Many older vehicles equipped with GPS navigation systems can be updated with new maps through the dealerships, though it can be surprisingly costly. For people who plan to keep their older cars for a few more years, it can make a lot of sense to replace the original radio with a third party CarPlay compatible unit. For people in the USA, Crutchfield carries a wide variety of units.
…and I’m sure Google is delighted to collect telemetry from the vehicles and to pay GM for the privilege, much like how Google pays browser developers to have Google as the default search engine.
I bought a 2023 mini Cooper last year. Support for CarPlay was a must-have while shopping. If CarPlay wasn’t supported, the car was immediately eliminated from consideration. GMC is making a huge mistake here. (And wireless CarPlay works flawlessly with the mini, btw.)
I may be misunderstanding you, but on the surface at least my experience doesn’t bear out this assertion. I have a 2020 BMW X3. CarPlay has worked just fine from the day I got it up to this moment. What sort of incompatibility are you talking about?
Yes, Apple’s system isn’t perfect and could use some interoperability improvements.
But if you think GM (or any other auto manufacturer) is going to do a better job, think again. Proprietary infotainment systems were the norm until very recently. They were usually full of bugs, making them incompatible with phones (from all manufacturers) in countless ways.
And the company would never issue software updates. Ever. Once you’ve bought the car, they have no reason to fix anything (unless its a safety recall so big as to publicly embarrass the company). And they know you’re not going to base your auto-purchase decisions on how well the radio works.
Oh yes, and they will charge you over $100 to upgrade the maps in your onboard navigation system and will use every DRM-based trick in the book to make sure you can’t do it yourself.
You may not like Apple, but trust me, auto manufacturers are even worse.
I bought a Toyota before the company added support for CarPlay, and I can attest that Toyota’s proprietary Entune system leaves a lot to be desired. It reminded me of pre-iPhone cell phones. The features are there, but you never use them because the user experience is just awful.
I definitely agree that removing CarPlay from autos would be a step back. It’s difficult to give credibility to a person who refers to a Subaru Outback as a “gas guzzler”. I purchased and Outback last year primarily because it suits my needs in a vehicle and was a big step up in milage from my Blazer. Even better is the fully wireless CarPlay!
Are you referring to the CarPlay 2.0 whole car system? Honestly I’m not sure I care about that, either. I’m happy with the current features of CarPlay ( though having two apps showing data at once, such as showing navigation and the current playing media app split screen - that’d be nice.)
Your issues seem to be centered around a specific vehicle and a general distrust of Apple. The former is not a general problem—most CarPlay users report an overall positive experience—and the latter ignores the facts that, as others here have pointed out, Android/Google is no better and automakers’ attempts at incorporating technology into their interfaces have been almost universally horrible.
I sympathize with your issues with your Acura. I really do. But they don’t justify a blanket contempt for CarPlay. It sounds like there’s either an issue in your vehicle specifically or in Acura’s implementation, neither of which are necessarily Apple’s fault or responsibility. Apple should be ensuring that automakers implement CarPlay in usable manners, but that doesn’t mean the automakers’ engineers actually care about making it work.
As for your gripes with Apple specifically, these are all well-acknowledged issues that are in no way resolved by simply removing the option for drivers to use CarPlay. Siri (which I presume is what you mean when you reference “Alexa”) is still better at handling spoken requests than any automaker’s proprietary voice-command system has ever been. The continual updates are important, and Apple is right to force automakers to implement them—automakers should be making software updates easier and less costly for the customer, and pressure from Apple is one way this can be encouraged. Apple is powerful enough to get results in a way that consumers are not.
I would much rather continue to work with CarPlay’s foibles than depend on automakers to make their proprietary systems more usable. While individual experiences vary, the overall experience across the entire userbase clearly indicates that proprietary systems are inferior to CarPlay and Android Auto in almost every way. Your hope that other automakers follow GM’s lead is throwing the baby out with the bathwater in the worst way.
I agree…a vehicle specific system merely serves to provide the builder an opportunity to charge subscription fees to make things work…and allows them to sell your data. And…let’s just acknowledge that a out 99.999% of the people in American that can afford a new car have either an iPhone or an Android phone…so as long as the car’s system supports both of those there’s no real problem…and let’s not even get into the almost non existent software updates that car maker systems get.
Who cares if Apple tech is a closed system…for that matter Android is essentially a closed system albeit it with a lot more people participating in it…but to Apple users it’s just as much a closed system as iOS is to Android users. Every user gets to pick their own preferred platform…and each of them has a good reason for choosing what they do. For some…it’s the admittedly better overall security, better app ecosystem, commitment of the company to privacy, and ease of use. For some…they want multiple hardware vendors and the ability to change both the launching system for apps and default apps. Neither choice is wrong…and given the generally putrid UI, performance, and downright user unfriendliness of most car systems…they should stay out of that business. For instance…my wife’s 2017 Mazda CX5has a touch screen for entering navigation info, etc…but my 2021 Mazda 3 which is a more expensive model and I have the high end one with all the options…does not have a touch screen any more and doesn’t have a keyboard either…just an alphabet (or numbers and symbols) in a circle and one must spin the dial to type something in. Saying Siri, directions to Longhorn Steak House or whatever…is just simpler and better.
Yes, CarPlay (and Google Play or whatever they call it the single time I used it on somebody else’s phone and car…have some oddities…but even on their worst days they’re far, far superior to the car builder’s UI.
When entering directions into the iPhone, especially by voice or using Alexa more often than not the directions are not transmitted to the vehicles navigation apps
This has not been my experience. Siri (not sure why you’d be using Alexa on an iPhone), works very well for me (and I use it a lot), as one would expect for a hands-free app such as CarPlay.
