GM has placed a risky bet on its ability to beat Apple, the champion of tech usability, at its own game by developing a new smartphone interface for the automaker’s crucial wave of electric vehicles (EVs) — and eliminating Apple’s CarPlay system (and Google’s knockoff Android Auto).
The automaker has developed a new system it says will provide many of the same benefits as CarPlay and Android Auto, while also making it easier for drivers to access other functions, like satellite radio and climate control.
GM has not made the system available for evaluation by outsiders — or even its own dealers, many of whom are concerned.
“CarPlay’s not broken. Why fix it?” asked a source in close contact with multiple GM dealers and who requested anonymity for business concerns. “The risk of failure is very high.”
That’s a common sentiment from dealers and potential customers. Apple CarPlay is available on 98% of new vehicles sold in the United States. People are used to it. They expect the convenience of accessing their contacts, music and more via familiar and reliable controls and commands.
In a recent survey by Consumer Reports, “57 percent of our survey respondents said they were very satisfied with CarPlay compared with a 50 percent satisfaction rating with built-in systems and 44 percent for Android Auto,” the magazine reported.
The GM system will be unable to reach into your iPhone’s contacts list for commands like, “Directions to Carole’s house.”
GM responds that all its owners will have to do is create a contacts list in their Google account.
That’s true but it overlooks the fact that people in practically every new vehicle can already get directions to Carole from their phone. No additional work or new account required.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s simple: GM wants to be able to charge subscriptions ad infinitum for features that CarPlay offers for free. Apple is continually updating CarPlay – for free. Even if they wanted to, which they almost certainly don’t, GM won’t be able to deliver routine updates and improvements, much less match Apple in innovation, user interface design, device integration, etc.
For us, and many, many others, General Motors simply moves even further out of consideration for future purchases (even with CarPlay, GM was never in consideration anyway for myriad reasons).
If GM sticks to this stupidity, it deserves its fate.
See also: Vehicle buyers consider Ford, Toyota, after GM announces Apple CarPlay phaseout – April 14, 2023
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GM’s move isn’t risky, it’s stupid. Comically stupid. Why would any automaker want to alienate a large portion of their potential customers? A very large and growing number of GM customers use Apple products. Unless GM can make a software/hardware that will integrate with Apple products better than Apple can, they are just plain stupid to drop CarPlay.
Google contacts? Like I would trust Google with my contacts.🤣😂
I don’t have Google anything and don’t plan on getting it so……NO!
I just bought a new Chevy Bolt, and will be my last GM purchase because of this move.
It’s their loss. Their system will not go as far as CarPlay or to be good as CarPlay. My daughter just got a used Cruise with CarPlay. Now she is like me. Will not buy another car without it.
I consider my car to be my most expensive iPhone accessory as CarPlay was a crucial point I set for my shopping needs. I as an Apple user refuse to buy a car without CarPlay to be my daily driver. My current car is a GM vehicle with CarPlay and my wife and I were looking into buying a new electric or hybrid car for her. If these don’t have CarPlay then I can scratch them off my list.
I care less about the car than it’s available technology. No CarPlay, no car. GM just lost huge sales.
MDN is wrong again it’s not about ad revenue. GM is worried about losing control. If they don’t have control over the operating system inside their car that was produced in their factory then can control the information inside that car. GM is worried that Apple will block them from tracking and selling the owner the vehicle information to other companies. Americans do a lot of things in our cars that is worth a lot to a lot of people and if Apple is the gatekeeper then GM has little power.
You may be right, but it will be a moot point when most people refuse to purchase the GM car because they love Airplay. It is a boneheaded move by GM, but that is why they are doing it. They may be the most brain dead management team ever in corporate America.
Honestly, they have a lot of competition for the most brain-dead corporate officers.
There are a lot of after market entertainment modules with Apple Car Play built in just waiting to replace anything GM tries to force on anyone. Shame to have to spend more money but when the GM units start piling up in the junk yard they might get the picture.
I put wireless CarPlay in my 21 Lexus GX, it was easy to do and works great. Expensive though. Lexus is very backward technology wise. GM very stupid to cut put CarPlay. I’ll bet over 50% are apple customers. But them GM never has cared much about it’s customers. That’s why I’m a Lexus owner now.
Why would anyone trust a site dependent on google ads for tech advice?
Why would anyone ever vote for a Democrat?
lesser of 2 evils
You can’t cure stupidity.
except with education, which Kent refuses to fund.
To a Democrat like the satirically named Get Educated, “education” means grooming young children to be brain dead communists first and second, sex slaves to the Democrat adults. Of course, Democrats are infantile so there is that terminology issue.
EVs are a risky move. Without government subsidies, they are not viable.
oh nooooooes!!!!! Fearmonger spreads his disdain for reality again. EVs are already the most economical transportation in many urban areas, where charging infrastructure is in place or where commuters can charge at home. The market expansion for EVs will mimic every other battery-powered device you use, including all your Apple gadgets.
Also to highlight the absurdity of your political bias: Without government subsidies, fire departments, police, public roads, libraries, hospitals, the electricity grid, internet service, telecommunications, GPS navigation, and functional national defense are not viable. Go live in Somalia if you don’t want implementation of modern technology and citizen-demanded community services to be coordinated and deployed for the benefit of all. Take the “support our troops” sticker off your gas guzzler too, you hypocrite … your cheap gasoline comes directly as a result of very expensive US foreign policy, propping up Big Oil operations in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other foreign dictatorships for decades. Who do you think pays for the cheap oil imports you take for granted??? Your kids, through increased taxes on a bloated debt that you and your generation refused to pay.
Nice tirade and I agree with most of it, but the USA is the world’s largest oil exporting nation. Won’t be a ton of oil wars for the USA going forward.
Pretty sure Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporting nation, and by a large margin. The US is the largest producer of oil, but more than 90% of production is used domestically.
https://www.seair.co.in/blog/top-10-oil-exporting-countries-in-2023.aspx#:~:text=Saudi%20Arabia%20has%20consistently%20been,of%20the%20global%20oil%20supply.
Yes, Capitalism would collapse without at least some of big government’s start-up money and, later, Socialist bailouts to keep it afloat.
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