GM's CarPlay replacement software is off to a disastrous start
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
It's completely unsurprising to expect the first generation of something like this, even if it was amazing, to have annoying flaws. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound amazing. Car companies have a long track record of disappointing infotainment systems and there's zero reason to expect anything better here. In fact, the problems in this article sound identical to the ones I had with Honda's most basic level infotainment system just a couple years ago. It would freeze and the only fix was turning off the car...a difficult solution on road trips. Asking the dealer about it, they said there was no update process for it--maybe a newer model year wouldn't have that issue?
Back in the days of manual transmissions, this wasn't so hard. I remember having to do this for some odd reason (don't remember) back in the 90s: just clutch in, turn off the ignition, restart the engine, clutch out.
On my most recent car which had an infotainment system, there was some kind of three-button combination you could press to reboot the system without restarting the car.
The car was actually a manual transmission and the thought did occur to me. My worry was something like steering lock or some other issue while trying that while driving down the road would cause a horrible accident.
Considering that, I have no reason to believe they are even capable of producing a somewhat reliable average UX.
So I’m with the GP on this one.
But I may be wrong.
Also, let’s not pretend it’s not a little weird to have someone build a car in 2023 that doesn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto and isn’t firmly in the budget segment. It’s not only going to feel unusual, but market pressure for improvements on GM will be completely different if you use their custom system than something that is more standardized and used by orders of a magnitude more customers.
I don't currently use it because I find the native interface superior, but I do want the option.
That’s not going to be true of the GM thing, since the whole point is that they want to charge subscription fees and sell data their services gather.
Knowing Google, they'll sunset this project within a few years and these GM EVs will lose support and fall behind on the features Google adds to their own hardware.
Imagine GM were a home builder who suddenly said they will no longer sell any homes they build, only rent them out. You are free to sell your house with your 3% mortgage, and go back to renting, to see if you prefer it. But those who choose to continue owning are not in a “cult,” and they’d think you were making a pretty bad decision. And they’d almost certainly be right.
2. Don't get it twisted, GM is locking down their system for a reason. And I'll give you one guess as to why - money.
There’s just no surprise here at all. This will all be improved (but not fixed) a year from now.
Once the bugs are worked out, Android Auto users will still continue to see user improvements much faster than GM's custom Android build. It's only a matter of time until Google sunsets support for GM's current vehicles running their custom build. At that point, GM will either use that as leverage to get you to buy a new vehicle, and/or cave to user demand and reinstate Android Auto support in newer vehicles.
But it's one thing to try that move on the captive customer base that is one's fellow engineers; surprised to see it done quite so boldly on the general public.
No it won't, it'll be abandoned and unsupported like all the other terrible car software.
Your car updates never and has the absolute cheapest hardware from 5 years ago that the manufacturer could possibly dig up from the trash.
Your phone updates continuously and generally has close to top of the line semiconductor technology in it.
Marrying these two is a disaster that anybody can predict.
- for EVs, route planning since AA/CarPlay doesn't know anything about the SoC, and battery pre-conditioning since the car doesn't know anything about the navigation
- likewise, no HUD integration with the navigation
This only really matters for longer road trips though.
It would be nice, though, to have the actual map be shared (the built-in nav has some cool integrations), and for commands to be transmitted back to Android Auto from the car - for example with steering wheel controls, or when low on charge/gas looking for a charging/gas station.
Sadly only a handful of manufacturers make use of this. Seems to be only Porsche Taycan and Ford Mustang Mach-E thus far(0)
As for HUD integration, the next gen CarPlay concept showed that as a possibility, but the two concepts announced yesterday by Porsche and Aston Martin didn’t show that implementation[1].
0: https://9to5mac.com/2023/08/19/ios-17-adds-real-time-chargin...
1: https://9to5mac.com/2023/12/20/first-cars-with-next-generati...
How are they gonna recoup that lost money, if people don't need to go to the dealership every now and then to change oil?
Subscription all the way!
Want map/gps? Free version has ad, 7.99/month to remove ads. And you want traffic prediction? Go for the premium at 9.99$!
Music? Comes with free Spotify. Buy the premium through the car, gm gets a cut.
I'm not smart enough to think of all the possibilities but the way I look at it, I'll stay with my own phone connected on Bluetooth and a 10$ phone holder.