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Comment by notjoemama | Hacker News Reader

GM requiring Google integration and eliminating Apple Car Play and Android Auto makes me think a brand new model is immediately disposable.

If I have choice removed from me, in particular a choice I very much care about, then I’m going to care about owning that car less. The more that happens the more people may view vehicles as pure utility and much easier to walk away from for any reason, especially repair cost. Who cares whether you replace a Chevrolet with a Ford when they are untouchable boxes?

Insurance companies would love this BYW. If they can find a cheaper alternative that’s another brand, you’ll be reimbursed for that, not what you originally bought.

It certainly looks like many small choices are being made towards automobiles being truly disposable.

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> If I have choice removed from me

I think this points to a slightly deeper issue sitting just below "consumer choice", which is "tight coupling."

It sounds like GM has made a tighter-coupling between their vehicle and one particular brand of smartphone, and that's suggestive that other tight-couplings might exist elsewhere the design. The more tightly-coupled parts (to particular brands, form-factors, and proprietary connectors) the harder/more-expensive it will be to keep the overall car-system working over a decade or two as some of its hard-dependencies stop getting built.

So a lack of smartphone choice isn't just annoying, it also suggests something about the designers not planning for long-term maintenance.

I think it is also a trust issue - GM doesn't trust Apple will approve updates to their iphone app and so won't risk it. Also Apple charges a lot of $$$ to car company to connect to carplay and I think GM called their bluff. I'm not sure what the costs to android auto are or why GM wouldn't still connect to that.

Note that as a consumer I don't trust anyone above. Sure GM's app will work great now, but in 3-6 years I expect they will decide drop support for my currently working car in their app. Apple and Google will also change their OS and so the app that does work with my car won't work anymore on new phones. I also expect updates to CarPlay/Android Auto that won't work with my old car in a few years. Nobody in this business wants to provide support for the average car which is currently 12 years old - unless you pay which someone driving a 12+ year old car won't want to do. (GM provides parts for those older cars, but people pay for those parts)

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