CarPlay is probably the top of my list of features when I buy a car. I can careless about performance specs after a certain threshold. But not having CarPlay would straight up go into my do not buy list (yes, I wouldn’t buy a Rivian or tesla either.)
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 is a crazy step for GM in particular because it is not like they have any distinct advantages or differentiators as an automaker. Rivian and Tesla have specific niche appeal. I am not sure anyone is clamoring for a Chevy in the same way. Lack of Apple car play is a feature your average user will be aware of and consider when purchasing a new car.
I used to feel this way, but nowadays I've come to realize that Carplay's UX is inferior to my iPhone's UX on a mount. As long as I have Bluetooth or Aux-in, I'm fine.
(That isn't to say that I think GM will somehow produce anything other than a captured rent extraction tool)
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.
You might as well be making the “I’m okay with my 2004 Honda accord with a tape adapter” argument.
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.
I think this may be the dilemma GM and others are in. Given that it's a must-have, how much can Google and Apple charge the manufacturers for a license? $2000 per car? 5000? More? I dont think you can necessarily criticize GM's decision (and making a public announcement that all other car manufacturers will read) without knowing the upstream costs.
There aren't really any licensing fees for Android Auto. Apple charged a few dozen dollars for the right to produce a car with the integration, rather than a license as such. There's integration costs and hardware, so it's not free, but generally it's cheaper than the alternative.
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.
It's basically the feature to a huge number of consumers. Various numbers I've seen place not having it as a dealbreaker for somewhere between 15% to 80% of buyers, especially the younger ones. It's more important than virtually any other feature you can name.
The number I’ve seen is that CarPlay specifically is in the top ~2 prios for 79% of new car shoppers in the US. I think there’s probably enough mass here, and GM doesn’t have the niche EV/SW cachet that Rivian and Tesla have despite lacking CarPlay so I don’t think this will go well for them.
Unless you are Tesla, I just don't think you can do software well enough to forgo Apple or Google's auto stacks. And people will argue that Tesla isn't that great at it either, but it definitely does it better than all of the other auto manufacturers (disclaimer: I've heard, I don't own a Tesla).
Tesla is pretty good about updating its software at least, which is why I called it out. They even do infotainment hardware upgrades, I don't think anyone other car manufacturer is doing that right now (again, disclaimer: I own a BMW i4, not a Tesla, but I did my research before buying).
It’s not only that, but your phone already has all your data. Calendar appointments, addresses of contacts, music, podcasts, etc.
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.
Yeah exactly. My wife's Volvo runs Android as its entertainment OS, and I still choose to use Android Auto. Because my phone has my music, has the music player I like to use, etc. The car has none of these things. There is no scenario where the car's software is going to be a superior experience to plugging in your smartphone, IMO.
They will 100% reverse this decision. Surprising it made it past engineering strategy & leadership at a company as large as GM and that they would even float this publicly without the details... but this will be walked back.
How large companies can make it so far and still have such insane decision-making (management by instinct?) is so wild to behold.
Also, doing the communication would require cooperation from Google and Apple. Who have their competing systems, and don't want to cooperate with every car makers who wants to build their own system.
I just got a car with Android auto for the first time, after owning an old car for quite a long time.
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.
That's exactly why. They want to sell as much of the users data as possible and steal another source of ad revenue (Google maps is already advertising businesses as I use the direction feature...oh look a Wendy's coming up...it's never enough).
I have a Tesla. Fancy big screen, but one of the first things I did was stick an ugly phone mount right next to it. My phone has everything I need, which are mainly reliable maps and audio. And I’m certainly not paying for another data plan to use the same apps on my car when they work fine on my phone.
The only active-production GM vehicle I've had my eyes on in recent years is a c8 Corvette, so this news makes it a lot easier to justify a purchase in the previous-year models that still had CarPlay/Auto. What a strange choice.
Readit News
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.
(That isn't to say that I think GM will somehow produce anything other than a captured rent extraction tool)
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.
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-...
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.
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.
Don't you mean couldn't?
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.
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?
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.
Additionally, even if Toyota were to get breached, they would not get my data
How large companies can make it so far and still have such insane decision-making (management by instinct?) is so wild to behold.
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.