GM will ditch Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on all its cars, not just EVs
theverge.com
theverge.com
(That isn't to say that I think GM will somehow produce anything other than a captured rent extraction tool)
There is no cost reason to exclude the option. Even if I don’t use it, if I’m buying a $30-50k new vehicle it better have it, even if that’s for the sake of resale or future family members I might pass the car down to. My 2016 has it, why am I tolerating the removing of such a feature?
If you want unscientific evidence you’ll notice that the Honda Prologue (has CarPlay) outsells the Equinox EV it’s based on.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/06/about-one-third-of-car-...
You can find infotainment replacement systems for more recent cars. Example: https://www.caraudiocoho.com/products/mazda-6-car-radio-mult...
The 2004 Accord has a DIN slot in it. Which has a myriad of options available for it, despite the dwindling aftermarket.
Have you seen how to upgrade a 2023 Honda Accord infotainment system? You can't without major work. You can use the factory head unit, and feed all the amplified signals into a $1000+ sound processor, with a bunch of other modules specifically built for the car, then run the speaker outputs out to some crazy-ass 8 channel amplifier (because more speakers means the stereo is better for some reason), then feed that back to your speakers. And then at that point, all you've upgraded is the audio, not even the head unit itself. And why does it even have a center channel again?
Also, people obviously care about what infotainment is in their cars, as there is a huge amount of people saying they won't buy a car without CarPlay. Sounds like people DO want to augment their infotainment systems. Nobody is trying to do it, because you can't do it. Imagine if you could buy the car you wanted, and install your own accessories in it.
You made a claim that you can’t upgrade these systems without $1000 of gear and I proved that idea wrong with a single link. It doesn’t really matter that it’s Android 12 - nobody really cares because all it has to do is run CarPlay and Android Auto. As long as the system can do that it’s infinitely upgradable from a software perspective. Nobody’s actually using the base Android system.
I also have a friend that spent under $500 to add CarPlay to a Chevy Sonic with a similar system and they’re very happy with it.
And that’s why I want a car to have CarPlay and Android auto, because it negates any need to upgrade the system down the line. The upgrades happen on your phone.
Imagine if you could install your own accessories in it…like the one I linked? I mean, again, I get it, it’s not a simple DIN setup but for the 1% of people who are interested in upgrading their car system this this is a real product you can buy for basically any car model. I owned an Alpine head unit for my 2005 Volkswagen and I wouldn’t really describe it as not janky compared to the OEM head unit, but the thing had Bluetooth and that’s all I needed.
As Zaphod Beeblebrox famously said: Two heads better than one. /s.
The UX difference compared to my phone, and the change in speed / etc.. was infuriating. The experience with my phone was ALWAYS better.
An argument based on the desires of fiscally illiterate people with 19.99% APR loans on oversized cars would make more sense if I worked for an auto company, thankfully I don't.
And again I’m not making some kind of pro-consumerism buy a new car right now argument, I’m just saying that in 2025 CarPlay and Android Auto are high demand features that a lot of people insist upon.
I’m not making some kind of profound statement on the state of the car industry or whether infotainment is too deeply integrated into vehicles.
I’m just saying if it was time for me to buy a new car I’m thinking twice about buying something that’s not giving me phone mirroring, just like I want my car to have FM radio even if I rarely or never use it.
I love how authoritatively you say this, as though this is meant to be just so patently absurd it doesn't require any further argument. This is an attempted reductio ad absurdum, but the absurdum in question fails to actually be abusrd.
Not everyone wants to drop $50K every few years on some liquid-glass-operated subscription-based monstrosity. Some people much prefer cars operated by knobs and dials, that are easy to repair, and dirt-cheap to replace. It's simply superior tech.
I only care about bluetooth for music and handling phone calls, don't get the point why having the actual car dashboard show phone stuff that relevant.
Android automotive, the system GM is discussing here, is more expensive in every way than Android Auto. The reason they're switching is that Android Auto/carplay don't give GM enough additional monetization options for customers.
They're eliminating phone projection entirely here, which means they think the feature is incompatible with their business model.
Manufacturers ditching Apple Carplay/Android Auto support will, if not immediately, inevitably pursue rent-seeking behavior in the form of paid subscriptions for services people could otherwise just have for free (and likely better) via phone.
It's so important and useful to me that I've been thinking of retrofitting my Corvette C6, either by jailbreaking an iPad or simply mounting it.
You might call me spoiled, but I find 6” screen to be too small.
It’s almost same price as Halo11, but seems to be far better product and fit! During first look of it, it felt expensive, but after looking at Halo11, it seems affordable :-)
Do you own a GM vehicle? Were you considering it?
No CarPlay is a dealbreaker for me too. I’m just not convinced there are that many of us.
I’ve never used a car that I was impressed with the built-in navigation or anything else that I might otherwise do on the phone. Aside from Google and Apple just shipping more polished products in general than the teams that seem to be building infotainment systems, the specific phone integration also makes a lot of stuff easier. Yes, I can use voice to ask Siri to do something. But I can also just use my phone to type in an address or whatever else. I cannot do that with Chevy’s built-in system. I also frankly don’t want to pay Chevy or any other car manufacturer a subscription fee for up-to-date maps or traffic that my phone has already.
For me Android Auto is a must, it's a no brainer as a requirement for a new modern car.
For the Love of God, what the GM, Rivian and Tesla engineers are thinking by not including CarPlay and Android Auto?
Don't you mean couldn't?
Do replicate this, you’d either need to sync all of that to your car, or migrate to Google’s ecosystem… maybe both.
With the track record of automakers and data privacy, I don’t know who would knowingly do that. It also seems like a giant pain when nearly every other car doesn’t ask the buyer to make this kind of choice.
How large companies can make it so far and still have such insane decision-making (management by instinct?) is so wild to behold.
I'm sure someone would take the other side of your odds, and if you're right, you win.
Additionally, even if Toyota were to get breached, they would not get my data
It's an incredible step up in user experience.
I can't possibly imagine the rationale for doing this being anything more than mismanagement.
The only reason I can think of is that GM wants the user data that Android auto or Apple carplay collect, and they're willing to provide a worse user experience to collect it.
GM's sub revenue is up: ~$2B YTD, ~$5B deferred to Q3. From just OnStar and Super Cruise. 11m and 100k subs, respectfully.
Barra forecasts a decade of double digit growth with 70% margins.
Of course they'll make their own entertainment stack too.
"Q3 2025 Letter to Shareholders" https://investor.gm.com/news-releases/news-release-details/q...
Page 8 in "Ongoing operational agility and strong execution, Q3 2025 Earnings" https://investor.gm.com/static-files/b55f99a7-8524-40ec-89e3...
All other manufacturers will eventually follow suit. Tragic.
I guess I'll add that to the ever-growing list of reasons why I'll never buy a GM vehicle manufactured in the current century.
But I’d suggest to you that if GMC is not supporting Apple/Android projection it’s not because they want to support something simpler and more open. It’s because they want to own the whole system.
Who do you trust more to build quality software and not rent seek in that situation?
Google won. Apple loses. At the end of the day, Android users will just use the native AAOS and all the native built in Play crap, while Apple users get screwed.