Chevrolet Blazer first drive: GM's EV platform goes mainstream | Hacker News Reader

Chevrolet Blazer first drive: GM's EV platform goes mainstream

arstechnica.com

14 pointsPaulHoule52 comments

While it seems like most people focus on CarPlay / Android Auto being omitted from all of GM's EVs, I think it's more worrisome that I've seen some articles about various gremlins plaguing the electronics. For example, https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2024-chevy-blazer-ev-long-t...

It's about the size of a Mach-E / Model Y and priced similarly, but I think that's optimistic for Chevrolet.

At this point, the less expensive Equinox EV would likely be a lot more interesting.

Yes, and the Lyriq forums have a lot of complaints too. Too many given the small number of deliveries. It isn't a smooth launch at all, but honestly that isn't uncommon for fully new vehicles.

I'm sure they'll get the biggest issues sorted out relatively soon.

Funny, considering they said removing CarPlay and Android Auto was for safety because they aren't 100% stable.

I've had my phone using CarPlay reboot before. It wasn't big deal, the car still worked, I just didn't have my map or music for a minute. I'd much rather have CarPlay crash than lose connection to the "Drive Motor Control Module" or the "Brake System Control Module". I don't know exactly what those are, but they sure sound important.

Something about stones and glass houses...

On my 2023 Subaru the infotainment system routinely crashes on startup, I think if I plug my phone in too soon after turning it on. I'm sure the engineers at GM (and those at Apple working on Car Play gen 2) have worked through all of these issues that have been plaguing infotainment systems since they were introduced. /s

With most vehicles being 'fly by wire' nowadays, do regulators like the NHTSA and FMCSA have their own software engineers / technology experts reviewing what's going into these vehicles?

When 346 people died on the 737 Max 8s there was headline news speculating on the role of new software. The FAA had a lengthy investigation of Boeing and we saw pieces put out by experts like IEEE opining about what went wrong and how software played a role. Boeing paid $2.5bn to avoid being put on trial.

45,000 people in the USA die in motor vehicle incidents every year. How many hundreds if not thousands of those were caused by software faults? Is the software in sensor-based safety packages working as flawlessly as flight control systems?

I bet more than 346 pedestrians have been killed by drivers of Subarus that have EyeSight packages, drivers who think EyeSight might make a difference in them not hitting someone if they aren't paying full attention to the road.

FWIW I believe 'drive by wire' is exceedingly rare. The Lexus RZ450e and the Cybertruck are the only vehicles I know of where the steering wheel is not mechanically connected to the wheels.

Oh, that's good to know. Throttles are commonly by-wire, but I must have misinterpreted the move away from hydraulic to electric steering assist as moving from mechanical to signals. Thank you for the correction.

It's not priced well at all. Well equipped model at $40K-$45K should be the target if they actually want to build an EV that sells in volume. I'm increasingly convinced that they don't want to sell EVs in volume.

> Navigation is by Google Maps, which you can display on the infotainment screen, on the main instrument display, or both, or just use turn-by-turn directions in the heads-up display. There's also Google's voice assistant, although after eight years both maps and voice assistants will require a monthly fee.

"Gentlemen, start your wallets"

My 2018 Audi had Google Maps built in. Fast forward to 2022 and the functionality was totally broken and I was left with a half functional infotainment system. I even payed extra for the fancy guage cluster that showed the maps. To make matters worse again the car apparently had a 3g and 4g modem for different purposes. So with the 3g sunset I lost even more features. Never buying an Audi again.

Oppppssss...

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/12/gm-issues-stop-delivery...

>On December 1st, 2023, The General issued a stop delivery to its dealerships ordering them to halt deliveries of certain 2024 Chevy Equinox, 2024 Chevy Blazer, 2024 Chevy Blazer EV and 2024 GMC Terrain vehicles, and await further notice.

Are they pulling a KIA?

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/12/kia-canada-deliberately-wi...

I wonder how many VINs were on the list. A small percentage of cars or all of them?

GM has lost the plot. $60k for a small SUV, nobody is going to purchase that. Can we please let the auto companies go out of business this time?

GM yes Ford no.

Look at resale values of Ford's EVs. Everyone besides Ford is deep underwater on used Ford EV car values.

I cannot even tell you how much I want them to get the F150 Lightning right. I really love the design.

It just needs more range, a super-charger fast recharge option and a better price point. Currently just doesn't make sense for what it does.

If they do all of that the goalposts will just be moved.

If you’re looking for a truck that will get 500 miles of range while towing a motorhome at 80 mph, it’s just not going to happen.

I have a model 3 with 300 miles of range and the ability to recharge in 30 minutes on a long trip. It’s enough.

But I got that vehicle for about $40k and it basically pays for itself in gas savings.

On the flip side, a used Lightning that has 10k miles on it and a 200 mile range without a fast recharge option was available for $80k at a local dealer. I test drove it. It was great.

The range and charge limitations make it only viable as a second vehicle.

Yeah I like to keep an eye on what's new in the automotive world but these prices are so far out of line with my idea of what a car should cost that it's just a curiosity.

Seriously. I can't believe that all of these auto makers got bailed out just so that they can screw around with stuff that will never be their area of expertise. Where is the innovation on gas mileage, impact safety beyond making the vehicles larger, getting decent diesels that can meet EPA regulations for passenger vehicles, etc?

