Ideally, my car would look like a BT speaker, possibly with a microphone and some controls, to the phone. I don't want a dedicated satnav, I don't want an elaborate in-car entertainment system. The reason is twofold. The first is that all of these in-car systems are pretty dated even after a couple of years. The second is that they tend to be fairly low quality to begin with.
The system in my car that integrates with the phone is a piece of junk. Not only is the microphone system completely useless and the connection procedure so badly implemented it'll fail regularly, but I've recently learned that the system in my car tends to break after a few years. Which has happened in my car. Which makes one of the car's ECUs confused so my dashboard now has a flashing indicator that isn't going to go away until I've spent a pile of cash to either replace the system or rip it out in a manner that isn't documented or supported.
The only thing I want in a car is the simplest for of integration possible, preferably using components I can rip out and replace with something better and a system for mounting my phone without having to buy all manner of silly dodads.
> The first is that all of these in-car systems are pretty dated even after a couple of years.
CarPlay can't really get out of date any more than iOS can get out of date. It's just a software push. The main problem with the stereo in my car is that not everything is in CarPlay, so you have this sort of absurd situation where CarPlay is supposedly just one function of many, when obviously FM radio should just be an app icon in CarPlay, and the audio settings should be an app in CarPlay, and so on.
CarPlay is the OS and the stereo unit also has its own OS, so CarPlay is basically like running an emulated OS on another computer. That's obviously very silly.
I've mentioned it before on here, but the Citroen Oli is a cheap EV (prototype) car that is a) cute as a button, and b) sacrifices a lot of fluff that we have misled ourselves into thinking are requirements. I'm basically the opposite of its target market, but really interested in it.
One of the things that it has done (that your post reminded me of) is that it eliminated the onboard stereo. There is a dock for a phone (I think in this prototype iteration it only supports a single model of iPhone, but I assume that will change?) and there is a dashboard where a dashboard is expected that will integrate with the phone, and there are optional bluetooth speakers and corresponding mount points in the car (so you can take them with you or not have them at all if you like)
This is the closest I've seen to your vision, and it makes sense. Dodge/Jeep do a good job of providing infotainment systems, but no matter how good they are, unless they're outsourced to Apple or Google (who will always be looking for a way to steer customers to their platforms) there's just not really any way for a car company to keep up with the feature velocity of either.
That's exactly what I bought on my 2012, and I fear I may not be able to get it again if I have to replace the car. I got the lowest-spec stereo that still had Bluetooth. It also has AM/FM/CD which I use quite a bit, but no nav, no integrated streaming, no telematics, no GSM radio that bricks a bunch of features when the GSM network gets decommissioned, none of that.
Reason being, I worked in infotainment testing at the time, and I didn't want my car to remind me of work.
It's been fantastic. Nothing about it feels outdated. My kitchen appliances are from around the same era and likewise, they just work like they always have. There's no maps to expire, no subscriptions to renew, nothing of the sort.
Equally importantly, it doesn't spy on me. There's no EULA to accept when I start the car, no continuous feed of my location being sent to advertisers (unless I take my phone with me, which is my choice each trip).
And no chance of perverts spying on me with the car's cameras. It doesn't have any.
A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit.
And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her, very high up on the list.
Personally, I wont ever connect my phone to my car at all (if my next car doesn't have an aux port I'll install one myself), but I have to assume that GM is doing this because their own software siphons more data off of our devices than even carplay or andriod auto does.
> "GM is looking to monetize more software and services within its vehicles and is taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook,"
Since they're only doing this because they want to take even more of your money after you've already spent a small fortune buying their vehicle, consumers pushing back against this is a good idea even if you don't have strong feelings about what software your car uses.
My assumption is they are doing this because they don’t want to hand over control over the final experience to tech companies who will build a moat and lock them out.
Detaching the entertainment system from the car and making it just a dumb touchscreen and speakers must have really grinded the gears of auto makers.
