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GM is blowing it by barring Apple CarPlay from new electric vehicles
Monday, May 15, 2023 9:22 am

General Motors is blowing it by barring the widely-used Apple CarPlay (and Google’s derivative Android Auto) that allow drivers to bypass vehicle’s infotainment systems, shifting instead to an built-in infotainment system, Google Automotive, for future electric vehicles.

John Gapper for Financial Times:

Surely I am not the only one to groan at this prospect: many people prefer their smartphone software to their vehicles’ inbuilt displays. As Benedetto Vigna, Ferrari’s chief executive, remarked at the FT’s Future of the Car event this week, “For a car company to become a tech company is not easy?.?.?.?We are used to the operating systems we have in our pocket.”

It is hard enough to adapt to the regular updates to Apple iOS or Android, let alone tackle a different set of swipes, symbols and habits for the limited periods that most of us spend driving. I am not entirely sure how my car’s air conditioning works, or what the wiper settings mean: spare me from learning new technology for each brand.

“We feel that we need to have control over the experience,” Nick Festa, GM’s director of digital business, told me this week… Software also offers the prospect of making money. When so many aspects of the connected car can be altered or upgraded with software updates, it is natural for carmakers to get a case of Apple envy. They also want to sell software and services on a platform they operate…

Customers are not accustomed to buying cars and then being told that they will have to pay a fee or subscription for the heated seats to be activated, or for the acceleration to be boosted. In theory, a software upgrade is equivalent to better hardware; in practice, it can feel exploitative.

MacDailyNews Take: For us, and many, many others, General Motors simply moves even further out of consideration for future purchases (GM never really was in consideration anyway).

If GM sticks to this stupidity, it deserves its fate.

See also: Vehicle buyers consider Ford, Toyota, after GM announces Apple CarPlay phaseout – April 14, 2023

https://macdailynews.com/2023/05/15/gm-is-blowing-it-by-barring-apple-carplay-from-new-electric-vehicles/