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.)
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.
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).
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.
> In place of phone projection, GM is working to update its current Android-powered infotainment implementation with a Google Gemini-powered assistant and an assortment of other custom apps, built both in-house and with partners.
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.
My car has no screens and neither will my next one. I can't cut the tech giants out of my life altogether but I'm reducing my reliance on them, not increasing their use cases where I don't need to. I'm not inviting them into my driving, my purchases, my music listening, my reading, or any other part of my life. Good for GM.
Monetize the data and charge a recurring subscription. My guess would be they will try the latter first and if that is not profitable enough start selling user data, and if that doesn’t work, in car ads.
Carplay is absolutely a requirement for me for any purchase. Mmmm maybe Barra knows something special about typical GM purchasers, or maybe she is just loony tunes nuts.
But I don’t want to be forced to sign into a Google Account to use my vehicle. GM’s pivot to Android Automotive has forced Google Play and its complete walled garden into the vehicle at the bare metal.
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.
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.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 43.7 ms ] threadI 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.
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.
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.