I can now upgrade my entire entertainment system, GPS, phone, etc. by replacing a phone. They’d prefer you get another car when your system is feeling old.
I don’t even understand why my 2020 car had an optional GPS add-on for thousands of dollars.
Android Auto / CarPlay is one of my favourite evolutions in cars. It could have gone so much worse for the consumer.
It get even weird when you consider that many of the security issues carmakers have faced have been exactly because their entertainment systems was so tightly integrated into the cars other systems. Honestly it never made sense that the info-tainment system could access the CAN bus on a car, so I'm not sure I'd ever trust carmakers to do this right anyway.
I just bought a 12 year old car with very low mileage. I got the centre dash replaced with a 7" Android head unit. To me, it pretty much makes it much the same as a new car in terms of entertainment and navigation and will continue to be new each time the app changes.
It actually played out differently than I thought. I thought that CarPlay and Android Auto would not be backward compatible with older versions, forcing you to upgrade your car along with your phone.
I'm surprised it didn't work that way. I still don't understand why.
Car infotainment systems are terrible. That's the reason why everyone wants CarPlay and Android Auto. It's kind of like going back to flip phones after using smartphones for years.
Android auto and car play are both really bad user experiences. They are just better than what most car companies can build, which is a very low bar.
Here's the android auto experience: Take my phone out of my pocket (not that easy when you are already sitting...), turn on bluetooth (I often have it off because it grabs my headphones etc when I don't want it to) and connecting it to usb (where'd the damn cable go? An apple using family member swapped it out for a lightning cable, and tossed the usb c cable in the back, or on the floor...)
Every now and then it won't connect anyway - or the usb cable is defective (it lives on the car floor so it has a short life), or the usb slot in the car (especially a rental) is defective.
A passenger might have a higher priority bluetooth device and it steals the connection.
When I get to my destination I forget my phone in the car because it is in my pocket most of the time - but not if you are going to use android auto!
If GM manages to do as well or better than Tesla on their infotainment system it would be a win. Unlikely for a dinosaur company like GM, but if they are using an android product there's a fighting chance.
The majority of the problems you listed here are not possible with Wireless Apple CarPlay or Wireless Android Auto, which are the latest incarnations of the product. Adapters exist for many vehicles that don’t support the wireless versions as well.
You may want to make sure you’re familiar with the latest incarnation of the two products before you blame them for issues that have been solved.
So entirely different experience for me. So 5 years ago I travel to California. Out of all the cars I picked a crappy GM car when there were better cars to pick from the rental lot, why, because I had my iPhone with navigation.
Every time I rented cars since I would always make sure it had apple CarPlay so I could drive any with a familiar experience.
Now today, my car has wireless CarPlay. My experience goes like this, I get in my car, turn it on, my head unit loads apple CarPlay instantly and I have Waze running which I like for speed camera notifications on new roads and my music and playlists instantly accessible.
It’s seamless, instant and I don’t touch my phone it stays in my pocket.
I would never consider a car with out either android auto or CarPlay. It’s mandatory for me and yes I miss out of heads up display of directions, but then I don’t have to pay an additional subscription to traffic info, or pay an update fee for new maps.
I'm guessing you didn't drive an early ford with the windows experience. my favorite was driving a rental car where a popup popped up over my speedometer while driving. there was no "touch", so I couldn't press the "OK" button, and there were no buttons on the steering wheel I could ever find to press it either (there were in later model ford cars).
I ended up having to power the car off to get the dialog to go away, but in the meantime, drove in the right lane because I had no idea if I was speeding or not, and couldn't imagine trying to explain that to a cop if I were pulled over.
All of these things feel like things that if you owned a car with either of these systems you would just develop a habit of dealing with.
I don't personally own a car but every time I rent one I know to grab a USB cable and to grab my phone out of my pocket to hook it up. That happens rare enough for it to be a habit for me, I can't imagine that being a serious issue for anyone who owns a car.
