Do you have CarPlay in your car? If you use it in your daily life, you will directly know its benefits. Of exquisite, useful and simple user interface to use, until you can take everything on your iPhone with you while you’re behind the wheel. So much so that the 79% of new car buyers They would exclude a specific model if it was not compatible with CarPlay.
Among an immense number of brands, there is a group that stands out for going against the grain. General Motors, the group to which they belong Chevrolet or Cadillac, have decided to say goodbye to CarPlay in all its new electric vehicles. These models have already reached customers and are giving feedback on GM’s approach. Furthermore, they are known details of meetings between Apple and General Motors in which the tension was more than palpable.
Every manufacturer wanted to have Apple CarPlay, and now they’re starting to be afraid of it
Apple CarPlay arrived in 2013 with iOS 7. More than ten years later, the system is evolving and gaining new features. As of today, It’s a rare car that doesn’t have CarPlay.and in fact, this is a reason to exclude the purchase of this specific model.
CarPlay has come to revolutionize the automotive experience and most manufacturers have happily adopted it. After all, You “only” had to put in a screen, and Apple did the rest of the work. The customer was happy to use their iPhone, Apple was happy to use their service, and the automaker didn’t need to invest in an in-car operating system.
Everything changed when Apple launched the next generation of CarPlay
The new generation of CarPlay goes even further, and it is no longer a simple screen that displays what you have on your iPhone. NOW, CarPlay is fully integrated throughout the car. Speedometer, fuel or load indicator, air conditioning control… This movement is the one that marks the change of position at General Motors.
Letting Apple control how cars feel and drive is not something GM can stand
From General Motors’ point of view, with the new generation of CarPlay, the car itself has lost all its personality. It didn’t matter whether the car belonged to one brand or another, it only mattered whether it had CarPlay or not.
It was the tense meeting between Apple and General Motors
Now let’s move on to Cupertino, where GM executives visited Apple’s offices. In a meeting with Greg Joswiak (Apple’s vice president of marketing), an executive tried to impress him with the complexity of manufacturing his cars and how many years they take to develop. Joswiak’s response was brutal.
How long do you think it will take us to build an iPhone?
After this meeting, added to other previous problems with Apple engineers, the decision was made to abandon CarPlay and develop your own new operating system. And, before the physical meeting with Apple, the leaders of GM has already tried to change some aspects of CarPlay
Look, our system is better. Why can’t you do what we tell you to do?
We are now in the middle of 2024 and The first General Motors cars reached customers. General Motors has a plan so users don’t miss CarPlay. For example, they hired several former Apple employees and Google software engineers to develop their own software called Ultifi.
In increasingly smarter cars, how far can CarPlay go?
The best example is Tesla, whose cars do not have CarPlay and they have their own operating system. This is undoubtedly what all brands aspire to, having a differentiating element. This We see it especially in the higher rangesbecause cars have more and more features.
The new CarPlay panel is fully customizable by the user
From parking control to automatic lane changing… All of this should be integrated into CarPlay. AND This is a very big risk for the manufacturer to take.as this would leave all usability of the car in the hands of a third party.
It’s no longer just about driving, but subscription models
The base price of the car is no longer enough for car manufacturers and most of them create subscription models monthly to benefit from all its services. Beyond the fight between Apple and General Motors, this may be the real reason for the abandonment of CarPlay.
New CarPlay integrates with all car settings, including even climate control
Super Cruise is a service that allows GM cars to drive hands-free on highways. The function has a starting price of 2,500 dollars, and after three years it costs $25 per month. The company also offers subscriptions for additional security features, Internet connectivity, and dial-up access. If they left it all in Apple’s hands, where would that extra profit be?
As you have seen, it is a very dense material and with several factors that shaped history. On the one hand, Apple wants to push its CarPlay experience even further. On the other hand, GM fears that its cars will lose personality and the ability to monetize their services. And finally, some users who will have to decide whether or not they trust General Motors. How important is it to you that a car has CarPlay? You can leave us your opinion below in the comments.
Source | Bloomberg
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