Instead automakers keep on reusing platforms that are hardly different from their previous generation and tack on software-based 'innovations' like they're a tech company. Usually for the worse like in this instance, replacing the (hardly) tried and true interfaces of CarPlay and Android Auto with their own software. Before this it was switching out climate control knobs for on-screen which don't work with gloves, throttle profiles which will never be used, etc...

New EV platform and control software - like VW and the ID.3 it is going to be painful for customers.

How is the build quality? I hear bad things

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2024-chevy-blazer-ev-long-t...

https://insideevs.com/reviews/701169/2024-blazer-ev-stranded...

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/chevrolet/blazer/2023/r...

Will have to come in significantly cheaper MSRP than Mach-E or Model X to have a chance (spoilers: it won't). Does GM even still have their tax credit after selling so many Bolts/Volts?

If you're referring to sales cap for the $7,500 US tax credit, that cap was removed this year: https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/electric-vehicles-for-tax-credi...

Damn, no CarPlay or Android Auto.

Am I the only one who likes removal of Apple Carplay and Android Auto? I hate cars that decide to spam me (or the driver if I'm a passenger) if I dare to connect my phone to one of its USB ports to charge it.

All I want to do is charge my god damn phone, I ain't got time flinging away spamnotifs on both phone and car.

KISS is a virtue.

That's a problem with those notifications, not CarPlay. When I connect my phone it just shows a CarPlay icon in the cars app switcher and auto-opens CarPlay if the setting is enabled.

No notifications and no hassle.

What kind of care do you have that default goes into AA or CarPlay?? Mine simply shows an icon on the display if I'm on the home screen. If I plug it in while playing the radio it just ... keeps playing the radio.

I have zero idea what you mean by spam and I use both systems.

That all being said, if you hate AA or CarPlay, I'm sure you'll despise whatever GM cooks up because the only reason they're doing it is to sell you subs.

What kind of car do you have? The rental Ford Explorer I have right now while traveling which pops up 3 different dialogs I can't skip when I plug my iOS phone in; iirc, something about Apple CarPlay, something about SYNC apps (some proprietary Ford thing), and something about calling 911 automatically. And then, it doesn't even turn on CarPlay! So obviously the user experience is dependent on the host vehicle, but the Ford experience is no good, as far as a rental car is concerned.

Honestly, I don't mind it if the builtin stuff is really good.

You can just use a power connection and not a data connection then. Easy enough to buy a cable or adapter. I do that when I have two phones plugged in.

There's a Jeep color named "Impact Orange", now here's notoriously flammable type of car named "Blazer". I'd have thought that they would avoid names that evoke things that can go horribly wrong with their product, but I guess the need for edginess in getting attention outweighs that.

Huh? Blazer has been around since the 70s? Your comment is so confusing.

Circa 1992 I was in college and my neighbor in the dorm had a Chevy Blazer. She was driving around south of Socorro looking for a good place to see the night sky and broke down and figured out her best bet was to walk into the White Sands missile range and get caught by the security patrols.

I think this every time I see a paid review for EVSEs from "ShockFlo". Somehow it doesn't seem to matter.

The Blazer is a name that has been in production since the 70s. BEV fires, with scary lithium flames, are apparently newsworthy, while the 170,000 ICE vehicle fires with their tanks of explosive gasoline are "normal."

It's going to be a long time before there are more battery-powered Blazer blazes than traditional Blazer blazes...

Yeah it's kind of sad that the media has framed EVs as fire risks even though they are 20 to 80 times less likely to be on fire than an ICE.

It's a real concern for fire departments that don't have readily available equipment to deal with massive battery fires. Even though it's rare it's still worthy of criticism.

EVs are way heavier than ICE vehicles with a similar form factor, more energy involved in collisions. They also go through tires and wear down the road surface faster.

Their road wear pales in comparison to semis and they are similar in weight to popular trucks

"Mainstream" is not paying $60k+ for a Chevy Blazer when the ICE model of the same name is $25k cheaper. This will sell terribly.

Is this Ultium based ???.

Yes

So everything they learned from the Bolt experiment has not been carried over ???.

I think that, in theory, Ultium is the result of those learnings.

Looks like a nice car. Nicer than the Model Y IMO. For all the talks about the lack of Android Auto and Apple Carplay, It is the same thing on Tesla that has one of the shittiest interface in the industry.

>Nicer than the Model Y IMO

Not really the same class of vehicle. Tesla tried to pull the wool over people's eyes with the Model Y, by putting a hatch on a Model 3 and calling it an "SUV".

The sales numbers speak for themselves. No one bought it.

> The sales numbers speak for themselves. No one bought it.

What universe did that happen in?

Anyway a lifted sedan with a hatchback is basically what the majority of people buy these days and associate with "SUV"

Buddy you realize that the Model Y is the top selling vehicle in the USA and the top selling car in the entire world, right?

It is not a failure but also not the grand success they hoped for when they releases the Model Y.

For the sale number, You need to put together the 5 different variations that traditional car makers have for SUVs (micro segmentation), then the model y is suddenly not the top performer at all anymore.

Ah, my daily reminder that HN comments will pull complete opposite conclusions out of their ass that are unequivocally disproved by a 10 second google search.

> Ah, my daily reminder that HN comments will pull complete opposite conclusions out of their ass that are unequivocally disproved by a 10 second google search.

I'm only this confidently wrong about 10% of the time. I'll take it as acceptable losses.

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