Any "hassle" (which I am not convinced actually exists) is outweighed by my music, my voice assistant, maps settings, etc etc etc all being reflected through CarPlay.
Never had any of your problems in 5 years of wireless car play on a BMW and now a FORD also. You describe defective USBs, cables, not having BL turned on, the fact that you forget your phone inside the car and other stuff totally unrelated to CarPlay or AndroidAuto for that matter. Seems to me you're just a bit messy overall, something neither of the 2 can't push an update for.
> turn on bluetooth (I often have it off because it grabs my headphones etc when I don't want it to)
Why would you turn on bluetooth? Haven't we all been collectively griping about every iteration of bluetooth for the last couple decades?? I do leave bluetooth on on my iphone (because I've gotten rid of peripherals that don't play nicely) but have bluetooth disabled in my cars. My Honda pops up an useless modal if your phone is paired with bluetooth and then you plug in the lightning cable for CarPlay, something about "HEY I'M DISCONNECTING FROM BLUETOOTH <OK> ".
> A passenger might have a higher priority bluetooth device and it steals the connection.
This is also why I wish I could disable wireless CarPlay in my one car that supports it; I want only the phone that's plugged in to be doing CarPlay.
>A passenger might have a higher priority bluetooth device and it steals the connection.
I have the opposite problem on Android auto.
When I connect my phone (by USB cable) and start Android auto for navigation it also wants to use my phone for music too.
The problem is that my daughter doesn't like my music and I haven't found a way of using navigation from my phone together with music from hers...
I generally end up using the built in navigator rather than my phone (which isn't as good as Google maps) to let my daughter control the music over bluetooth.
* Turn on car
* My music starts playing
* Screen shows Google Maps, following location
* If it's a longer trip, I'll pull phone out of pocket and place on magnetic mount that also charges it
This is even with a 3rd-party CarPlay screen! This device sends audio to the car via the car's Bluetooth, so my steering wheel controls still work. Only real downside is the wireless CarPlay audio lag (~2s).
I get in my car, plug it in, and it's ready to roll. No need to deal with Bluetooth or the like, it just works. I'm fine with plugging a phone in when I get in, rather than having it in my pocket and possibly falling out without me knowing about it.
I got my first GM vehicle when I got a Volt Gen2. It is very good and that surprised me as I had always had somewhat negative opinions about GM. I’m starting to shop around for a full EV now and had been interested in the Chevy Blazer and Equinox EVS. With this recent announcement, all that is out the window. I would have been a natural customer for GM but now I’ll be looking at Ford, Hyundai, VW, or any of several other manufacturers who will allow me to connect my phone to my car. I am more loyal to my phone than I am to my car.
The better option is: remove infotainment completely and _require_ a smartphone for anything other than FM/AM radio.
* Support an open protocol for rendering images/video/animations on the screen. Sorta like... you know, CarPlay.
* Have controls for what events are allowed to be sent to the connected device. Don't want your phone to know your Throttle Position? Turn that shit off. Don't want your phone to know whether it's dark/light outside? Turn that on/off too.
Sure, if you live somewhere with constant cellular connection or you're not sharing a vehicle with someone else. What really irks me is when a connected device is required to do something trivial. My dad's 2021 GMC truck recently got an OTA update that removed the built in map. I discovered this when I was driving in the country and came upon construction with closed roads. I tried to pull up the map and look for a road that would go around and I couldn't, that feature is gone. I would have had to stop, pair my phone with the head unit and then fire up CarPlay and open Google maps - none of which I wanted to do since it just wasn't necessary. Not to mention there was no guarantee after pairing that I would be able to use Maps due to shoddy coverage in the area I was in. Graceful fallbacks used to be a thing but it feels like today if you don't have a connection then everything is just dead and your SOL. The world's population doesn't all live in modern connected cities. Why is it anytime I go off-road I become a QA tester? Kind of sick of it.
