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Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I'm an outlier here (but I don't think so...) in that CarPlay is an absolute non-negotiable. I don't care (and don't really want...) it to handle climate control, but music, podcasts, weather, messaging, phone, and navigation? Heck yes. The built-in systems are bollocks and 99% of the planet has already committed to Android or Apple for these features in the rest of their outside-the-car life, so the dumbest thing any auto manufacturer could do is push against the tide.

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I don't want any ties to a phone manufacturer or OS, honestly. I'll have my car a lot longer than I have my phone. Just give me decent sound and an charge/aux connection. The rest I can do on my phone with a mount.

There aren't any. Just don't use carplay/android auto and you just have the manufacturer supplied interface.

That's true, as long as they give me an aux port.

> I'll have my car a lot longer than I have my phone

Doesn't that make CarPlay/Android Auto a good thing? Provided the car supports both platforms, it means you can change phones during your car's lifespan without having to worry about losing features, and you get new phones as your phone upgrades without having to change your car.

I don't know, what if a third mobile OS is developed and gains traction (or is just one that I prefer) but it isn't supported by the car. What if future releases of iOS or Android are incompatible with a 10-year-old version of CarPlay or Android Auto?

I'd just prefer to minimize dependencies.

CarPlay and Android Auto were engineered from the start to be as agnostic to the car's hardware as possible. Your car's stereo is really just a dumb screen (i.e. just a display and input/output interface) with the phone doing most of the rendering + a few other things (i.e. providing some car instrumentation, like fuel remaining, if the manufacturer enables it) - the hardware requirements aren't really strict from a performance standpoint (minus CarPlay Ultra, and even then, that's just a tighter integration).

Kind of a waste of the nice big screen built into the car, then. Are you just going to use it as a backup camera?

Not just push against connecting your own phone, but also charging you for the features your phone could already provide (for free or for a cost you're already paying as a phone user). GM with $10/month data plans, and Toyota (per the article) with $200/year plans to access navigation.

They might try. But nobody is going to pay for a sub par experience.

Some executives will get a big bonus for pushing this out, and later another for reverting back.

I won’t buy a car that does not have CarPlay. And I know many who are the same. My phone is a centerpiece of my life (gahh I hate saying that), my car however is not.

How about Android but implemented by the car company? (Literally using apps like Google Maps but the main app menu is the car company's skin). I believe this is in effect what GM is doing? That satisfies your argument of using Android or Apple.

The problem is that the car companies (like appliance companies) don't give a shit about building quality software.

So they will abandon it and your car (which has a lifetime of 10+ years) will have software that stopped being patched 3 years into it.

And so you'll have a crypto-node on wheels. Hell no please.

Yeah but that problem happens with companies like Tesla as well given their oldest cars are dog slow now on the latest OS. I have heard some reports of more bugs being introduced on the oldest models because of less QA (not fully sure though)

The only way out of that is to ignore the infotainment and use your own device like with an AUX port.

Agreed.

CarPlay/Android Auto gives us the best of both worlds. It's just a dumb pipe so as we upgrade our phones, we get new/better features.

That doesn't solve my issue at all, though it might be fine for some. I use my iPhone for everything - maps, podcasts, music, and of course phone and messaging. When I get in my car, I want it to instantly become my mobile office connected to my iPhone. Building those features into the car, regardless of the technology, does nothing for me if it duplicates rather than synchronizes with my out-of-car life.

I really like it on rental cars.

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