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

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191–200 of 438 posts

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

#191
Why, oh why, is in-car infotainment so bad? And I don't mean bad as in subjective opinions about user interface. I mean the fact that my 2 year old high-end Audi A6 still show Yelp ratings in the navigation system in Europe - Yelp pretty much shutdown in Europe 2016!

It feels like there is somewhere an hierarchical organization somewhere completely lacking product management and a connection to what is expected in the digital world.

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

#192

Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars, and almost universally they were all terrible no matter how expensive the vehicle. Finally Android Auto and CarPlay gave everyone what they wanted - decent access to music on their phone, call capabilities that actually work, and program integration with things they actually use with internet service they already have. Then manufacture…

I think you pretty much nailed it.

On the other hand I will only buy a car where the car is a BT audio unit and control head and nothing else. Everything more than that sucks.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, AC controls are only available through the touchscreen, not through any physical dials or buttons. (In my Honda, I operate AC by touch - I remember the physical button layout for the essentials like rear window heating, and the knobs have a grove that can be read by fingers without looking).

I understand the argument and read it often on HN. I just want to mention that you can have muscle memory on touchscreen too. If you use a smartphone you probably can write without looking. It’s a bit the same with the car touchscreen. I don’t notice big differences when I aim for a virtual button on the car touchscreen and a physical button. For seldomly used buttons, I give a brief quick look both for virtual and p…

> I just want to mention that you can have muscle memory on touchscreen too

Wish that were true for me.

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

#195
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it lacks good media apps for podcasts and audiobooks unfortunately.

How about Spotify? Apple Podcasts is coming in the next (holiday) update in +- 2 weeks (seriously)...

Sounds great with apple podcasts!

My main issue with spotify is that the syncronization is not great (and there are no audiobooks, at least in my market).

For example, I am listening to a podcast at work during the morning. Then some hours later I get in the car to drive home and want to continue the podcast, but often spotify would not be up to date with the current listening position in the podcast and I have to manually try and find the right location.

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

#196

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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.

I don’t have one, but something I can just put in my wallet as opposed to another thing that needs to be in my pocket seems nice.

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

#197
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is an incredibly myopic take bordering on arrogance. The infotainment system of a vehicle needs (as in, is mandated) to be as safety compliant as the rest of the vehicle's software so your steering doesn't lock out when the display crashes. Writing software for safety critical systems is not a task most developers are familiar with.

Absolutely wrong. Infotainment systems in cars these days typically run on Linux, not a hard realtime OS, and are definitely not any kind of safety-critical system whatsoever. There's no need for it either; they're isolated from critical systems on the car, in case there's a problem (and there frequently is).

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

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. IMO, the bureaucracy isn't that big a problem; all big companies have this problem. The big problem for GM is their locations: who the heck wants to move to Detroit? Or any of the other places their suppliers tend to locate?

I was talking to folks who did this in the southeast. Compensation was the problem, not location.

For those folks, sure. For many others, the location could very well be. You won't know because many people probably only look at job ads filtered by location, so they just ignore any that are in "undesirable" places, whatever those may be.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla software experience far outshines CarPlay and Android Auto.

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.

Press right button on steering wheel - say "open glovebox". Works every time in a split second even with my terrible English accent
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