It’s a GM product. It’s been decades since they knew how to put together a decent car interior.
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GM Again Attempts to Explain Its Decision to Drop CarPlay in New EVs
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It’s a GM product. It’s been decades since they knew how to put together a decent car interior.
What is really being said here is that you, the car buyer, is the product, not the customer
It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It
I have a GM vehicle and the GM software is legitimately terrible. It's constantly corrupting the CarPlay interface. It often lags up to a minute behind any attempted input. I am not buying an EV any time soon but this is a suicide pact by GM. Prove you can make any software before you try this kind of stunt.
In an iPhone dominated market it’s not unreasonable to build a backup solution. It’s actually an essential strategic need.
If people only consider cars with CarPlay either the automaker builds a compelling alternative or sooner than later Apple will ask them for whatever fee they want in order to license it.
If people only consider cars with CarPlay either the automaker builds a compelling alternative or sooner than later Apple will ask them for whatever fee they want in order to license it.
Yes, I use it regularly in my poor man’s 2017 Impreza. It does both Apple and Google maps just fine. I usually just plug the destination in ahead of time and never use Siri. Or my passenger adds stops to the map. Messages works great.
Many seem to imply this will negatively impact GM. I am not quite sure.
My wife recently purchased a vehicle with wireless CarPlay. I will say I never realized how much I would enjoy the wireless CarPlay feature. My truck on the other hand has a 3.5 mm jack with no Bluetooth. I have managed fine without a screen etc. All it takes is a decent phone mount in a vehicle and that is really all you need. Is CarPlay nice? Absolutely but I am not convinced the widespread market will even care.
Customer buys a vehicle and during the test drive the salesperson says.... look at all this cool stuff and you get 1 year free. Person doesn't even realize what the "cool stuff" is and after a year (or whatever specified time) the person gets calls/mailers to renew for $30 or whatever per month. That is when the main consumers will realize... wait a minute.. I have to pay x amount of month to get y and z? Wait my car doesn't have the free Apple plug-in thing (lol). At the end of the day if they cancel, they will still be able to use Bluetooth (I am sure) to sync audio for turn by turn directions.
Personally, I think GM should support both. If their product is superior, let the consumer pick. In my wife's ride we are mostly in CarPlay but flip over to the native UI to change settings. The native UI in the vehicle is really good but it would be a bummer if it didn't support Apple CarPlay.
Any real car person knows this is a BIG deal for the future. An OEM like GM wants to keep consumers, especially their customers, in their eco system. The BIG reason is for $$$$. Subscription charges for internet, maps, etc. I am not yet sold on the fact GM can produce anything worth buying. Several of my friends have SUPER nice trucks from 2015 upwards have tons of issues with transmissions, torque converters, lifters, DEF systems and other problems. GM, who has been making vehicles over 100 years, can't seem to build a truck these days without issues hence I am not convinced they will build a truck, or any rides for that matter, that is equipped with state of the art tech that that will sought after. Oh and this is coming from a big GM fan! And the trucks I speak about range from gas to diesel Duramax trucks. I don't trust new cars with all the tech and sure the heck am not going to sink $70k + into a new truck purchase with nice bells and whistles only to begin running into issues in the future.
My wife recently purchased a vehicle with wireless CarPlay. I will say I never realized how much I would enjoy the wireless CarPlay feature. My truck on the other hand has a 3.5 mm jack with no Bluetooth. I have managed fine without a screen etc. All it takes is a decent phone mount in a vehicle and that is really all you need. Is CarPlay nice? Absolutely but I am not convinced the widespread market will even care.
Customer buys a vehicle and during the test drive the salesperson says.... look at all this cool stuff and you get 1 year free. Person doesn't even realize what the "cool stuff" is and after a year (or whatever specified time) the person gets calls/mailers to renew for $30 or whatever per month. That is when the main consumers will realize... wait a minute.. I have to pay x amount of month to get y and z? Wait my car doesn't have the free Apple plug-in thing (lol). At the end of the day if they cancel, they will still be able to use Bluetooth (I am sure) to sync audio for turn by turn directions.
