General Motors Hires Former Apple Executive to Lead Software After Announcing Plans to Nix CarPlay

[East India Company]

To be honest, the only thing I’ve used CarPlay for was playing music from the iPhone. The navigation is garbage because the sat nav with the phone lags behind and that can make you miss a street. With the car interface you never have this issue.
Also I wouldn’t want to rely on a third party to display critical information. So fine for music.

 

[sdf]

This seems an odd sequence of events to me. Why wouldn't you have your software leader before announcing?

 

[sdf]

To be honest, the only thing I’ve used CarPlay for was playing music from the iPhone. The navigation is garbage because the sat nav with the phone lags behind and that can make you miss a street. With the car interface you never have this issue.
Also I wouldn’t want to rely on a third party to display critical information. So fine for music.

I've never noticed any lag. Perhaps it depends on car model.

 

[gleepskip]

I've never noticed any lag. Perhaps it depends on car model.

They probably own a GM 🤣

 

[SB1500]

I guess I don't really understand why car manufacturers are interested in mucking around this part of the car experience rather than leaving it to more experienced companies to do it. Maybe they see this as encroaching on their domain?

I get your point. And I doubt GM will produce any kind of ‘CarPlay killer’. But a company like GM cannot accept and put its eggs all into Apple’s basket for such an essential part of any modern car. What if and when Apple starts changing and focussing on something it fundamentally doesn’t want to support?

You also fail to imagine that perhaps as a partner who does / has worked with Apple, combined with Apple’s new published full on CarPlay experience, that GM already knows something we don’t about Apples direction and plans that might work for Apple (and be amazing to us) but probably not to the universal sort of appeal that something like a car Must have in order to achieve mass general appeal.

 

[SB1500]

I've never noticed any lag. Perhaps it depends on car model.

Some older 2015-2019 Cars, the first generations to have CarPlay usually as an option and can be ‘retrofitted’ tend to have that kind of lag. I’d believe it. I’m sure the higher end manufacturers had it smooth from day one but definitely here in Europe a lot of lower end manufacturers who scrambled to make it an option on hardware which probably wasn’t the best for it

 

[SB1500]

I don't get why car companies have any desire to also be software companies. It seems expensive, complicated, and consumer-unfriendly. Why we don't have ubiquitous 3rd party infotainment developed by Apple/Google/Microsoft is a mystery to me.

My 2018 Toyota has a pretty lousy system. But it does work ‘as well as it did’ in 2018 and it will still work that way, just as well in 2028 (being a Toyota, maybe literally). No mandatory frequent software updates. No need for bug fixes or exploit patches. It’ll just work like the appliance it is - forever. Our iPhones and Mac’s are such a superior experience but they come with a lot of performance demand and ongoing commitment to that software. Car software can can be crappy but credible manufacturers understand and seem to be able to build things to a higher functional standard, albeit at the cost of intuitiveness most times

 

[jamesnajera]

They dropped Android Auto support as well, it's just not making as big of a splash.

Even if GM's software ends up using Android at its core — and I don't think it will — you can be reasonably sure Android Auto will be disabled to the point that it requires a reinstall at a minimum.

No, I was thinking more of a USB dongle that you can connect to most cars with an Android base system and then that dongle enables you to use CarPlay and Android Auto. These are called AutoPlayBox.

 

[gleepskip]

No, I was thinking more of a USB dongle that you can connect to most cars with an Android base system and then that dongle enables you to use CarPlay and Android Auto. These are called AutoPlayBox.

The concept is ok, but running Android? Some actually want to avoid Google as much as feasible.

Google I/O this week makes Orwell's works look like nursery rhymes.

 

[2REPOU]

Imagine how dated their own system will look in a few years unless they make it updateable. Like any 10 year old car, the infotainment system looks old. At least with Apple Car play or Android Auto, they can make it look phone-like

 

[jamesnajera]

The concept is ok, but running Android? Some actually want to avoid Google as much as feasible.

Google I/O this week makes Orwell's works look like nursery rhymes.

A lot of cars are actually running Android OS with their car radios. The car manufacturer just customized it like the way Amazon does with their Fire devices. You just don’t know that it is Android in your car radio. Those types of radios can accept a USB device that can add the CarPlay and Android Auto support.

 

[_Spinn_]

CarPlay is a must on my next vehicle.

 

[sdf]

No, I was thinking more of a USB dongle that you can connect to most cars with an Android base system and then that dongle enables you to use CarPlay and Android Auto. These are called AutoPlayBox.

They are explicitly not using Android.

 

[H2SO4]

Prioritizing CarPlay doesn't limit a buyer to a tiny handful of auto manufacturer or models. I don't get your point at all. It's ubiquitous, unless you are shopping at GM for an EV or buying used.

If you don't get my point I'm not sure I can help you.
If when choosing a car Carplay is a showstopper for you over the other safety options available then dunno what to say.

 

[H2SO4]

I wish more people out there were like you.

Admittedly. It probably comes from years of driving.
If you work in the field and cover a lot of miles I think you look at motoring from a different perspective after a while. The perspective comes about after years of seeing accidents and near misses. You then start to think about what you can do to improve your chances, so thngs like heated windscreen, multi beam super bright headlights become a LOT more important.
Not everybody has access to an new one but driving an old vehicle especially is something you don't realise how, well 'crappy' to be frank things are until you've been on that old slippery dark country lane.
They are nicer sometimes though. More comfy too.

I'm perfectly happy with Bluetooth and a memory stick for entertainment.

 

[H2SO4]

Nonsense. The creeps at GM that will be sharing users' personal data with Google for $$ might claim that, but it would be pure BS.

Pls provide your reasoning/evidence for this.

 

[sdf]

Some older 2015-2019 Cars, the first generations to have CarPlay usually as an option and can be ‘retrofitted’ tend to have that kind of lag. I’d believe it. I’m sure the higher end manufacturers had it smooth from day one but definitely here in Europe a lot of lower end manufacturers who scrambled to make it an option on hardware which probably wasn’t the best for it

My 2019 Ioniq doesn't have any noticeable lag, but I understand it had some large changes that year. That might have included a better infotainment/CarPlay link. (And yeah, I know you didn't say all 2019! Just adding data!)

 

[Imhotep397]

I don't get why GM would nix Carplay when it's almost become the defacto standard in most cars today.

 

[diamond.g]

I don't get why GM would nix Carplay when it's almost become the defacto standard in most cars today.

They want to control their own destiny....

(aka they want the sweet sweet subscription revenue all to themselves)

 

[jamesnajera]

They want to control their own destiny....

(aka they want the sweet sweet subscription revenue all to themselves)

They want to charge a subscription fee for that infotainment?

 

[diamond.g]

They want to charge a subscription fee for that infotainment?

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Yeah.