GM shareholders don’t care about Apple unless they have AAPL in their portfolios (which I doubt).
(GM must be bleeding out to think ANYTHING exclusive with Google is best for the company…hope they got a way out of that contract)
All I care about is that I can play my itunes (can port all my songs to an SDHC or USB stick) and play in pretty much every rental car and vehicle I’ve owned. Do I agree with GM? Nope. Do I think Apple is any better? Nope. But, we still have a choice. Garmin has GPS devices to mount on a dash or such if needed. But integrated audio, while convenient, was supposed to kill off in-dash stereos. Until Bose, JBL, ELS (Panasonic) Sonos (in Audi), AKG, Burmester, and B&W, licensed and designed audiophile quality integrated systems…the driver only cares how their podcasts and music sound. Except for some Hoons and “ricers” that want choice in car audio components/head units, no one really cares that Car Audio Installers are gone like Pager/Fax Machine stores.
Just remember that when its time to rent/loaner vehicle and its a GM product: Might have to spend a bit for Enterprise ‘premium’ plan w/Satellite/Navigation/Carplay option.
BTW, I’ve a 2017 Mazda and I was lucky the stealership threw in $350 Carplay option. While other automakers include it now, a time did pass that it was an option. (a cable, a module, and installation that made the stealership money… I bet stealerships cried to Mazda that they would lose money if not so). After a few years, I find the Carplay great when it works, and not so great when it doesn’t (50/50 lately). Yes, I need Infotainment updates, and no, I don’t use bluetooth - its a silly long Apple Oem cord from the iphone to the armrest port (dumb location, Mazda).
My next car will have Carplay AND some some USB alternative. And perhaps, Qi chargers for copilot and I. But I can promise you, it won’t be a GM.
Project Titan, Apple’s not so secret electric car project, has probably become a big bug up GM’s derrière. Though the release date keeps getting pushed back for Apple Car, I keep reading about Apple hiring high end automotive talent, patenting innovations. And Apple has a history of delivering products that “change the world,” to quote Steve Jobs.
Here’s some recent examples of whenApple Car is expected to hit the road:
My solution to no CarPlay in my 2012 Lexus RX, a dashboard holder that supports an iPad, works perfectly. I haven’t activated the cell service and just use my cell as a hotspot. Bigger display than CarPlay in most vehicles
GM can do what they please but I don’t think removal of choice is wise.
Our family has 4 cars and all use CarPlay - I can drive any of them and feel entirely comfortable with the entertainment, phone or navigation. I would hate the idea of having different systems in each car making each one different.
Lack of CarPlay has always been an impediment to me considering a Tesla and it would be the same for any car manufacturer which doesn’t offer it as an option. By all means make your own system but don’t ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’.
My current vehicle has its own navigation and voice integration but they’re far inferior to my phone. Ironically, my current car is a GM vehicle and I would not have purchased it without Carplay. I think GM are making a serious mistake but if they do, it just means they join Tesla on the list of cars I wouldn’t consider.
Surprisingly enough, not as much as you might think. With all the issues in the automotive market over the last few years, older vehicles are being kept longer than ever before—and if your car is more than ten years old, you probably don’t have any significant original-equipment infotainment system. (My 2007 Dodge Caliber has CD, satellite radio, and an aux input—and that was an “upgrade” option when it was new.)
There’s still a good market for replacing old in-dash systems with aftermarket touchscreens and CarPlay-equipped systems. It’s nowhere near the size the market used to be, but the good retailers still make decent money. (Also, the speaker-heads spend huge amounts of money on their tricked-out rides, more than enough to offset the reduced general market.)
Recently saw a BMW ad that was targeted at women and featured their degree of connectivity to CarPlay and Android, so they obviously think it is a seller in the higher end of the market. When a company makes changes to their products they usually conduct a lot of research, usually based around cost versus benefit. As it seems that the cost of CarPlay is minimal, just involving maintaining the software integration, it is hard to see why it isn’t worth it. Maybe their market thinks it is woke and refuses to buy a car with it. A few years ago that would be a joke, but I’m not certain anymore.
You’re talking about an auto manufacturer. When they finish designing a car and start selling it, they don’t want to have to constantly maintain its software. And they typically don’t - the only software upgrades you usually get are part of safety recalls.
But CarPlay means Apple will be issuing periodic updates. And I’m sure the license terms forces the car/radio manufacturer to provide a mechanism to upgrade vehicles when those updates are released. Or perhaps a connected phone can push updates into the car (so you don’t need to bring it to a dealer for each update).
I think this may be what GM finds unacceptable. Historically, if you have a problem with the radio (especially after the warranty period expires), the answer to any support problem is “get bent - buy another car if you want a new radio”. An attitude that Apple would definitely find unacceptable.
Of course, I’d really prefer it if car manufacturers would go back to a standard DIN-mounted radio that I could replace on my own, since all factory radios are garbage. But they’ve “integrated” the radio so deeply with the rest of the car’s electronics that it isn’t possible anymore.
Apple gives Car Play to automotive manufacturers for free. Car Play is a big plus for people who own iPhones, and could be an incentive for an Android user to switch. And Car Play is available and popular in countries around the world. Here is the number of Car manufacturers that use Car Play:
up GM’s derrière. Though the release date keeps getting pushed back for Apple Car, I keep reading about Apple hiring high end automotive talent, patenting innovations. And Apple has a history of delivering products that “change the world,” to quote Steve Jobs.