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GM Says It's Nixing CarPlay to Make Drivers Safer

I drive a Tesla Model Y. Before I purchased it, I was worried about losing CarPlay. Until I realized how great Tesla's infotainment system is. I've never been concerned with texting while driving. I only make calls. I don't like the phone being needed for maps. If I ever switch away from Tesla, I'd welcome a complete solution like GM is proposing.

Also it's nice for my phone to never leave my pocket AND not be on fire (wireless carplay).
 
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What’s to prevent Apple from making iOS incompatible with whatever GM comes out with? Basic Bluetooth connectivity isn’t going to give GM much in the way of harvestable data right? I’m not really a fan of CarPlay anyway. Just give me a custom vehicle-specific mounting bracket, MagSafe car mount with charging, and a simple Bluetooth connection and I’m good to go. I even have a travel setup I bring with me and use in rental cars.
 
Believe me, GM will come back to CarPlay way before 2035. They will end up finding it requires more investment to maintain the system like this or Google will abandon infortainment someday just like many of their services.
 
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carestudio said:
Believe me, GM will come back to CarPlay way before 2035. They will end up finding it requires more investment to maintain the system like this or Google will abandon infortainment someday just like many of their services.
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This is a slippery slope. Google will take over the entire infotainment R&D and gather info about the driver which they will use for advertising and other surveillance activities. Because that is so profitable and because Google can reuse the tech across multiple auto makers, it will become unprofitable for auto companies to build their own infotainment. My guess is Google made it financial very attractive for GM to skip offering CarPlay.

I can easily see this becoming an antitrust issue. But regulators typically wake from their slumber only when it’s too late. Like going after Microsoft after the whole world is stuck with Windows and Office.
 
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cyb3rdud3 said:
I actually have a car with Google Android Automotive Operating System AAOS, and are fully within the Apple ecosystem. There is Apple Carplay available via an official app integration, but I don't use it, as AAOS is actually very good and integrates very well with an iPhone.
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Of course it is possible to connect CarPlay to an Android Automotive OS car. Others do it too. It’s great for you that you like it but that doesn’t counter the fact that many of us do want to connect our phones to our cars.

It’s not even about the frickin maps. If the built in maps offers direct connection to the battery state and to the list of chargers, I might use it sometimes. The rest of the time, I’ll probably use the maps in my phone when I don’t care about charging, which is 90% of the time. The main thing that I want on CarPlay is Overcast and my podcast subscriptions. It’s impossible for a GM car to include the podcasts that I’m listening too. I’ll be listening before I get in the car and then seamlessly transition to listening in the car. When I get where I’m going I keep listening from the same spot. Can you do that GM? And not a bluetooth integration is too limited without access to playlists, episodes, and chapters. This is a hard requirement from me.
 
idahohand said:
I wish them luck. I won't buy a car without CarPlay. Can't wait to see how many of these GM cars end up being upgraded after the fact with after-market CarPlay devices...
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Yes, though it’s hard to upgrade the screens when the show car control system is integrated. F GM.
 
I should be a good prospect for a new GM EV and until recently I was. I drive a Chevy Volt and it is the first GM vehicle I had ever had. Never had considered GM before but the Volt is really good and I was really considering one of the new GM EVs in a couple of years but CarPlay is a hard requirement for me. Now I am a lost sale. What could have been a sale for GM is now a hard now.
 
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Cool6324 said:
I drive a Tesla Model Y. Before I purchased it, I was worried about losing CarPlay. Until I realized how great Tesla's infotainment system is. I've never been concerned with texting while driving. I only make calls. I don't like the phone being needed for maps. If I ever switch away from Tesla, I'd welcome a complete solution like GM is proposing.

Also it's nice for my phone to never leave my pocket AND not be on fire (wireless carplay).
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I don’t use carplay much in my VW Arteon either. I setup the iPhone as BT audio and phone and to only use carplay when plugged in and selected.

Even tho I have nav in the car, I really only use carplay for eouting, and it’s nice having the nav as a backup. But for say to day driving, the built in moving map in the digital instrument cluster is all the “nav” I need. I guess growing up on maps and memorizing where I live and frequent is a hard habit to break.
 
GM is full of crap. Just make the headend agnostic and let the person giving them money, the customer, decide what they want to use, be it Android Auto or CarPlay or nothing at all. I’m sick of these car manufacturers thinking they know what’s best when they have proven time and time again that they don’t.

Why hasn’t this gotten more press? Where are the protests and boycotts?
 
unQuestionable said:
Honestly this is why I don’t want to get a Tesla. :/
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Teslas are gorgeous on the outside, but there UI is so primitive and unsafe it’s a joke.

Those jokes Musk made about an Apple car always seemed defensive and juvenile. His “big idea” to have most of the cars readouts on a portrait computer monitor in the centee of the dash board is Design Hall Of Shame stuff.
 
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I really don’t know why people still buy GM products. Now we can add CarPlay to the next item of things GM tried to kill.

Things GM tried to kill, to varying degrees of success
  • Streetcars and Trams in US and Canada
  • Public Transit in general
  • Electric Cars
  • Sedans
  • Station Wagons
  • Pontiac, Saturn, Saab
  • and now add to the list, CarPlay
  • What next? Seatbelts ?
 
Combined with Google's powerful AI and deep data mining, this is going to be fantastic for drivers. Imagine a car that knows your destination even before you get into it. And will take you there, all powered by AI and Self Driving. All you got to do is sit in it. It will even stop at the perfect ice cream shop on the way even without you asking it.
 
dontwalkhand said:
I really don’t know why people still buy GM products. Now we can add CarPlay to the next item of things GM tried to kill.

Things GM tried to kill, to varying degrees of success
  • Streetcars and Trams in US and Canada
  • Public Transit in general
  • Electric Cars
  • Sedans
  • Station Wagons
  • Pontiac, Saturn, Saab
  • and now add to the list, CarPlay
  • What next? Seatbelts ?
Click to expand...
You forgot Oldsmobile
 
I can guarantee you the dealerships and sales people are dumbfounded by this move. It makes no sense to rule out a huge swath of customers unless you are trying to sell fewer cars or go out of business.

Also, there is no reason to concoct the safety lie as we all know it is just a lie. Just come out and say we are making our own and we will charge you for it at some point. It will also become obsolete as soon as the maintenance costs kick in.
 
In the market for a new small/midsize truck so I've been doing research on the new GM twins of Colorado/Canyon. Their infotainment system is a disaster according to owners...updates are freezing in the middle of the night, draining batteries and bricking the infotainment/driver information center rendering the trucks unusable, forcing tows to the dealership to be re-flashed. Welcome to the future! Maybe they can sort it out eventually, but not a great start.
 
I wonder will GM offer a special iOS app that at least allows integration of several iPhone features, notably access Music and Podcasts, directly the UI of the Google interface.
 
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