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GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

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Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#61

Post by criddell »

mlsu wrote: post #32

How does this business decision make sense? A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit. And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her,…

GM is expecting $20-25 billion in annual subscription revenue by 2030. Dropping CarPlay and Android Auto will definitely lose them many sales. They are betting the lost sales will be less than the new subscription revenue.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#62

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #17

They will either write something workable, or this endeavor will fail, and they will go back to the tried and true.

They're going to have an app that requires excessive permissions and relays your driving data back to the mothership.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#63

Post by ak217 »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #2

Short term, this is stupid. GM pulled out too quickly, and without a superior drop-in replacement. Long-term, this is smart. GM will gain complete control of the software stack, and they won't be bullied into anything. Tesla knows this. Others like Rivian know it too.

I find it incredible that GM (or Rivian, or anyone else trying this) will be able to develop something that works as well as carplay/android auto and maintain it for the life of the vehicle. Phone manufacturers are known for better software departments than car makers and they routinely fail miserably at this. Even Microsoft has failed at embedded a number of times despite knowing how to maintain software over time. It takes a lot more resources and talent than people assume. It took Tesla 15 years, a headquarters in Palo Alto, and tens of billions of dollars to get to the point where maybe they have a chance to pull it off. I don't see these competitors getting ready to invest those kinds of resources.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#64

Post by [deleted] »

criddell wrote: post #61
mlsu wrote: post #32

How does this business decision make sense? A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit. And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her,…

GM is expecting $20-25 billion in annual subscription revenue by 2030. Dropping CarPlay and Android Auto will definitely lose them many sales. They are betting the lost sales will be less than the new subscription revenue.

[deleted]

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#65

Post by getpost »

chrsstrm wrote: post #22
exabrial wrote: post #12

The better option is: remove infotainment completely and _require_ a smartphone for anything other than FM/AM radio. * Support an open protocol for rendering images/video/animations on the screen. Sorta like... you know, CarPlay. * Have controls for what events are allowed to be sent to the connected device. Don't want your phone to know your Throttle Position? Turn that shit off. Don't want your phone to know whethe…

Sure, if you live somewhere with constant cellular connection or you're not sharing a vehicle with someone else. What really irks me is when a connected device is required to do something trivial. My dad's 2021 GMC truck recently got an OTA update that removed the built in map. I discovered this when I was driving in the country and came upon construction with closed roads. I tried to pull up the map and look for a r…

> constant cellular connection

This isn't at all required for music or maps. Phones have up to a terabyte of storage now.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#66

Post by kube-system »

Gigachad wrote: post #43
autoexec wrote: post #3

Personally, I wont ever connect my phone to my car at all (if my next car doesn't have an aux port I'll install one myself), but I have to assume that GM is doing this because their own software siphons more data off of our devices than even carplay or andriod auto does. > "GM is looking to monetize more software and services within its vehicles and is taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook," Since they're only doing…

My assumption is they are doing this because they don’t want to hand over control over the final experience to tech companies who will build a moat and lock them out.

And so they’ll hand it over to Google who will let GM have as much control over the user experience as they want as long as the pipeline of user data keeps flowing.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#67

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

nocsi wrote: post #30
chrsstrm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if you live somewhere with constant cellular connection or you're not sharing a vehicle with someone else. What really irks me is when a connected device is required to do something trivial. My dad's 2021 GMC truck recently got an OTA update that removed the built in map. I discovered this when I was driving in the country and came upon construction with closed roads. I tried to pull up the map and look for a r…

Pretty crazy that 5 years ago, many cars went with an offline first approach to maps. You had to manually update the map database every year. I don’t even see that business model ever returning. Companies have figured out there’s way more money in running a map service. Ftr, teslas stream map tiles and if your car loses connectivity, you’re not going to see anything

If you go into data-less areas, you pretty quickly learn to use downloaded maps (from Google Maps or most any other)

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#68

Post by function_seven »

criddell wrote: post #61
mlsu wrote: post #32

How does this business decision make sense? A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit. And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her,…

GM is expecting $20-25 billion in annual subscription revenue by 2030. Dropping CarPlay and Android Auto will definitely lose them many sales. They are betting the lost sales will be less than the new subscription revenue.

Yeah I think they’re fever dreaming at those recurring revenue projections. Ditching the phone integrations will have them selecting for buyers who don’t care about the Infotainment Experience (ugh), either because they just want the basics, or they can’t afford to be picky or whatever. Then they imagine that these buyers—who didn’t care enough about the big screen in the dash to include it in their buying decision—will pay hundreds of dollars each year to rent an off-brand version of those same features.

Someone over there has fond memories of OnStar, and is desperate to relive their glory days.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#69

Post by prepend »

mlsu wrote: post #32

How does this business decision make sense? A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit. And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her,…

I’m guessing that Google is willing to do a revenue share with GM from the data. And apple doesn’t do that. So some dork at GM figured they can increase revenue with their own special system.

GM has a history of stupid decisions trying to get service revenue from cars. I remember on Star and it was so dumb that they wanted me to lay $40/month for concierge service or something.

Re: GM’s decision to ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto sparks backlash

#70

Post by fma »

flatiron wrote: post #57
endperform wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carplay works without an issue for me. I get in my car, plug it in, and it's ready to roll. No need to deal with Bluetooth or the like, it just works. I'm fine with plugging a phone in when I get in, rather than having it in my pocket and possibly falling out without me knowing about it.

I too like CarPlay and see no need for a wireless version. I like to charge my phone. My only gripe is there should be an option to turn off Wi-Fi when you plug into the car. Every time I get in the car, start a song, drive away, 30 seconds of silence while it realizes I can’t get to my Wi-Fi, song is back on. Why would they not have an option to just use cellular in CarPlay mode which is what 99.9% of people do?

The two vehicles that I have w/ wireless carplay have wireless charging, so just slip my phone in the center console and it charges if I want to charge while driving.

With wireless, no one is stopping you from having a charging cable.

Majority of trips are less < 10 minutes I don't have to take my phone out of my pocket.

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