Personally, I think GM should support both. If their product is superior, let the consumer pick. In my wife's ride we are mostly in CarPlay but flip over to the native UI to change settings. The native UI in the vehicle is really good but it would be a bummer if it didn't support Apple CarPlay.
Any real car person knows this is a BIG deal for the future. An OEM like GM wants to keep consumers, especially their customers, in their eco system. The BIG reason is for $$$$. Subscription charges for internet, maps, etc. I am not yet sold on the fact GM can produce anything worth buying. Several of my friends have SUPER nice trucks from 2015 upwards have tons of issues with transmissions, torque converters, lifters, DEF systems and other problems. GM, who has been making vehicles over 100 years, can't seem to build a truck these days without issues hence I am not convinced they will build a truck, or any rides for that matter, that is equipped with state of the art tech that that will sought after. Oh and this is coming from a big GM fan! And the trucks I speak about range from gas to diesel Duramax trucks. I don't trust new cars with all the tech and sure the heck am not going to sink $70k + into a new truck purchase with nice bells and whistles only to begin running into issues in the future.
I really don't get the "I won't buy a car without carplay" crowd... It's really not that amazing. I must be missing something, but carplay is not so mind blowing that it should preclude people from buying a vehicle. There's so much more to a car. the interface in my Tesla is Eons better than carplay, it's not even close.
I have had the Lyriq and Mach E on my radar for a while now, and I'm getting closer to going EV. But after hearing of GM dropping CarPlay, I'm leaning towards the Mach E. I'm not signing up for a bunch of Google services to have half-ass compatibility with my iPhone messaging, media playback and navigation. GM just made itself the "Android car".
In what universe? This could have a chance if GM was a highly desirable market leader. But for most people they are either not a consideration at all, or just one of the choices.
It’s like Arby’s deciding that they will not accept Visa or Mastercard but will instead launch their own payment system. Yeah… all the best.
Their software isn’t even good. “Top notch” is laughable.
To be fair though, I’ve used GM, Ford, Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai infotainments and none were very good. With GM being closer to the bottom because of bugs and sheer ugliness. Ford was actually one of the better designs… and it’s still not anything I’d want to use on a daily basis.
GM lost me as a customer when they bankrupted Gmac and started Ally and refused to see my 15 years of payment as credit history for a new purchase.
Moved to Kia which is very similar to the Saturn brand.
Moved to Kia which is very similar to the Saturn brand.
And if their software were any good it would be competitive
There’s a reason they are not allowing the competition to take place
The reason people like car play and android auto is because that is where there maps stuff is saved, plus messaging is how people give you directions, also all your texts and phone calls / contacts.
American automaker General Motors (GM) last year announced it would be phasing out support for CarPlay and Android Auto in its new electric vehicles, in favor of its own software platform called Ultifi. The decision has been very controversial, as many drivers consider CarPlay to be a must-have feature in a new vehicle. In 2022, for example, Apple said 79% of U.S. buyers would only consider a vehicle that works with CarPlay.
To make matters worse, GM's rollout of Ultifi went rather poorly, with some early reviewers of the Chevrolet Blazer EV last year experiencing technical issues with the platform. Some of those problems have since been resolved, but it is clear that the automaker might not be as effective at developing software as a tech company like Apple.
In a statement shared with MacRumors last year, GM said its software strategy is "driven by the benefits of having a system that allows for greater integration with the larger GM ecosystem and vehicles." In other words, the automaker wants to control the entire in-vehicle experience, which is both a reasonable and a risky decision.
In a recent interview with The Verge's Nilay Patel, GM's senior vice president of software Baris Cetinok further attempted to defend the automaker's decision to phase out CarPlay. Cetinok worked at Apple between 2012 and 2021, helping to spearhead the launch of Apple Pay, Find My, iCloud Drive, and more, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Cetinok joined GM months after it announced its decision to phase out CarPlay and Android Auto, but unsurprisingly he stands by the automaker's decision. He told Patel that GM believes with "strong conviction" that creating its entire in-vehicle experience provides "a better customer experience" with "end-to-end magic."
