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GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

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Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#41

Post by wtallis »

numpad0 wrote: post #14

Why isn't there still no HID or touch coordinate feedback feature in HDMI? That would solve this problem once and for all. There are Ethernet over HDMI, CEC(IR remote), ARC for audio, but not USB or touch. That seems like a mildly big oversight.

HDMI is first and foremost (and at times, almost exclusively) designed to serve the needs of TVs and related devices. Its presence on PCs and other devices outside the home theater space is largely a consequence of the fact that HDMI until recently was just a new connector carrying DVI signals plus some extensions.

The more relevant connector here would be USB-C, which can readily carry a mix of DisplayPort video signals, USB (including HID), and power, over a connector that is now universal for smartphones. A phone today connected over USB-C could handle all the processing for a very "dumb" car head unit. Aftermarket head units are mostly Android devices already, albeit not literally using USB-C internally.

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#42

Post by winrid »

mips_avatar wrote: post #23
mdasen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that it's the wrong choice, but it's not just about ceding control. It's also about ceding the revenue. For example, to connect their system to the internet, that'll be $20/mo. I'd guess GM gets a large portion of that revenue. If you're using CarPlay, there's no reason for you to buy their service. It looks like GM makes around $1,000 in profit per vehicle. If half of their customers give them $20/m…

GM has a unique customer base of people willing to buy bad cars

Corvette?? Tahoe??

My manual Spark is pretty fun and beats Civic Sis and other fast cars in rallycross. I have done 100+ redline clutch dumps in that car. It still drives fine.

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#43

Post by ifh-hn »

darksaints wrote: post #28
ifh-hn wrote: post #6

This is everything that is wrong with "smart" devices. Just give me a normal radio with Bluetooth capabilities, especially if you're unwilling to support something for the reasonable life of your product.

I have one of these cars, the last model year before they switched to carplay. The bluetooth implementation is dogshit...randomly speeding up songs, audio skipping, cutting out, etc. Occasionally forgets connections and has to be set up from scratch. Can't handle music and navigation at the same time...will turn down volume on music to handle navigation instructions, only to forget to turn the music back up for 5 min…

That situation is ridiculous, my 15 year old diesel has an extremely bare bones touchscreen radio/info dashboard. The Bluetooth, old as it is, works fine.

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#44

Post by otikik »

mdasen wrote: post #20
nneonneo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so glad that I insisted on buying a car with CarPlay five years ago. At the time a number of our options did not have CarPlay, but were otherwise quite solid cars. If I'd gone with any of them I'd likely be a lot less happy than I am now: given that I use CarPlay on literally every drive, it's probably the single most important feature to have. I get that GM doesn't want to cede the important center console to t…

I agree with you that it's the wrong choice, but it's not just about ceding control. It's also about ceding the revenue. For example, to connect their system to the internet, that'll be $20/mo. I'd guess GM gets a large portion of that revenue. If you're using CarPlay, there's no reason for you to buy their service. It looks like GM makes around $1,000 in profit per vehicle. If half of their customers give them $20/m…

People actually pay for that? I would rather pay for a phone holder and use the phone in loudspeaker.

Or simply not buy the car to begin with

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#45

Post by otikik »

winrid wrote: post #42
mips_avatar wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GM has a unique customer base of people willing to buy bad cars

Corvette?? Tahoe?? My manual Spark is pretty fun and beats Civic Sis and other fast cars in rallycross. I have done 100+ redline clutch dumps in that car. It still drives fine.

Does it have CarPlay?

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#46

Post by palmotea »

darksaints wrote: post #28
ifh-hn wrote: post #6

This is everything that is wrong with "smart" devices. Just give me a normal radio with Bluetooth capabilities, especially if you're unwilling to support something for the reasonable life of your product.

I have one of these cars, the last model year before they switched to carplay. The bluetooth implementation is dogshit...randomly speeding up songs, audio skipping, cutting out, etc. Occasionally forgets connections and has to be set up from scratch. Can't handle music and navigation at the same time...will turn down volume on music to handle navigation instructions, only to forget to turn the music back up for 5 min…

> The bluetooth implementation is dogshit...randomly speeding up songs, audio skipping, cutting out, etc. Occasionally forgets connections and has to be set up from scratch.

We need to go back to the days of headphone jacks and analog AUX ports. Seriously. Something simple, reliable, and extremely well-understood.

Cars should be a lot more modular, but the market is consumer-hostile in general and it won't happen without regulation. There should probably be some standardized car-infotainment interface, and consumers be required to buy the infotainment system aftermarket to get more competition and quality in that area.

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#48

Post by arjie »

kens wrote: post #34

The title "GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020" is not the real title, which is "These GM Vehicles Can No Longer Download Apps Through Their Infotainment System" I'll also point out that "deprecate" is not a fancy synonym for "shutting down"; it means that something is discouraged and might be removed in the future. GM is not deprecating the app store; they are removing access.

The slow transformation of 'deprecating' to 'ending' has somehow happened across a period where I didn't notice it happening. Most recently this bit me when a place I was contracting at received notice that a vendor was 'deprecating' some old API they used in May of 2025. Okay, thanks for the warning, and I'll prioritize dealing with that later in the year.

As it so happens, the vendor intended to say that they were insta-sunsetting/deleting/ending-access-to that endpoint. The switch wasn't too much effort for an engineer on the team but that was honestly my first encounter with the fact that "deprecation" today means "deletion" to a lot of people.

There's a few things like this that have semantic drift over time:

1. deprecate -> delete

2. refactor -> rewrite

3. data normalization -> data cleanup

4. hash/encrypt -> now often interchanged

5. authenticate/authorize -> interchanged

6. bricked -> has error, often recoverable

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#49

Post by yard2010 »

numpad0 wrote: post #14

Why isn't there still no HID or touch coordinate feedback feature in HDMI? That would solve this problem once and for all. There are Ethernet over HDMI, CEC(IR remote), ARC for audio, but not USB or touch. That seems like a mildly big oversight.

The problem is that the car manufacturers need a way to extract more money to "grow" and pay for their execs. This won't solve this problem for them, just create another one.

Now this is the problem. Money on a large scale just becomes a huge conflict of interest. This is where regulation should come in, but real regulation, not the bs of the crooked business man that manages the country in the same way.

Excuse me if I'm snarky.

Re: GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020

#50

Post by simulator5g »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #17
dylan604 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's stopping someone from spending a few hundred bucks at their local custom stereo shop and replacing the head unit with something else that is less user hostile? If everything else in the car is what you need, just replace the part you don't like if it's not available as an option.

These days the head unit has its tendrils wrapped around many parts of the car besides just infotainment, and wiring harnesses are a lot more proprietary. Does the aftermarket head unit support your car's parking sensors? How about the backup camera? Even the Homelink button that opens your garage door has migrated to the touchscreen in a lot of newer cars, never mind forehead-slapping features like the climate contr…

This isn't actually true. You just need a module to interface with the car in place of the original head unit. For example the iDatalink Maestro can connect HVAC controls, engine diagnostics, tire pressure, etc to compatible head units. And there are a lot of compatible head units, basically all the worthwhile ones have Maestro support.
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