Shmee 150 tried to demo it in an Aston …… big fail flakey as hell
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These Vehicle Brands Plan to Offer Apple's CarPlay Ultra
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This allows passengers to use Android Auto for navigation while you control Android Automotive and can speak with the car thanks to Google-Built-In.
That's not possible with Apple. The Cupertino-based company treats cars like its i-devices: they are only ever used by one person.
Google is more open-minded.
I hear you. CarPlay is essential. Wouldn’t buy a car without it. But the fact that Hyundai might offer Ultra will make me take their value prop very seriously.
The rest of us on the road with you don't want that.
It would be refreshing to critically examine why manufacturers are reluctant to offer the new system.
It's very interesting what Apple actually demands. And even more interesting what they don't want to do in return.
Apple wants total control over the car's operation and access to all driving data. Manufacturers will only be responsible for supplying "the device." Everything else will be completely controlled by Apple.
What does the company offer in return? Nothing.
Not even money.
Apple expects car manufacturers to be grateful for being relegated to mere hardware suppliers. They are even expected to pay licensing fees for using CarPlay Ultra.
Ask yourselves:
Would you make this deal as a manufacturer? Give away all your car data, give up your USP, and pay money for your future insignificance?
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I bought a car a few months ago and I made my list of what to test drive based on does it have CarPlay or not. I didn't even bother looking at cars that didn't. Kind of crazy GM and others think people will go backwards and give control back to them and buy a subscription for stuff that we can do with our phone.
this came as a surprise to me - a couple of months back i rented a new chevy SUV and it had carplay. when i heard the announcement some years ago that GM was ditching carplay, i figured it was across the line.
so why on earth did they decide that ICE cars still get carplay, but EVs dont? boggles the mind. i don't see the difference from GM's point of view - there's just as much user data to collect from an ICE car as an EV.
I know. I do.
I was aware of this. The point being that Google will license the Android OS to Volvo with a precondition that CarPlay is less accessible than it otherwise would be, which it is.
It is an evolving market. They survived making cars before they tried to add on selling your data to make more money. It is funny you called it their data. I think most would argue that it is our data. It isn't about paying money for their future insignificance, but paying to remain relevant as people demand these features.
I'd hoped GM would figure this out, as the Prologue has been outselling the Blazer EV by a landslide (same car, rebadged for Honda .. but it has CarPlay/AA)
As an older Bolt EV owner, I have zero interest in any GM EVs now due to this one regression (no CarPlay).
GM themselves claim Carplay is a bad experience (not mentioning that if it is flaky it's because of the manufacturer, usually, yes there are Apple-created bugs but there are cars that wireless Carplay works perfect in, and cars that wireless Carplay sucks in).
Mary Barra, CEO of GM, said it's unreliable, someone else in GM said it's dangerous. So of course they think only ICE car drivers should have this unreliable system installed.
Truth is, ICE cars have more competition. EVs only have a few brands really worth bothering, and of the EVs available, Tesla and Rivian are huge in terms of marketshare of EVs, so they're already dealing with a good chunk of EV owners that currently use a non-Carplay system. So they figure you will live without Carplay more easily if you're an EV person, you might consider Rivian and Tesla as a cross-shop comparison.
But ICE has a lot more brands competing in the same space, which also have Carplay, so if Carplay was important enough and you're an ICE shopper, you either don't care or you do care and it drives you to other brands. And in ICE cars, Carplay is in the vast majority, minus some boutique brands like I don't know, Bugatti? So yeah, they deduce correctly that ICE people have a lot of choices and they all have Carplay, but EV people don't have quite that amount of choice.
Good thing for GM is the newest GM system actually isn't bad. It has Google Maps, it has Spotify, it even has Waze. That would be good enough for me, and probably is enough for most people (I mean Google Maps is enough for everyone, minus off-road maps like OnX, but how many really go off-road? But they (OnX) do have offline off-road maps in Carplay).
I think if they can get away with it, they would get rid of Carplay, but in summary, they just can't for ICE, but they can for EV, for sales reasons. They do want subscription revenue, they said they want to boost subscription revenue by 2030, and this is one strategy they have.
You're right, it doesn't make any sense. The GM argument is that by using Android Automotive in an EV, the map software in the car knows the state of charge, and can direct you to charging stations along your route. They're afraid that if you use CarPlay, the phone won't know how much charge your EV has left, and you might get stranded somewhere.
Of course, this argument makes no sense. The Ford Mustang Mach-e EV can use CarPlay, and it can share the state of charge with your phone so Apple Maps will route you properly with charging stations.
GM is just being greedy, and wants customers to have to pay for a data plan through them. I'm currently driving an Equinox EV, but it came with 8-years of data included, so I'm not paying extra. However, I have to use Spotify, YouTube Music, or Amazon Music as a built in music player as Apple Music isn't available yet. I can use Apple Music and Apple Podcasts via Bluetooth on my phone, but it's not as good as using CarPlay.
🔥What in the holy hell is the point of this? Car Play, Android Auto, it makes sense where they are and what they do. But what is the point of Apple creeping over to the speedometer? New cars already have begun to use maps between the speedometer or in the HUD, so really, what the hell is the point of this? Am I missing something?If I were a car maker I'd tell Apple to stay in that little rectangle we gave you or piss off. Why would you spend time and money making sure Apple's speedometers are compatible in your car? You still have to make a main system for everyone that doesn't have an iPhone. Apple is just trying to double the work and give car manufacturers a reason to charge us more money. Just stop with this e********ation already.🔥
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I don't, and wouldn't, type when I drive, but I would still like to have Siri disabled. CarPlay is the only reason I have it enabled.
That's complete speculation unless you know something that none of us do. My sister has a car running Google Automotive, and CarPlay does just fine on it. There is no indication, badging, branding or semblance of Google on the system.
Google Automotive is an underlying OS, similar to how the underlying OS to macOS is Darwin. It doesn't even have an interface of it's own.
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Nah… on AAOS screen projection is a simple single button press on the bottom row of icons. It’s a phone icon if you’re only connected to Bluetooth, it’s CP or AA if you’re connected wirelessly or wired. That’s just poor implementation on their part.
Good points. I wonder if CarPlay Ultra was Apple's attempt to make everything on the road an Apple Car after that whole project crashed. That way they could get what they wanted but not have to deal with the hardware headaches.
I'm not going to start arguing, because I don't care that much, but my Sis's car runs Google Automotive, and there are zero clicks to open carplay.. It's wireless and automatically opens when you start the car. What you're describing is a Volvo problem, not a Google Automotive licensing problem.
It's a 2024 model, if that matters.