to.

GM is also adopting NACS which will earn Tesla $$$ via Supercharging. Basically every EV sold in USA will contribute to Tesla's bottom line. Tesla will simply reinvest that into R&D.

 

[eifelbube]

Earlier this year, General Motors revealed it is planning to phase out support for CarPlay and Android Auto in all of its electric vehicles, citing the need for tighter integration with the vehicle as GM rolls out a new infotainment system co-developed with Google.

With this week's high-profile unveiling of the $130,000+ Cadillac Escalade IQ that will launch in late 2024, GM followed through on its promise as the automaker confirmed to The Verge yesterday that the luxury electric SUV won't support CarPlay or Android Auto anywhere on its massive 55-inch dashboard display.

The move to discontinue to CarPlay and Android Auto is more of a political one than a technical one, however, as MacRumors alum and car journalist Jordan Golson noted in his video overview of the new Escalade IQ.

Golson spoke to GM representatives about the omission and they shared that the decision was made due to EV-specific functionality such as utilizing vehicle charge state information to assist with navigation routing. When using CarPlay or Android Auto, the user's phone has no knowledge of the vehicle's charge state, and GM believes that forcing users to use the built-in Google-based system which can account for this information will deliver a better user experience.

Golson says that given this is not a technical decision, GM could update the infotainment system on the Escalade IQ and other upcoming EVs to add CarPlay and Android Auto if it finds customers are demanding it, but there are no guarantees about what GM will do.

While GM's argument about tighter integration with vehicle data does have some merit, there is nothing preventing the company from offering users the option of using either the built-in system or CarPlay/Android Auto, as is the case in millions of vehicles on the road today.

Apple's next-generation CarPlay​

It also appears the argument could largely become moot with the next-generation version of CarPlay teased by Apple at WWDC 2022, which integrates very closely with vehicle systems and expands the CarPlay experience across the entire dashboard. We should learn more about next-generation CarPlay and see the first vehicles introduced with it later this year, but GM is not included in the list of over a dozen brands announced by Apple as partners on the feature.

Article Link: GM Admits No Technical Reason CarPlay Couldn't Be in Future EVs

Looking at this dashboard makes me think: If in the future you see cars in on-coming traffic with the drivers looking down AND to the far left (from your perspective), you better hope it is at least a self-driving one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the dashboard display eventually extend to sections of both side windows, if this trend continues. And by 2033, we may see people driving while wearing the Apple Vision Pro 10 😀.

How much of the increasing information details displayed on a widescreen dashboard screen can you process and keep your eyes on the road at the same time?

 

[npmacuser5]

Drive an EV a completely different environment than ICE. The song the anti EV folks are selling, range anxiety. No range anxiety proven many times if one lets the car make the charging decisions, zero need to worry. Those decisions are based on many data points within the vehicle. The updated charging stations status now being included in the EV systems. Those calculations are internal. The EV literally knows better. The only thing Apple would bring to the table, displaying information that is already there and integrations to Apple systems. Apple Maps would be somewhat useless.