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

jalopnik.com

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

#341

Post by imp0cat »

gambiting wrote: post #269
imp0cat wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just push the button on your steering wheel and use voice control. You (mostly) do not have to touch the screen at all.

>>Or just push the button on your steering wheel and use voice control It's literally the worst way to interact with anything. It's infuriating how bad it is, especially for someone whose first language isn't English. It understands maybe 20% of the commands I give it, and the delay between clicking the button, it doing the "bong" to indicate it's ready, then listening to my command, then it processing and finally gi…

Right, I feel your pain, bilingual Android Auto sucks. I wouldn't use voice control to call someone (luckily there is a dedicated button on the steering wheel for that).

But for other stuff (changing tracks or albums - "play xxx from spotify") it works just fine for me. And yes, I use a louder "computer" or "command" voice when talking to digital assistants (had to learn how to do that to control Amazon's Alexa devices). ;)

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

#342

Post by ghusbands »

There are many comments here saying that Android Auto is not buggy - in my four years of experience, it certainly has had major and minor issues. Here is a non-exhaustive list of issues and oddness:

1. When you plug it in, it fiddles with bluetooth settings, because although the screen is sent via the cable, the audio and similar is sent via bluetooth. This sometimes results in odd behaviour and requires unplugging/replugging.

2. For a long time, when I plugged it in already navigating, the phone would show an "Android Auto has stopped working" dialogue and the car screen would go blank. I eventually found it was a conflict between Android Auto and the mini-map overlay feature of Google Maps.

3. Currently, whenever I try to use the voice assistant, it says approximately "Sorry, there has been a problem. Please try again later." Trying again later doesn't work. So now I have to pull over to change or add destinations.

4. When you choose to navigate somewhere from another app, it navigates to a place that's like 10m-100m away from it in some direction, which is sometimes an entirely different road. If I unplug the phone, set the destination, then plug it in again, then it navigates correctly.

5. It doesn't support sending messages via anything other than SMS, which is a pain when you're wanting to tell someone on WhatsApp or Messenger that you're five minutes away.

6. I made the mistake of playing a podcast through Google Podcasts (which is built in to Android Auto). Now, it just always plays it when I get to my car. I can't make it forget the podcast, and it plays from the start if it finished. I can only replace it with another podcast for it to keep playing unprompted.

7. Occasionally, it will switch destination to one from an older navigation session. Best hope you notice before you drive too far the wrong way.

8. This might have been fixed, recently, but whenever I would restart my phone, it would have as many Google Maps sessions as I'd had journeys since the last restart; however Android Auto was taking over Google Maps was leaving zombie activities/processes.

9. There have been a good few more, besides.

I still prefer it over what car manufacturers might provide, though.

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

#343

Post by sokoloff »

fallingknife wrote: post #316
sterlind wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder about the CAN bus. there's no access control on the CAN network, there's one shared bus for the whole car, and any controller can starve the bus by spamming with a high address, unless that's changed. you'd hope that there'd be some kind of filtering to prevent the infotainment system from sending (arbitrary) CAN messages, but I recall some crazy demos of researchers pwning a car's accelerator after rooti…

Is that really a security issue, though? If someone has access to your center console, they have access to your car. If someone has access to your car, they can cut your brake lines or do a million other things that are impossible to defend against.

The concern is that the attack could be carried out remotely.

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-hig... is one such example (might be the one GP is referring to).

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

#344

Post by ajdude »

sokoloff wrote: post #301
nottorp wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but CarPlay and android auto work :) I have little compassion for poor GM not being able to upsell me a touch screen system that doesn’t work

What Nissan did was say “if you want leather interior, you have to buy the package that includes our awful touchscreen nav”. They sold a lot of nav units that way (and that’s about the only way, IMO).

Had to do this with Mazda.

Five years later and the touchscreen keeps causing ghost touches every time the car stops, I actively have to make sure I'm in some obscure menu where random touches won't start calling people or changing the radio channel.

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

#345

Post by lotsofpulp »

fallingknife wrote: post #311
urbandw311er wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting how you correctly identify that this is a massive play for control by Apple and Google, and yet you still seem to sympathise with their position! I can completely understand why vehicle manufacturers are so wary. Just look at the history of how Apple, Google, etc companies have behaved when it comes to “partnerships”. Look at the App Store. Look at what Google did to supposedly open source Android. I…

Nobody is being held ransom. GM can win this any time by building good software themselves. This is just another example of tech companies gaining a market through the fair competition of building a better product.

I disagree. I will never trust a non Apple or Alphabet entity more than Apple or Alphabet to connect to my phone.

I like and will always prefer that I can get into any vehicle with CarPlay/Android Auto and trust that my phone is not giving out any information.

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

#346

Post by lotsofpulp »

megablast wrote: post #336
theyeenzbeanz wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good lord the greed just never ends does it? They should look at BMW and see how quickly the heated seat thing fell through for them. At least I know what manufacturers to avoid from now on.

Good. Making car drivers finally pay is the greatest thing ever. I am sick of subsidies for them.

How does a car manufacturer earning more money help a non car user (presumably pedestrian/bicyclists/public transit users)?

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

#347

Post by lotsofpulp »

andsoitis wrote: post #98
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is the exception here: they seem to have mastered making a car software experience that doesn’t suck, and they don’t even support CarPlay. But Tesla is a tech/software company that happens to make cars (of dubious build quality), I don’t think conventional automakers can replicate that.

Tesla software experience far outshines CarPlay and Android Auto.

I would rather not give Tesla access to data from my phone.

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

#348

Post by theshrike79 »

urbandw311er wrote: post #260
bastard_op wrote: post #156

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…

It’s interesting how you correctly identify that this is a massive play for control by Apple and Google, and yet you still seem to sympathise with their position! I can completely understand why vehicle manufacturers are so wary. Just look at the history of how Apple, Google, etc companies have behaved when it comes to “partnerships”. Look at the App Store. Look at what Google did to supposedly open source Android. I…

I sympathise with myself.

I don't want to have an infotainment system in my car I need to spend hundreds of euros to update the software for. Or order a Totally Legit Upgrade DVD from Slovenia via eBay for only 50€. That just happens to require me to insert a CD that says "unlock" on it first :D

Then the upgrade took two hours, 1h 50min of which the device was totally unresponsive and I wasn't sure if it would be OK to turn off the car or not.

Oh, and the maps were always out of date. It cost more to get the "update" (which was always old) than it would've been to buy a separate GPS unit.

And this was a premium VW car, albeit a bit older at the time.

I'd much rather use the device in my pocket that has eons more computing power than all the CPUs in all the cars I've ever owned combined, with up to date maps, traffic data and regular free software updates. The device I can upgrade separately from my car at any time I want.

If a car doesn't support CarPlay, I'm not buying it. (One of the top5 reasons I haven't bought a Tesla)

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

#349

Post by ants_everywhere »

bastard_op wrote: post #156

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…

> Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars

To expand on your point, both Google and Apple are rumored to be getting into the business of manufacturing cars (e.g. Waymo and the rumored Apple Car). So GM may be looking toward the future where their infotainment systems are owned by rival car manufacturers.

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