GM to Remove CarPlay from All Future Vehicles, Including Gas Cars [Updated]

[sachinbahal]

There's no technical reason they can't support CarPlay / AA as well as their own systems, letting people choose which they prefer.

While I don't buy cars often, I can assure you that GM won't be in consideration.

Correct, there's no technical reason, GM likely wants to sell more subscriptions to get that sweet recurring revenue

 

[icwhatudidthere]

Nice. Now I can just blanket reject any GM rental.

 

[sachinbahal]

Lame guess no blazer for me

Does the Honda version have it?

Yes, the Honda Prologue has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but the infotainment system is still GM software with some Honda branding and is very buggy; the whole vehicle is just a GM EV with a Honda badge

 

[RMMediccc]

This is going to make such a mess at the car rental counter. People will refuse GM cars because there’s no CarPlay or Android Auto. They’re almost essential for travel in unfamiliar places.

Or the car rental companies will avoid buying fleet vehicles from those companies, or in this case GM.

 

[BGPL]

"much more immersive environment" I think this applies to old people buying Buicks that have no idea what CarPlay is... this moron of a CEO is out of touch and has no idea the number of customers he's going to lose for such an uninformed decision. The next CEO will be begging people to buy his cars with reinstated CarPlay in five years. This is a Bud Light level lack of awareness.

 

[RMMediccc]

This is particularly funny, because I used to own a Chevy Volt and largely loved the vehicle, but I hated the infotainment system so much I swore I would never buy another vehicle without CarPlay to fall back on.

That opinion has not changed—no CarPlay, no sale. Period—I do not trust any car maker to maintain their software to a reasonable degree in the long term, the computer driving it WILL eventually be archaic long before the rest of the car is, and their maps are guaranteed to be worse than what Apple or Google can put on the same screen.

I never use the base UI features in my Volt. They are shooting themselves in the foot. CarPlay or no future sale!

 

[germinator]

This will ensure I won't buy a car from GM

 

[svish]

Bad move. Don't know whether this will have an impact on the sales of their new vehicles.

 

[JCrz]

No one buys GM EVs so this has zero effect.

 

[wowbear]

CarPlay has been the must have feature when I'm looking to buy a car. So my first car was a Chevy Volt 2nd gen, then a Bolt EUV. They've served me well, no problem at all, so I love them, but will not consider any car from Chevy, just because they ditched CarPlay.

 

[1037]

Even the dirty old gas powered cars.

 

[whitby]

I must admit that this impossibly stupid choice by GM will not affect my choice about buying GM vehicles. I just do not like them (driving feel, fit, finish, appearance, ergonomics and range of vehicle types).

In the end it is down to how the vehicle drives, how much it costs and whether it fulfills your needs. Me, I set price boundaries first and I tend to like cars that drive well first before I even look at them. Ergonomics come next (driver position, instrumentation, how well it integrates with my eco system) and the build quality and reliability, and then appearance. Car Play and Android Autoplay play a part in the integration with my eco system. And as I have said earlier in this thread I have yet to see any vehicle I looked at that does this without using CarPlay or Android Autoplay. Their systems are universally atrocious since it is not their prime capability.

Teslas are an interesting solution where the solution (without using CarPlay and Android Autoplay) is well executed but the ergonomics are appalling. Who puts all the driver information on a screen in the middle of the car where the driver has take her or his eyes of the road to do or see anything. For this reason (and the fact that they look like jelly beans) I will not ever buy a Tesla in its current form.

In the end GM rejecting the use of these 3rd party systems means they do not play well with my eco system and makes the ergonomics suspect at best. Happy for them to own and implement the stuff that the car needs to be controlled, monitored and driven but for things like music, maps, messaging let the people who know what they are doing, do their job.

 

[Kulfon]

Actually, I’m really surprised to read something like this — and I’m just trying to understand, from a corporate strategy perspective, how GM expects this to play out. I’m sure there were long internal debates at the executive level, probably with consultants involved, before they decided that their own operating system would eventually prove to be better for users — and that, over time, everyone would be convinced this was a revelation. Maybe they believe people will simply forget about Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

But let’s be clear: it’s not just about CarPlay. It’s about any mobile platform people use every day. The logic behind removing it just doesn’t make sense. The user experience today is simple — we spend most of our time with one interface: our smartphone, whether it’s Android or iOS. Everything is already personalised.


When you get into your car, you want that experience to continue seamlessly. You want to pick up the same podcast you were listening to, finish the message you started, or follow the same navigation stored in Apple Maps or Google Maps. You don’t want to start over or switch to a completely separate ecosystem that doesn’t talk to your other devices.

That’s the beauty of CarPlay and Android Auto — a unified experience across phone, car, and other devices. It just works. It’s consistent, it’s personalised, and it fits naturally into daily life.

No matter how great GM’s new operating system turns out to be, if it’s out of sync with the rest of my digital world, it’s a total non-starter. I honestly think it’s a terrible idea. And I can’t help but wonder if, down the line, they’ll end up reversing this decision.

 

[starman111]

Get used to it, folks. Once one domino drops, the rest are going with it. CarPlay is on borrowed time. Why would automakers keep supporting it, out of charity? Apple’s not paying them a dime. And spare me the dramatic threats from the MacRumors die-hards who swear they’ll “never buy a car without CarPlay.” Automakers won’t even notice you’re gone. The other 99.9% of consumers don’t care who makes the interface if it lights up, plays music, and looks shiny, they’re happy.