Anyone else much prefer just mounting your phone on the dash, instead of a separate carplay system? Bonus points if the mount has wireless charging. This way there’s no new UI to learn, and you never are stuck using a subpar carplay-variant UI (looking at you, Gaia)
This is how I ended up with a Honda over a Toyota. At the time Toyota did not offer Apple Play. While I would have preferred a Toyota … that was a deal killer.
Because GM wants to charge subscriptions for all kinds of software features and don’t want any competition. They are mainly looking at this as their maps vs the phone’s maps. They are ignoring all of the other reasons on why people choose AndroidAuto and CarPlay. That is often as much about personalization as anything else.
They were not greedy Big IT. Instead the defined Bluetooth as standard. The Result? My iPhone can talk with me in my Audi A4 (B8,2008). And even music because refit Bluetooth. And? Because the screen is set back in the center console (luckily no touch) I can place my phone there and use it for navigation.
Need for CarPlay? 0
Need for Android Auto? 0
:)
Carmakers should tell Apple and Google that they should come again with a free of charge standard remote protocol. SPICE or something similar. And carmakers with repeating fees? Don’t buy.
Many car manufacturers actually want you to pay for apple CarPlay / android auto now via a subscription. I won't be buying cars that ditch CarPlay or require a subscription for it. I'd sooner buy a dumb car and fit the necessary components for CarPlay myself.
As noted in other comments, the standard infotainment systems in cars are so poor. Why would I opt for them in place of CarPlay / Android Auto? This is just greed. Plain and simple.
An example of a well thought-out dashboard is the Mercedes dashboard [1]. One screen spans the entire view of the driver replacing the speedometer, etc. Another screen spans the middle dashboard replacing the radio. The screens are not iPad like proportions that jut out. In fact, it is designed to seem like it is just one screen spanning from left to right. And it is well-proportioned.
I mentioned this before in an a previous post in April[2]. Car Dashboard designers are not good at software innovation. But they are good at positioning buttons into the right places. or move stuff around here and there. It's what they do. Like moving radio controls onto the steering wheel. In the case of Mercedes, they move the maps feature right into the driver's view. And they offer it in different formats, like text view, Augmented reality camera view, or map view. The same goes for radio content.
Hate to say it, but the flexibility the Mercedes dashboard offers makes it a more superior option compared to the built-in CarPlay and Android Auto that is also. I rarely use this superior option (or whenever I don't feel like connecting my phone by wire) because I am satisfied with CarPlay, and less satisfied with Android Auto (it crashes satellite view map).
Dashboard designers want more of the OS apps to be configurable and stretchable across the interface they install.
There is a problem with using CarPlay on an EV, and that is battery preheating. In a Tesla, Rivian, Mercedes, etc. EV, if you plan your route using the built-in satnav, the car will preheat the battery for charging which is extremely important when you are on a road trip.
Unless CarPlay includes a new interface for these kind of things, I would not be able to consider using CarPlay on a EV I am afraid.
This is truly a foolish idea. Do they not see how their customers use their car? And carplay?
Will definitely hurt GM sales, big time, and probably take several years to undo the damage. The innovation and speed to launch new services on carplay dwarfs whatever GM can do on its own, even with google, given the slowness of OEM software development and testing.
> The impact has not been felt yet. GM's Cusinato said reservations for the new Blazer EV have not diminished in the last few weeks and continue to grow.
This statement would still be true if just one person per week makes a reservation.
[+] [-] bborud|2 years ago|reply
The system in my car that integrates with the phone is a piece of junk. Not only is the microphone system completely useless and the connection procedure so badly implemented it'll fail regularly, but I've recently learned that the system in my car tends to break after a few years. Which has happened in my car. Which makes one of the car's ECUs confused so my dashboard now has a flashing indicator that isn't going to go away until I've spent a pile of cash to either replace the system or rip it out in a manner that isn't documented or supported.
The only thing I want in a car is the simplest for of integration possible, preferably using components I can rip out and replace with something better and a system for mounting my phone without having to buy all manner of silly dodads.