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV with GM's Ultifi software platform
"But we have a strong conviction that effort pays off in a better customer experience," said Cetinok, speaking on the Decoder podcast. "You get the most out of your vehicle because now we're the company that builds the vehicle and is also creating the infotainment experience, the cluster experience, the app, and everything. We're going to build that one day and maybe a voice assistant on top of it. The only way you can create that end-to-end magic is to have a strong conviction that you want to own all of these."
He said GM wants to offer a seamless experience that does not require having to switch in and out of phone mirroring systems like CarPlay and Android Auto.
"When you want to create something so seamless, it's hard to think about getting into a car and going, 'Okay, so I'm doing highway trailering, but let me flip to a totally different user interface to pick my podcast,'" said Cetinok. "By the way, it's a single app-obsessed interface — it's still hard to believe. So I pick my podcast, flip back to trailering. Oh, now I can also do Super Cruise trailering. Let me manage that. Then, wait, we're now getting into potentially Level 3, Level 4 autonomy levels that should be deeply integrated with talking to the map where the lanes lie. But wait a minute, the map that I'm using doesn't really talk to my car."
The full transcript of the interview with more CarPlay commentary is available on The Verge.
Article Link: GM Again Attempts to Explain Its Decision to Drop CarPlay in New EVs
So it’s not about the car software being good or not, it’s about the fact it will now be complicated and cumbersome just to use, just like every other native software.
What a stupid move. I will not now or will I ever consider purchasing a car without CarPlay as it integrates seamlessly with my music and maps, keeps my hands off of the phone and screen, and allows for less distracted driving. I understand that GM, like Apple, wants to control the entire user experience, but few companies other than Apple have been able to effectively do that. Good luck, GM. Hope y'all survive.
It’s not mind blowing. It just works well and it works the same in *any* car. It’s tied to your phone so once you set it up you have the same interface, the same apps, the same data, the same map destinations, the same playlists, the same favorite contacts, the same voice commands and the same controls in every car you buy, lease, borrow or rent, year after year. Which is especially nice when you have cars of different makes in the family, or regularly go on business trips.
Even setting aside the fact that GM has been caught selling customers’ driving data (not anonymized) to insurance companies so it can’t be trusted not to misuse your data, or the they are clearly looking to enforce subscriptions, or that they make poor quality buggy car infotainment software and it’s unlikely to suddenly change, why would I give up all of that convenience for the “privilege” of driving a GM product ?
Their mindset seems to be clearly stuck in the 1970s when they ruled the market, and they are unable to accept the fact that they are a mid size player now, with a rather poor reputation.
Except Windows Phone was actually a great product, just too late to the market and never got the proper commitment by Microsoft.
GM always builds a GM product.
I love my Chevy bolt EV but I won’t ever get another GM simply because of this ridiculous decision.
They’re using Android Automotive. It has Google Maps built in, but you can also use Waze. Spotify, Google Music, Tidal and Amazon music are all options to download for music apps.
It’s a little frustrating. I have a new Equinox EV with no CarPlay. I’m using Spotify for now, which isn’t as good as Apple Music in my opinion. I’ll likely just use Bluetooth from my phone for music and podcasts going forward.
But what incentive do they have to add car systems to CarPlay? Would they also need to do the same for the Android side of the market?
The way I see it, there are a lot of variations in vehicle equipment and safety/driver aid systems, even among models offered by a single manufacturer. For example, amount of possible settings for vehicle systems available in my car (BMW) alone is quite large. Duplicating all that in CarPlay, or any other phone-based layer benefits no one because the consistency iPhone users like about CarPlay can only realistically extend to the things the iPhone is good at: Navigation, phone, messages, entertainment apps. The things folks would probably also use when not in the car.
Allowing us to, for example, set cabin lighting colors or preferences for a custom “sport” driving mode, or custom lane keeping sensitivity in CarPlay is useless if you get into a vehicle that lacks such things, or offers the most basic versions of each. This is what the quote in the article that referenced “trailering” is about.
I just don’t see a financial incentive for auto manufacturers to invest in extending CarPlay (or any other phone-based layer) beyond what it already is, and I don’t see a benefit to the consumer in doing it because there can’t be consistency between vehicle models or brands for the more sophisticated systems in modern cars anyway.