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

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

#181

Post by thorncorona »

pmontra wrote: post #176
andruby wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion: 1. The navigation works really well for me. Including routing via superchargers 2. The UX of not needing a key. The bluetooth phone key works so much more reliably than other car manufacturers (n=1) 3. The screen is very responsive. Touch UI is fast. 4. The backup and side camera view is the best I’ve seen on cars. 5. Record the last X minutes from all cameras when you honk (someone backed into m…

> The UX of not needing a key. The bluetooth phone key works so much more reliably than other car manufacturers (n=1) But do you still have a key? My phone ran out of battery some 80 km far from home last Thursday because I forgot to charge it. I could enter my car and drive back home because I open it and start the engine with a traditional physical key.

I slip the key card between my phone case and it works fine.

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

#182

Post by pmontra »

dietr1ch wrote: post #110
threatofrain wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately consumers don't really punish companies for doing these kinds of things, at least I presume that's the story since high-end cars often have very shitty in-car computer experiences, like BMW or Porsche.

I'm guessing that when buying a car most people can't afford to be picky with the infotainment system and will prioritize buying a better car over infotainment quality. Worst-case scenario these days is not too bad either, you'll get an aux connector or somewhat stable Bluetooth (if you set it up once and avoid doing anything other than play/pause/next). Yeah, from the software engineering point of view it's slow unr…

As a data point, I buy used cars because they are not a tool I use for work so they are not like my laptop. It's pointless to pay the full price for a car: it is 100% a cost, the car has not ways to give me back some of the money I spend on it.

So my cars are always about 5 or 6 years old when I buy them. I optimize for price and costs of running and maintaining them. What's important is that they handle well, brake as they should, be reasonably safe in case of crashes and that's it.

Infotainment and navigation, I put my phone on a holder and I use it. The car could be a dumb one from 70 years ago and I wouldn't notice. I only use Bluetooth to make hand free calls. If it had no Bluetooth I guess I'd have to find some solution for a noise canceling mic.

By the way, my current car came with a version of Android auto that Google stopped supporting the year before I bought it and the manufacturer never updated the car. However I don't care, my phone is always updated and it's exactly the same UI I'm used to when I'm not in the car. This beats having to learn two of them.

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

#184

Post by hnav »

mulmen wrote: post #90
ungamedplayer wrote: post #4

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…

My 2010 BMW has excellent infotainment software. Better than any new car I have driven (all rentals). Navigation is easily controlled with the iDrive knob. Previous destinations are sorted in reverse chronological order. New destinations are easy to enter. Adding destinations works as expected (insert/append). When the fuel gauge reaches 1/8 of a tank the car prompts to add a gas station on the route which can be acc…

iDrive 5 forward (2015ish), map updates are OTA.

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

#185

Post by Rebelgecko »

verhaust wrote: post #160
andruby wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion: 1. The navigation works really well for me. Including routing via superchargers 2. The UX of not needing a key. The bluetooth phone key works so much more reliably than other car manufacturers (n=1) 3. The screen is very responsive. Touch UI is fast. 4. The backup and side camera view is the best I’ve seen on cars. 5. Record the last X minutes from all cameras when you honk (someone backed into m…

2-8 do sound great. They are the reasons I was looking at a Tesla. Hadn't even heard of some of those. The car I'm looking to replace is a 2009 toyota corolla commuter car that is really starting to have maintenance issues. The right speakers even stopped working a few years ago. The speaker on my phone is better so I just put the sound all the way up and use that. The audio sucks, but it's easy. I sit down, press pl…

FWIW a lot of the things in 2-8 aren't unique to Tesla.

My non-Tesla does 3, 4 (camera view seems higher res than the Model Y I test drove, although I don't find the blind spot cameras that helpful because you have to take your eyes off the road to use them), 6, 7, 8 (Although I don't have enough experience to say how Tesla's compares), and 9 (except the Spotify bit, but since I use Android Auto and anyone who DJs in my car has either that or Carplay it's a non-issue)

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

#186

Post by pmontra »

thorncorona wrote: post #181
pmontra wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The UX of not needing a key. The bluetooth phone key works so much more reliably than other car manufacturers (n=1) But do you still have a key? My phone ran out of battery some 80 km far from home last Thursday because I forgot to charge it. I could enter my car and drive back home because I open it and start the engine with a traditional physical key.

I slip the key card between my phone case and it works fine.

Yeah, a card. A very inconvenient form factor compared to a key. I forgot that new cars use cards more and more. A key can be put in a pocket and never breaks. A card needs a holder to protect it.

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

#187

Post by infotogivenm »

pmontra wrote: post #172
alexvoda wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wake me up when you can open the glove compartment without drilling down a menu on a touchscreen because that is certainly not what I call good UI.

I've never been in a Tesla but does that mean that you can't pull it open with your hands? I'll put that into a checklist of things to try whenever I'll buy my next car.

Correct. Worst rental car experience of my life.

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

#188

Post by fl7305 »

jonathankoren wrote: post #150
dntrkv wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that you need to architect, build, and maintain that system for years, or decades, to come. That requires an in-house software team that knows what it's doing. Building that first version that "works" is easy. Building that first version that actually works and supports everything you need it to, is quite a bit more difficult. Building and then maintaining that software, year after year, without slowin…

Uh… cars don’t really change from year to year. Pretending that an acceptable infotainment system is hard to do, just isn’t so. The real problem is dumbass “features” (my MDX likes to show an animation of the keyboard typing out all the words a half second a letter, whenever you click autocomplete… for some reason) The real issue is that the infotainment systems are underpowered, because they’re considered an afterth…

> infotainment systems are underpowered, because they’re considered an afterthought.

Also, cars sell in the millions. Car manufacturers will redesign a circuit board if it will save them cents on each board.

So it is always a struggle to put a more powerful CPU in there.

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

#189

Post by hgomersall »

mulmen wrote: post #144
frumper wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A no nonsense infotainment system doesn’t sound like the kind of thing people will spend $25billion a year on.

Good for them? Why should a good infotainment system cost $25B/year in perpetuity? Doesn't anyone solve problems anymore?

From the article: they want a slice of the $25 billion subscriptions.

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

#190

Post by viraptor »

wwweston wrote: post #163
viraptor wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got abandonware in my Ford. It's got a bug in the Bluetooth stack which makes it unusable with my new phone. It's never going to be updated, so out of 2 users of that car, one can't play media and the other needs to deal with occasional infosystem crashes that require a full reset and re-pairing. You may be lucky today, but as years go by, you'll find some bugs too. As Bluetooth standards evolve, you'll want non…

or an aux jack

You mean a dongle to aux jack, because that's a new phone. I can also not use a cable and turn the volume up to max. Either way, that's a workaround for something that's actually broken and could be fixed with a software update.
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