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GM Again Attempts to Explain Its Decision to Drop CarPlay in New EVs
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I just wish CarPlay would receive some updates. It’s had the same layout and colors since 2018, and it’s the most outdated product I’ve seen to date. Even with wallpapers, we don’t have the freedom to add new stuff, and we can’t even pinch to zoom on maps (or Waze, or any other app).
GM Ultifi = Walmart Pay. A really dumb decision.
And to LexisNexis. #scumbags
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That was Apple wants, but it's just not going to happen. There is not a single car on the market with that full-dash CarPlay setup despite it demoed two years ago, but supposedly it's coming for a few select models. Frankly, I'll believe it when I see it.
CarPlay will be, more or less, forever relegated to a rectangle on the center screen, and perhaps a map on the main dash or HUD.
Slight edit…”CHINESE Automaker”.
After they took the bailout money of 2008…they spent it on their factories and workers in China while they shuttered the Michigan factories and made American workers suffer from unemployment. Shows exactly where their allegiance is. Only American one left, slightly, is Ford.
With that said, it’s too bad that CarPlay isn’t included. It’s a fantastic feature that’s enjoyed by many.
After they took the bailout money of 2008…they spent it on their factories and workers in China while they shuttered the Michigan factories and made American workers suffer from unemployment. Shows exactly where their allegiance is. Only American one left, slightly, is Ford.
With that said, it’s too bad that CarPlay isn’t included. It’s a fantastic feature that’s enjoyed by many.
You hit the nail on the head. The ecosystem comes with the user (i.e., the iPhone) not with the car.
We want to plan out our trip/calls/messages on our phones and then have that seamlessly move into the vehicle's infotainment system while we are in the vehicle, and then come back to our phones when we get out of the car.
We can't take the infotainment system with us when we are not in the car. And GM will never be able to produce a broader ecosystem than Apple.
They have. It wasn't his decision, but his job depends on him pretending not to know that it was a terrible one. Someone higher up at GM learned in their MBA program that the future is data, baby, and they want yours more than they want your car-buying business.
Translation: We want to build our own system that we can charge a subscription service for to further bilk more money out of the people who have already spent 10's of thousands of dollars on our vehicles.
Lol seriously, the name alone is proof they have no taste and no hope of making anything good 😂
Yes I want to be able bring the ecosystem to the car in the form of CarPlay, but I also want it to have it's own system that will operate without my iPhone.
I don't always carry my phone with me, my wife uses a Pixel and sometimes drives my vehicle, maybe someday Apple doesn't something to the ecosystem that I refuse to tolerate and I abandon the ecosystem. There is a multitude of reasons.
Who knows? CarPlay is stale as hell, though.
This is absolutely what happened.
Having a Tesla, and looked deeply at a rivian, car play not being a thing is not a deal breaker, the catch is can you make a compelling OS that does not such and if you can, I know some here will still want it, however it becomes less of a deal breaker. The current crop of GM hahaha no you need car play they can not write a car OS to save there lives.
Just hot glue an iPad to that monstrous dashboard. Oh, maybe velcro would be better. 
So I have a Telsa and it's the no.1 thing I hate about an amazing car. No Car play.
However: It already has:
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Spotify,
Tidal
YouTube music
Audible.
Disney+
Netflix
Other Video sources.
Phone, Message, Calender, Siri all work pretty well and some are integrated in the the screen - Tap to read out a message for example.
Tesla maps is now very good, and accessible from iPhone. You can ping an address to the car etc. It's so integrated that it's actually better than most other maps for a car. We have overlaid weather coming so you know if it's going rain etc on a journey.
And my new favourite thing: If you enter a stupid average speed zone... it shows you, current speed, max speed AND current average speed in case you speed up or slow down.
But are GM going to remotely do all that? Nope... they'll stick a crappy chip in there - Tesla has a decent AMD chip running it all. And it'll be as bad as VW entertainment v1. And they'll make you pay for their music I bet and various other things.
Luckily GM cars are crap.
However: It already has:
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Spotify,
Tidal
YouTube music
Audible.
Disney+
Netflix
Other Video sources.
Phone, Message, Calender, Siri all work pretty well and some are integrated in the the screen - Tap to read out a message for example.
Tesla maps is now very good, and accessible from iPhone. You can ping an address to the car etc. It's so integrated that it's actually better than most other maps for a car. We have overlaid weather coming so you know if it's going rain etc on a journey.
And my new favourite thing: If you enter a stupid average speed zone... it shows you, current speed, max speed AND current average speed in case you speed up or slow down.
But are GM going to remotely do all that? Nope... they'll stick a crappy chip in there - Tesla has a decent AMD chip running it all. And it'll be as bad as VW entertainment v1. And they'll make you pay for their music I bet and various other things.
Luckily GM cars are crap.
GM making sure I never consider any of their cars for years to come. Good Job!
GM's system could be good. But I'd bet a lot that it is a dead-end software system that will not see any substantial improvements after you buy it. So if you keep the car for 10 years, you end up with 10-year-old software. NO ONE will trust GM to invest continuously in new software for a car that has already been sold.
But maybe more importantly, the HARDWARE will remain the same for the life of the car. in 2035, it will still have a 2025 CPU and RAM. But my iPhone will be fairly new and always able to run the latest software.
Car companies NEVER do that. Once the car is sold, they have zero incentive to improve the software.
But maybe more importantly, the HARDWARE will remain the same for the life of the car. in 2035, it will still have a 2025 CPU and RAM. But my iPhone will be fairly new and always able to run the latest software.
Car companies NEVER do that. Once the car is sold, they have zero incentive to improve the software.
When I rent a car I want Carplay because I know how to use it. I don't want to learn a new system when I'm driving in an area I'm not familiar with.
My favorite part is when Nilay talks about getting a rental car and how nice it is to be able to bring up CarPlay with all his content, and the GM guy is like “then you can do that!”
Like, sir, do you even understand GM’s decision here?
Like, sir, do you even understand GM’s decision here?
Yup. He never addressed this point, despite Nilay asking him directly. They could easily (and very cheaply) over-spec their cars to future-proof them but obviously won’t.
His podcast example really couldn't be worse.
You know what I want? Consistent podcast play counts and playhead location as I drive different cars, or listen to podcasts while not in a car.
How annoying would it be to have to manually keep my libraries up to date because things I listen in my GM product don't sync with things in my Tesla product, and neither syncs with the phone I walk with.
Happily, that is not as issue with CarPlay handling podcasts
You know what I want? Consistent podcast play counts and playhead location as I drive different cars, or listen to podcasts while not in a car.
How annoying would it be to have to manually keep my libraries up to date because things I listen in my GM product don't sync with things in my Tesla product, and neither syncs with the phone I walk with.
Happily, that is not as issue with CarPlay handling podcasts
The bottom line is GM figured out that On Star is basically useless now because iPhone / Android does pretty much everything that On Star does. So this is their grasp to try and keep that money for the subscription coming in. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I voted with my wallet and went to a manufacture that supports Car Play.
It’s too late. The genie is out of the bottle on who is providing information and entertainment services in a car now.
They would be better off working with Apple and Google to extend their APIs and integrate more tightly, rather than trying to hold back the tide.
They would be better off working with Apple and Google to extend their APIs and integrate more tightly, rather than trying to hold back the tide.
I swear, legacy auto manufactures are so out of touch with their customers. Software aside, so many new 2025 model cars look 20 years old already.