Michael Waldron bought a 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV for $62,000 last November, he was enamored with the electric SUV’s “radiant red” paint and deluxe interior with slick displays stretched across the dash. There was one big thing missing: Apple CarPlay.
Austin Carr and David Welch for Bloomberg News:
For tens if not hundreds of millions of drivers, CarPlay has become the default home screen of the center console, an iPhone-enabled grid of apps available in vehicles ranging from Fords to Ferraris. According to Apple, as of 2022, 79% of US car buyers would only consider purchasing cars that were CarPlay compatible.
At first, Waldron, an iPhone user, kind of liked Ultifi’s software, which came with decent services for navigation and media. But little annoyances crept in. Unlike CarPlay, which allows drivers to listen to recent texts by clicking on Apple’s touchscreen app, Ultifi is only able to access new messages over Bluetooth if the driver has previously granted permissions. Waldron, who lives in Iowa, could no longer ask Siri for directions to a friend’s house by name; instead, he entered addresses into Google Maps. His wife, another iPhone owner, hated its lack of Apple’s music and podcast apps.
Larger problems reared up on a family road trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving. After a warning light randomly popped up on the main screen, apps kept crashing before the display blacked out altogether. With the system bricked, no settings could be changed for the 600-mile drive back to Des Moines, not even the SiriusXM channel, which was stuck on 1990s radio. “My 4-year-old is now very well-versed in my music taste,” says Waldron, who depended on his iPhone planted in the cup holder for the rest of the journey.
Once home, Waldron’s Blazer went to the dealership where it stayed for a month as technicians tried to diagnose the glitches. He wasn’t alone: Press reviewers and numerous customers ran into major software failures and vehicle faults, forcing GM to ground the vehicle and halt all sales starting in December. As the weeks dragged on at the shop, a service rep asked Waldron if there was anything he could do to make the situation right. “I said, ‘Well, you could put CarPlay back in it,’ ” Waldron recalls. “The guy was laughing and said, ‘I have a feeling I’m going to be hearing a lot of that.’ ”
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MacDailyNews Take: While Michael is waiting hours** for his overpriced EV to charge* so he can complete his 600-mile drive (which basically any gas-powered car can achieve with one 5-minute fill up), he’ll have plenty of time to contemplate his extraordinarily poor decision-making when it comes to purchasing a vehicle.
Read more about the overall stupidity of EVs and GM’s shoddy workmanship and idiotic lack of CarPlay in “The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV Left Me Stranded In Rural Virginia; It broke down after a mere 28 hours in my possession, stranding me in Wythesville, Virginia” here.
For us, and many, many others, General Motors simply moves even further out of consideration for future purchases (GM never really was in consideration anyway). If GM sticks to this stupidity, it deserves its fate. – MacDailyNews, May 15, 2023
See also: Vehicle buyers consider Ford, Toyota, after GM announces Apple CarPlay phaseout – April 14, 2023
*2024 Chevy Blazer EV has an EPA-estimated range of just 279 miles on full charge
**2024 Chevy Blazer EV takes over 24 hours to reach a full charge
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EVs are for those who’d like to cede their freedom.
EVs are for those who’d like to put their ability to travel at the whim of others.
EVs are for those who like to wait hours to “refill” their vehicles.
EVs are for those who don’t understand how electrical power is generated and distributed.
EVs are for those who like to make themselves feel better about moving emissions from their tailpipes to coal and other fossil fuel-burning power plants.
EVs are for woke, weak, beta, effeminate Ed Begley Jr.-like losers.
EVs aren’t selling; even Hertz woke up and canceled their orders
EVs aren’t workable; even Apple woke up and canceled their EV project.
EVs are for those who can’t do math.
EVs are for the mentally disabled.
EVs are for those that believe it’s ok to power their car using coal b/c they don’t see the smoke stacks. Also, it’s nice being in the crowd that’s proud to say fossil fuels are dirty w/o seeming like a nutcase, as they clean up the planet before we all die in a few yrs and join the dead polar bears that didn’t die.
EVs,Unsafe at any Speed! 🔥🔥🔥
I tried to resist…..but, here goes,
EVs are for those who’d like to cede their freedom.
Have had Tesla model S since 2019, been on 1000 mile trips many times, no problem.
EVs are for those who’d like to put their ability to travel at the whim of others.
???
EVs are for those who like to wait hours to “refill” their vehicles.
Never been to a gas station since 2019. Always wake up with a full tank of 250miles. For trips longer than 500 miles a 30 minute charge at a super charger is all you need.
EVs are for those who don’t understand how electrical power is generated and distributed.
It is far cleaner than burning oil and scattering it throughout the region you drive in. The grid is getting cleaner. The coal burning is at least isolated to point of manufacture if you take sequestration into account. Think of it this way, ICE cars fart all over the place. EV cars fart in one place and contain the smell in a bag.
EVs are for those who like to make themselves feel better about moving emissions from their tailpipes to coal and other fossil fuel-burning power plants.
Not in Canada. Or even most of Europe. Maybe just US.
EVs are for woke, weak, beta, effeminate Ed Begley Jr.-like losers.
I don’t care for any of the woke stuff going on. If I was weak I’d have given in to your FUD about EV’s and bought a horrible ICE car.
EVs aren’t selling; even Hertz woke up and canceled their orders
They are selling just fine. One day you will have one.
EVs aren’t workable; even Apple woke up and canceled their EV project.
Apple were too late and can’t handle it. Steve would have.
EVs are for those who can’t do math.
No maitenenance means I save $2000 dollars per year. Brakes last forever too so no brake work. Electricity cost of 11c per KWh means I travel for less than a 1/3 of what you do.
EVs are for the mentally disabled.
Professionally worked as electronic engineer. Started two companies that were sold to multibillion dollar companies that are household names today. Retired at 40. Very happy driving my models S.
“EV cars fart in one place and contain the smell in a bag.”
Absolute blindness. I bet they smell good, too.
Reason? Or are you just going to throw the “absolute blindness” FUD at us absolutely blindly?
I couldn’t resist either.
EV’s are for virtue signalers like Paul who make excuses and blind to facts…
CarPlay is mandatory for most sophisticated or young automotive customers in the United States.
I can’t think of any other feature I would say that about.
New car, no CarPlay?
Poor planning, GM, poor planning.
I used to buy only Honda any Toyota because of the horrible reliability of American brand cars
I scratched Honda off the list when they went all turbo
This is the perfect case study on how software is the new battle ground in American vehicles. In time we will see if GM was right about not letting Google or Apple software to be in the car. I’m guessing GM will do a 180 in a couple of years and let android auto or CarPlay into their cars. Just because GM is a car company and not a software company. As they already found out they can’t produce their own OS overnight it takes a massive workforce just to make decent software that isn’t full of glitches and bad coding.
No matter. EV’s are now on the decline. Without taxpayer handouts from Joe Biden (and probable kickbacks through Hunter), GM will likely exit the EV business.
GM thinks the iPhone is an accessory to a car, when it’s actually the other way around.
I heard EVs were a hot commodity…!