361–370 of 438 posts
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically motorcycle companies seem to be doing better in this regard. For example Royal Enfield, KTM or even BMW.
At least nobody is stupid enough to add a touch screen infotainment system to a motorcycle.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought a BMW i4, not a Tesla 3, so this is just my comparison. But Tesla software works really well, they have navigation to chargers, something that doesn’t really work in the BMW, you are pretty much on your own. They have sentinal mode, and it actually doesn’t suck like BMW’s drive recorder does. You can open your car with your phone, like for real via UWB, not just some NFC thing that works only in one place, o…
I have an i3, pre-carplay, and I like that the computer works well with just a jog wheel. It has a navigate to charger feature that works reasonably well (though there are too many steps to “only show fast chargers”, and many stations are broken, though hopefully the tesla supercharger deal will fix that…) Range estimates seem to be accurate, unlike Tesla’s high-balling. Anyway, I’m hoping they can do at least that w…
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…
As we progress into the future, there needs to be a major pushback on the software upsell practices of companies, especially for cars. Cars need to be reliable, and dependable. My desktop PC has been running for 11 years now, with the power on (with only minor hardware & OS updates), the only thing that has been a constant threat to it's reliability is the drive by software makers to milk me out of my money for updates.... They often push updates under the premise that they are for security, but now most updates are to insert ads and up-sell schemes into the apps and OS.
I miss the old days, because even though you could buy new hardware, you rarely needed to... Now, with each update, I'm worried about my PC being bricked and heavy downtime without any real technical support available, because there are so many different greedy brands of companies making tons of devices that they regularly drop updates for. Something has to change about the software-driven economy, or I'm planning to just go entirely "off grid" for the most part in my retirement from being a developer and consumer myself.
I've never owned a car made by GM, but a decision like this guarantees I never will. I don't buy their take that the safety issues are because Android Auto and CarPlay are buggy and have connection issues and other crap that cause people to use their phone directly. I've only had a new enough car to use Android Auto for a year and half now, but I've literally never encountered a bug that required me to touch my phone…
My GM-made car does indeed have connectivity issues with CarPlay at least a few times a month. Turning my phone's Bluetooth off and on again fixes it, which makes me wonder if the problem really is on the phone side. On the other hand, it happens more often when switching between a built-in car app (like the 360 cameras app) and the Carplay app, which probably implicates the car's software more? In any case, it is pr…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Calling it car software is very generous. More like abandonware.
I want abandonware in my car. Don't include alpha-grade software in a mid-five-figure product. If you can't get it right don't ship it. The navigation/infotainment space is a thoroughly solved domain. We don't need biweekly OTA updates to add the latest trendy thing. I don't want controls moving around or menus changing based on a perverted engagement metric. BMW "pathced" several mechanical features of my car. This…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: they want a slice of the $25 billion subscriptions.
Sure but who wants that? GM could be right that people want a car that hasn’t been enshittified. The problem with chasing $25bn in subscription fees is you don’t know the opportunity cost of alienating your customer base.
They think they’ll make $25B themselves. They also want your data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
>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.
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.
Don't you need to plug in your phone anyway to charge it? And what about switching drivers and quickly switching phones? Or just having the passenger quickly switch to their music.
Most car trips are under an hour long, and many phones have batteries that last 18-24 hours.
Personally, I mostly never use a car charger unless my phone missed the wireless charger that night.