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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

#411

Post by mulmen »

wwweston wrote: post #407
viraptor wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You mean a dongle to aux jack, because that's a new phone. Yes, that's the way most phones have gone. > I can also not use a cable and turn the volume up to max. My experience with 1/8" connections is that you have two means to change the volume, the one on the source and the one on the destination. There can be some issues with driving both hot (or one hot and one weak), but you set the destination in the modest m…

The disadvantage to the aux jack is I can only control volume while driving. With the built-in hard drive I can change songs as well. That is loaded from simple USB drives. 2010 was still the era of technology serving us.

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

#412

Post by thrixton »

gambiting wrote: post #267
lycopodiopsida wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an observation point - I drive a company car (a BMW) and will be looking for a new car next year. I would not even considers Volvo until they support wireless CarPlay. GM must very much believe in appeal of their car to piss off android and iOS users simultaneously.

Tbf, I don't know why people get hung up on this, I see this on Volvo forums all the time as well - you can literally get a £50 adapter, leave it plugged in inside your armrest and voila, you have wireless carplay. It literally "just works". Should the car already come with it installed? Yes. Is it a big deal to rectify? No.

They don’t all just work, I tried the most popular one (CarLinkIt) and it didn’t work with mine or my wifes phone, I gave up, wireless was not worth it enough for me to go through the hassle of reset this, clear that etc…

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

#413

Post by altairprime »

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…

Their play for control hinges on creating a better user experience than car manufacturers have bothered to create. GM could simply claim that their experience is better, but they’d have to back that with privacy guarantees which would cost them recurring revenue, and they’d have to compel overdue improvements to Bluetooth and USB standards regarding in-car uses, which would then benefit their competitors. GM, a for-profit corporation based in the United States, has apparently chosen not to take those essential steps that would undercut and destroy Apple and Google’s current plays for control, as it would similarly threaten the “our system is ours” niche GM dug for themselves.

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

#414

Post by mikestew »

Xcelerate wrote: post #317
esyir wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out doing it better influences people's preferences. The problem is fundamentally that the carmakers do such a shit job. If infotainment systems matter at all to consumers, we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so.

> we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so. I think there’s a better chance of this happening than they believe. I bought a new Camry in 2017, right at the start of their 4 year upgrade cycle (i.e., the 2018 version). I chose a Camry due to their well-known reliability. However, none of the new vehicle models that Toyota sold had CarPlay at that point,…

I think there’s a better chance of this happening than they believe.

It’s already happening. When GM announced no more CarPlay, we took the $60K we were going to use on a new Blazer EV and gave it to Hyundai instead. (Good thing, too, or we’d still be waiting on that Blazer instead of driving our Ioniq 5 since April.)

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

#415

Post by RockRobotRock »

gambiting wrote: post #295
RockRobotRock wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you can literally get a £50 adapter, leave it plugged in inside your armrest and voila, you have wireless carplay. It literally "just works". I'm thankful for whichever Chinese engineers reversed the protocol for CarPlay to make this work. But my experience with these adapters is they are more fiddly than you're describing.

I mean I have one for wireless android auto and it does just work, it's plugged in, I never have to think about it or worry about it, it just pops up on my screen as if it was built into the car. Maybe the CarPlay ones are more fiddly, I'm not sure.

When I said CarPlay I meant that my particular adapter had reverse engineered the CarPlay protocol to communicate with the car over USB. It can do wireless android auto as well.

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

#416

Post by mulmen »

fallingknife wrote: post #379
sokoloff wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I agree that is a serious concern, then. I thought it sounded like voting machine hacking where the dramatic headlines are hiding the fact that the hackers had physical access to the machine.

Voting machines are scary for different reasons.

1) The general public has private physical access by design.

2) The chain of custody is unclear and hard to prove. This undermines trust in the system.

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

#417

Post by ElijahLynn »

I feel for the guy running this program:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardkummer/ Chief Digital Officer at General Motors

I can't imagine he has a large budget or a fancy allure to hire a team of software engineers that can pull this off well enough. I could be wrong...

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

#418

Post by sokoloff »

mulmen wrote: post #416
fallingknife wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that is a serious concern, then. I thought it sounded like voting machine hacking where the dramatic headlines are hiding the fact that the hackers had physical access to the machine.

Voting machines are scary for different reasons. 1) The general public has private physical access by design . 2) The chain of custody is unclear and hard to prove. This undermines trust in the system.

That depends on the jurisdiction. When I voted in Maryland, there was a machine that I directly cast my vote into.

When I vote where I live now in Massachusetts, I fill out a paper form in private and then I manually feed the forms into a voting machine where I have only supervised physical access.

I think it's entirely possible to have machine-counted ballots without giving unfettered and unsupervised access to the counting machines and I prefer the MA system (for the reasons you describe), but I also recognize the Constitution is clear in its reserving the power to each state for how to conduct the election (at least for President) in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2.

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

#419

Post by drdaeman »

mgarfias wrote: post #363
speedgoose wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sure. But 1) they need to stop moving the controls around with every update 2) there’s no tactile feedback- you have to take your eyes off the road to confirm your press worked

It's hard to implement the tactile feedback, but I have no idea why they don't have audio feedback. Just make an option to make the damn buttons click, etc.

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

#420

Post by MBCook »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #373
aetch wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You compared the most updated infotainment system to the least updated phone. For most people it’s something like Ford vs iPhone or Chevy vs iphone

Tesla's from 2012 are still receiving updates. Not even Apple is still updating phones from 2012.

Most people aren’t using a phone from 11 years ago. So that doesn’t matter as much. A phone is way way cheaper than a car, so people upgrade far more often.
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