Honestly I'm not surprised to hear GM doing something this ridiculous. GM's primary business has been finding new footguns for itself since at least the 1980s; at this point, the only thing going for the company is that their cars are American made (sometimes), and even the beneficial effects of that are debatable at best.
GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
361–370 of 386 posts
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#362My problem with this is: for how many years will they guarantee updates? I already have a TV with built in Google software where half the apps don't work because they stopped updating it years ago. Now imagine this is your car instead.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#363I don’t think I would buy a car that didn’t have CarPlay. I’m an iPhone user and have no interest in changing my phone. People reject cars all the time for even more trivial things (oh — this one doesn’t have wireless charging? Next.), so I can’t imagine this being a smart idea for GM.
Did you know there are CarPlay apps on the play store? That’s how I access CarPlay in my car.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#364I keep hoping and wishing that Rivian will add CarPlay support to the R1T. It's the only electric pickup truck that I'm remotely interested in right now, but no CarPlay is an absolute non-starter. It disqualifies that truck as a purchasing option for me (and I suspect many others). For now, I'll keep saving and waiting.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#365Regardless of whether you prefer Apple or Google, the benefit of phone projection is that you can get a good experience with relatively low specs from the head unit because the heavy lifting is done by the phone which can be upgraded independently of the car. Even powered by Google, the infotainment system is going to age like milk since you’ll be locked into hardware that will be midrange at best, several years old…
These in-dash displays should be universal, with a female USB (C?) port nearby for the user to attach their preferred device. Same with most desks.
We had din sized standards for years. Every display now is still some sort of rectangle. There's no reason we can't come up with another din-like standard for displays. Put some fucking 10 cents RCA connectors on it so I can hook up some amps and speakers that don't suck. Put a CAN bus interface so that may head unit can read all that data from your car and display it. Then you can buy whatever infortainment system you want and keep your car from becoming a dated turd inside.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, removing CarPlay is not a great move, and is rightfully being bashed in this thread -- but these kinds of OEM integrations are far beyond a smartphone subsitute, especially given what's coming down the pipe for auto. As you allude to in your comment already, CarPlay is a "projection", a one-way deal -- whereas most of these integrations make heavy use of data from car sensors, which enables a lot of high fidelit…
You are being down voted in part because you're factually wrong. Apple Carplay is not one-way projection. The phone receives inputs from the car, such as screen touches, the microphone audio from the driver for phone calls, button presses, GPS signals, and even wheel speed information for navigation in tunnels. The reason this integration is not better is in no shape, way, or form Apple's fault. It is 110% caused by…
I still blame Apple and Google partly. Why do we need 2 proprietary projection methods? How about make one standard for any phone or device to connect to the in car display? They fight to dominate the automotive space, and all we get is more and more lock in.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in that being an absolute requirement for a car purchase. My issue is that my #1 requirement (no functionality that requires a touchscreen to use) basically pre-empts me from having any other requirements.
Mazda may come close. They have the control knob in the center. I agree no touchscreen for AC/volume knob and some other things, but zero touchscreen at all (even for radio and menu) seems out there. Time to get a 2001 Cherokee.
Note that I’m not requiring zero touchscreen to be present, just that I don’t have to use the touchscreen for any functionality in the vehicle.
My 2011 car can accomplish everything perfectly well without a touchscreen while I’m wearing giant ski mitts in -30 weather; I’m not interested in a downgrade.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#368It is like they want to lose customers. Even Teslas, which have a good UX that people like, still gets people complaining they wish it had CarPlay or Android Auto. It is just a nice extension of your phone that costs automakers basically nothing to implement. If they think they are going to create their own app stores people buy apps and subscriptions from they are delusional.
We bought a Toyota recently that will require us to pay to use the app if we want to keep using remote start. The app does nothing, but for some reason remote start is locked behind the subscription. I won’t be paying for it.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#369It is like they want to lose customers. Even Teslas, which have a good UX that people like, still gets people complaining they wish it had CarPlay or Android Auto. It is just a nice extension of your phone that costs automakers basically nothing to implement. If they think they are going to create their own app stores people buy apps and subscriptions from they are delusional. We bought a Toyota recently that will re…
The free subscription on my 2021 Toyota expired 16 months ago. Remote start still works. (Well, the fob button sequence is as finicky and inconsistent as it always was, but it does work.) I think Toyota changed their minds on that feature after the bad press about it hit.
Re: GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually got rid of a chevy truck for this precise reason. GMs design choices in their god-awful infotainment system was so annoying I couldn't stand using it. I got rid of that thing within a year and traded it for a F150, which had a significantly better UI and support for apple carplay (even though it required it to be plugged in). Its like nobody ever used their vehicles before they shipped it. Some of my favor…
A daily infuriation for me is that my wife’s 2016 Chevy Equinox does not have a way for you to adjust the default volume of the radio in the firmware for some inexplicable reason. When you power on the vehicle, it’s set to “10” on some arbitrary radio station. There is no way to start the car with the volume muted - you are forced to always have the radio on or turn off the entire unit. https://www.terrainforum.net/t…
My 2018 F-150 does something similar and it’s very annoying. I’ve figured out a workaround to mostly prevent it though. There are 3 “groups” of presets for SiriusXM (not a subscriber) and I just set them all to the ID station where there is no sound. It will randomly change to the next group inexplicably but 99% of the time it keeps it from switching to the radio—which I never want.