General Motors has capitulated on its hard line against phone projection, bringing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto into a new truck user interface after years of pushing customers toward its own software, according to Bloomberg News‘ David Welch.
The automaker will introduce the system later this year on the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500. Rather than letting CarPlay or Android Auto occupy the entire screen, GM is placing the phone interface in a large window alongside native functions such as trailering data, tire pressure, fuel information, and Super Cruise.
The design is a retreat from GM’s 2023 decision to drop CarPlay and Android Auto from electric vehicles, a move that drew backlash from buyers who wanted their familiar phone apps on the dashboard. Gas-powered trucks had kept the features, and the new interface is meant to end the either-or choice between Apple or Google and GM’s own system.
GM product officials have described the split view as the “sweet spot,” allowing drivers to use phone apps without losing truck-specific tools. Tapping the phone icon opens CarPlay or Android Auto in the large pane; the home control returns the native layout.
The software also adds updated graphics, animated transitions, and simplified layouts for towing and off-roading on large displays, including a 16.3-inch touchscreen. GM plans to start with its highest-volume pickups before spreading the interface more widely.
MacDailyNews Take: Shocker.
General Motors is blowing it by barring the widely-used Apple CarPlay (and Google’s derivative Android Auto) that allow drivers to bypass vehicle’s infotainment systems, shifting instead to an built-in infotainment system, Google Automotive, for future electric vehicles.
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
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GM failed to recognized that your car is an accessory to your phone not the other way around.
GM’s Job: Sell as many vehicles as possible.
What GM Thought Their Job Was: Vehicle sales will grow regardless of what they do to tech, just get people stuck in their tech to start charging GM+ monthly system/service fees- which no one wants.
GM Realized: Oh, our jobs is to sell as many vehicles as possible, and gee, tech is a HUGE deal to potential and existing customer. And oh my, CarPlay is a MASSIVE deal – go figure!
The arrogance and hubris at GM believing they can suddenly surpass Silicon Valley with vehicle tech is laughable. Apple and Google’s job? Tech and tech only (well Google is really a seller of you and ad space for others to sell too you but I digress…). A maker of Trucks, Cars, and SUV’s is going to compete and be ablate update and and and, like Silicon Valley? That is laughable. And knowing people get new phones every year or two and multiple updates to them, how does a vehicle keep up with that? Get a new center infotainment console every year or two, with new chips, wifi, tech, AI? No. No, a vehicle doesn’t do that.
Put it this way:
The current GM products are using a QUALCOMM Snapdragon chipset used in cell phones from 2018!!!!! Wonder why your display just takes a second to switch screens or is just not super snappy as it should be in many tasks? Because these vehicle makers are as cheap as possible that’s why!
Just keep the Blackberry QNX software going, and let the devices do the rest. You can’t keep up, you’ll never keep up and it’s NOT WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT! Duh, duh, duh….