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GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

jalopnik.com

71–80 of 438 posts

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#71
post #43
post #21

The major advantage of AA/CP is they are simple screen projection protocols capable of being supported for decades. The "brains" of the system, namely the phone, can be easily upgraded as technology changes. People will get new phones. Operating systems will be upgraded. Apps will come and go. Maps will update. The system will keep working flawlessly. This can't happen with fixed hardware in vehicle - the firmware an…

Yep. I got my first car with CarPlay in 2015. That’s 8 years ago. iPhones are always faster than the infotainment systems in cars due to development cycles and cost. Now my iPhone is eight years newer than the one that was already better than my car. So it’s obviously faster. Apple has delivered numerous new features in those eight years, the car never received a single update. That wasn’t even an ability on the car.…

I dunno, I got my first car with Car Play a year ago. I'm not super impressed. It's buggy and slow and the interface is clunky. It's better than using my phone directly, barely, but I still would have bought the car if it didn't have it. All I really want is music and maps anyway, and I can just get a cheap phone mount for my dashboard like I did with my old car so I don't have to look down at it.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#72
I don’t like hooking my car up to my phone. And I generally like in-car nav. Google Maps has ads, bugs me to report accidents, routes through neighborhoods to save 30 seconds, and won’t show up in a HUD or binnacle. All I want is a good way to enter a destination, Bluetooth support, and I’m happy. I remember hearing that Audi can use What Three Words, or some similar scheme? That’s my ideal. My Volvo has a phone app that can send an address to the car. It’s a bit slow sometimes, but it works great and gets me where I need to be every time. If GM has something similar, I’m down with dropping the complicated phone support.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This way they can wrap the errors in try..catch blocks and suppress their output. Boom - error free code!

“Try..catch”—what the hell is that? When I craft my performant error-free code, I only use the finest bug-squasher: On Error Resume Next. No need to wrap anything. You declare it once and cruise to your solution.

Fun-fact: if you compile VB.NET code that uses On Error Resume Next it results in output IL that wraps every statement in its own try/catch+swallow block.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#74
post #33

I've never owned a car made by GM, but a decision like this guarantees I never will. I don't buy their take that the safety issues are because Android Auto and CarPlay are buggy and have connection issues and other crap that cause people to use their phone directly. I've only had a new enough car to use Android Auto for a year and half now, but I've literally never encountered a bug that required me to touch my phone…

My GM-made car does indeed have connectivity issues with CarPlay at least a few times a month. Turning my phone's Bluetooth off and on again fixes it, which makes me wonder if the problem really is on the phone side.

On the other hand, it happens more often when switching between a built-in car app (like the 360 cameras app) and the Carplay app, which probably implicates the car's software more?

In any case, it is pretty annoying. It sometimes happens at really inopportune times, which can be a distracting safety hazard just from the loss of connectivity/functionality alone (i.e. not even considering needing to touch the phone, which is illegal while driving in many US states.)

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All car infotainment systems are essentially garbage. But BMW and Porsche both have excellent CarPlay support.

The infotainment screen in my Tesla is great. Just the other day I had to drive a relatives car and used google maps navigation on my phone, I was amazed at how subpar google maps navigation is compared to tesla (lacking ability to quickly overview route, missing lane based navigation, screen never auto recenters as you drive)

Google Maps has lane navigation. IDK what you mean about 'auto' recentering. I think it does this though.

There used to be a zoom out/overview feature, but it's def not in Android Auto these days.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#77
GM is the very same company who recently bricked nearly all of their new model Colorado mid-size trucks with an OTA update that drained the car batteries.

That they think they have the chops to roll their own system is rather laughable at best.

Oh well, at least they are used to losing billions by now.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#78
post #43
post #21

The major advantage of AA/CP is they are simple screen projection protocols capable of being supported for decades. The "brains" of the system, namely the phone, can be easily upgraded as technology changes. People will get new phones. Operating systems will be upgraded. Apps will come and go. Maps will update. The system will keep working flawlessly. This can't happen with fixed hardware in vehicle - the firmware an…

Yep. I got my first car with CarPlay in 2015. That’s 8 years ago. iPhones are always faster than the infotainment systems in cars due to development cycles and cost. Now my iPhone is eight years newer than the one that was already better than my car. So it’s obviously faster. Apple has delivered numerous new features in those eight years, the car never received a single update. That wasn’t even an ability on the car.…

My wife's car, a Tesla, gets updates more often than my phone, a Samsung.

Re: GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

#79

Call it what it is.. they like the control of their in car entertainment systems and they don't want external companies taking that part of the pie. It's okay gm, we understand. Let's hope you are able to make a compelling competition to this, otherwise your sales will suffer. Traditional car software is very very poor for whatever reason. I don't think that car manufacturers have the mindset and capability to make e…

I expect they don't want to pay what great software engineers cost, and even if they did, most such engineers probably wouldn't want to put up with GM's bureaucracy. It's probably kinda the same story with great mechanical and industrial engineers, which is why approximately nobody finds GM cars exciting.

It doesn't take much more than not going for the cheapest offshore team possible to make better car media center code than we get. I'm sure most of us could easily do it ourselves in a month or less. It seems like such a simple problem. Play songs and interface with some controls/radio receiver/etc while being at least a tiny bit conscious of efficiency.
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