I googled "what percentage of drivers want car play?" Here is the result:

"While survey results vary, a 2024 McKinsey & Co. survey found that roughly one-third of global car buyers would make a lack of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto a "deal-breaker". However, other surveys show even higher percentages of drivers who prefer or want these systems. For example, a 2023 McKinsey survey found that nearly half of global car buyers would not purchase a vehicle lacking smartphone integration, and Apple claims 79% of car buyers they studied wanted it."

Plus, when you get customers with modern smart phones, you're likely getting customers who are slightly better off financially.

By the way, great user name H.E. Pennypacker! Are you sure you're not Dr. Van Nostrand?

 

[btrach144]

I would never buy a car without CarPlay. I also would never buy a GM

 

[Aarnt]

GM is making dumb comparisons that are incorrect about people complaining on Facebook when dropping the floppy disk

Apple “dropped the floppy disk” when it released the iMac G3 in August 1998, which did not include a floppy drive — a bold move at the time.

Facebook, on the other hand, was founded in February 2004 at Harvard University by Mark

 

[elvisimprsntr]

CarPlay Ultra is more like Android Automotive. Carmakers concluded that the latter, which is open source, gives them more flexibility and are using it rather than CarPlay Ultra. But Android Automotive isn’t the same as CarPlay or the confusingly named Android Auto (which is NOT a requirement to run Android Automotive). CarPlay and Android Auto provide familiar user interfaces for those who use iPhones or Android phones with Google services.

It has absolutely nothing to do with being open, flexible, or a better product. I have a third party AA/CP display for my ‘10 Mustang. All of the firmware updates are for Android Auto bugs. None related to CarPlay.

Firmware

15/10/2025 For T3 Pro New Firmware Beta Test Available: Public Beta Version 0.2.28 (Beta) Key Updates in Firmware 0.2.28: This update fixes the issue where, after updating to Android 16, the phone would reconnect to the screen’s Bluetooth in Display Only Bluetooth Mode when connected to the...

www.carpodgo.com

Google is likely subsidizing the costs of adopting Android Automotive in exchange for being able to monetize the customer. Apple gets $20B every year from Google just to be the default search engine. GM only made $6B in 2024.

You want to find the truth in anything follow the $

 

[kenta_]

Anyone that bases their car buying decision on the basis of CarPlay… is NOT a car person. Period!

 

[danny842003]

I don’t want immersion from my infotainment system.
I want to jump in to more or less any car and know where everything is.
I got a Kia for work this week and guess what I know how all my maps and music works before I drive off the Hertz forecourt.

 

[danny842003]

Anyone that bases their car buying decision on the basis of CarPlay… is NOT a car person. Period!

Mate if you don’t drink 3l of Castrol with your breakfast you’re some kind of bus riding vegan who doesn’t know a flux capacitor from a falange.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Although I love my current usage of CarPlay, i.e. online maps and music-entertainment, I do believe for me, that should be it.
I don’t send messages when I drive for example.
As much as I love my Apple stuff (iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple TVs) I don’t want Apple to rule it all.
I don’t like my HomePods for instance… I like a good dedicated amplifier with good speakers (stereo or surround).

I also would like it when the car manufacturer designs the in-car experience. It’s their product.

In GM’s case, I also would not choose a GM if I cannot use online maps and music-entertainment as I use it now.
But, if GM offers a great online (Apple / Google / Waze)-maps and online (Apple / Spotify / Internet Radio)-music experience that would at least match my current Apple CarPlay experience then…. Why not? It might even work better as no connection is required with the phone which can fail.
But I will not pay for it! No subscriptions. Period.

 

[macduke]

“But frankly, it's a very Jobsian approach to things. The removal of the disk drive, nobody liked that, everybody on the forums and Facebook was complaining about it, but to that he said, "Look, guys, flash storage really is the future. Get on board, you'll see that." That's kind of what we're saying here, in fact that's exactly what we're saying.”

What a silly comparison.
The disc drive was removed so the computers could get thinner and lighter and faster.
What does removing CarPlay get you? It’s certainly not faster or better.

It gets them lower sales and more R&D spend for an interface that will have crappy UI/UX, all in the hope that they can sell more of your data to insurance companies and the like.

 

[zenmacx]

Anyone that bases their car buying decision on the basis of CarPlay… is NOT a car person. Period!

Very true.

Furthermore many of these same Apple enthusiasts have no clue how complex the onboard computers and telematics systems are on today’s automobiles. Or how deeply integrated far beyond the audio and in-dash display screen these infotainment systems are.

This is not in defense of General Motors or any other automaker, but simply highlighting the fact that integrating a system like CarPlay requires more than just a cursory level of cooperation between Apple and the manufacturer.

In addition all automakers have researched what the customer wants and are fully aware of the role each buyers smartphone plays in their lives. Make no mistake, they understand the customer and are eager to accommodate them.

Because of the open source nature of Android Auto it’s far easier to integrate and far easier to customize to meet the automakers needs. The level of functionality far exceeds that of CarPlay. As a result it’s becoming more and more popular within the automotive industry.

 

[theloon]

GM's mission atatement seems to be - 'Making bad vehicles worse"

 

[Korito]

All I want out of a car infotainment is a good navigation (almost all have them) and a possibility to stream music (optional). I dont need my messages on screen, nor read to me, none of that - I don’t live in a car, it has to be comfortable for travel and to be reliable. Carplay doesn’t guarantee any of that.

All of “I won’t buy a car without apple car” are lying or are spoiled brats of a hyper fanbois. If a carplay is a crucial feature for you when buying a car, then you are a perfect sheep for any corporation/company.