GM blocks dealers from using Apple CarPlay, Android Auto aftermarket kits

It's so short sighted how they're willing to risk sales of a $50k item to upsell their homegrown knockoff.

Will echo this sentiment with one caveat. I would consider a non-CarPlay enabled vehicle if the infotainment is actually good and the vehicle is the main selling point (for me that would be Rivian).

It appears they think their shitty info/nav/tainment is a key distinguisher and that CP/AP threatens what's maybe the only way for them to stand out among a field of boring, undistinguished boxes.

In reality the only car makers with balls to be significantly different were not well rewarded in the last few decades. Then Tesla showed up with a new dealer model and tons of new features and sold ~4 million units with no marketing.

And now BYD is on the horizon leapfrogging everyone's feature set and price points, and US makers will need to be defended since they won't or can't compete.

Same for me.

By accepting no phone mirroring functionality, you’re forfeiting your escape hatch… if the built-in infotainment suddenly becomes awful after a software update or the manufacturer chooses to stop supporting it and it becomes useless due to lack of updates, you’re just stuck.

All the while, the guy still driving his beat up 2016 Mazda CX-5 still gets a screen with maps in his dash because his infotainment system can still mirror his phone, even if the rest of the system has become obsolete.

>The recent consumer survey was conducted by McKinsey & Co., with results highlighted in a recent report from Automotive News. According to the survey, 30 percent of global EV buyers reported Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as a requirement for their next vehicle, with 35 percent of global ICE buyers, 25 percent of U.S. EV buyers, and 38 percent of U.S. ICE buyers reporting the same.

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/06/about-one-third-of-car-...

Parents have a Jeep, can attest that Uconnect is probably the worst infotainment experience I have ever had the displeasure of using in any vehicle I’ve driven. 99% of Jeep owners seems more realistic.

Considering they got a government bailout once already I don’t think the US would ever let that happen.

Won't be the first time. They were bankrupt in 2009 and reorganized under a different company after getting billions in bailout money. I'd like to think they won't get bailed out again, but that seems unlikely

Is that just for actively blocking compatibility? I would assume that carmakers have wide latitude in telling their dealers what they can install. A third-party shop should still be able to install the CarPlay kits.

Money money money money moneeeeeeeyyyyy.

Your driving data is incredibly incredibly valuable.

To be fair to GM (and this is tough because I really dislike their products) the multiple screens in a modern vehicle often control everything, including the HVAC, and having some Chinese company try to reverse engineer something that fits in the dashboard and also plays nice with the CAN bus based system running the car is not easy.

If they were tired of paying royalties to Apple, there is at least 1 aftermarket "Carplay compatible" system available that's often on the cheap Android head units you can buy from AliExpress, so I don't think it's money. I think it's more to do with being able to honour the warranties on the vehicle.

Dealer fitted accessories have occasionally stepped over the line, the customer doesn't care because "it came with the car" and the dealerships will try to make extra money any way they can, which are both things that GM see as an extra cost.