[+] [-] dionidium|2 years ago|reply
CarPlay can't really get out of date any more than iOS can get out of date. It's just a software push. The main problem with the stereo in my car is that not everything is in CarPlay, so you have this sort of absurd situation where CarPlay is supposedly just one function of many, when obviously FM radio should just be an app icon in CarPlay, and the audio settings should be an app in CarPlay, and so on.
CarPlay is the OS and the stereo unit also has its own OS, so CarPlay is basically like running an emulated OS on another computer. That's obviously very silly.
[+] [-] bmelton|2 years ago|reply
One of the things that it has done (that your post reminded me of) is that it eliminated the onboard stereo. There is a dock for a phone (I think in this prototype iteration it only supports a single model of iPhone, but I assume that will change?) and there is a dashboard where a dashboard is expected that will integrate with the phone, and there are optional bluetooth speakers and corresponding mount points in the car (so you can take them with you or not have them at all if you like)
This is the closest I've seen to your vision, and it makes sense. Dodge/Jeep do a good job of providing infotainment systems, but no matter how good they are, unless they're outsourced to Apple or Google (who will always be looking for a way to steer customers to their platforms) there's just not really any way for a car company to keep up with the feature velocity of either.
[+] [-] myself248|2 years ago|reply
Reason being, I worked in infotainment testing at the time, and I didn't want my car to remind me of work.
It's been fantastic. Nothing about it feels outdated. My kitchen appliances are from around the same era and likewise, they just work like they always have. There's no maps to expire, no subscriptions to renew, nothing of the sort.
Equally importantly, it doesn't spy on me. There's no EULA to accept when I start the car, no continuous feed of my location being sent to advertisers (unless I take my phone with me, which is my choice each trip).
And no chance of perverts spying on me with the car's cameras. It doesn't have any.
[+] [-] mlsu|2 years ago|reply
A car is a high-margin item, so the impact of even a handful of consumers choosing not to buy must be huge, right? Whereas, they would need to "monetize" (ugh) many many more units to turn back that lost profit.
And as the shakeup due to EVs begins, even loyal consumers will be considering other makes. My girlfriend bought a car recently. CarPlay was not negotiable for her, very high up on the list.
What are they putting in the water over there GM?
[+] [-] autoexec|2 years ago|reply
> "GM is looking to monetize more software and services within its vehicles and is taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook,"
Since they're only doing this because they want to take even more of your money after you've already spent a small fortune buying their vehicle, consumers pushing back against this is a good idea even if you don't have strong feelings about what software your car uses.
[+] [-] mritun|2 years ago|reply
CarPlay and AndroidAuto protocols basically treat car’s display as a remote framebuffer.
[+] [-] Gigachad|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Waterluvian|2 years ago|reply
I can now upgrade my entire entertainment system, GPS, phone, etc. by replacing a phone. They’d prefer you get another car when your system is feeling old.
I don’t even understand why my 2020 car had an optional GPS add-on for thousands of dollars.
Android Auto / CarPlay is one of my favourite evolutions in cars. It could have gone so much worse for the consumer.
[+] [-] mrweasel|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] userbinator|2 years ago|reply
I guess it's for people who don't know better.
Even a standalone GPS won't cost that much, and as a bonus, you can take it with you.
[+] [-] mianos|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] copperx|2 years ago|reply
I'm surprised it didn't work that way. I still don't understand why.
[+] [-] m463|2 years ago|reply
What I don't understand is why most of the replacement head units have CD/DVD players. (not that recent cars allow you to replace anything)
[+] [-] jdlyga|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|2 years ago|reply
GM plans to phase out Apple CarPlay in EVs, with Google's help - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35389021 - March 2023 (377 comments)
[+] [-] jacobsenscott|2 years ago|reply
Here's the android auto experience: Take my phone out of my pocket (not that easy when you are already sitting...), turn on bluetooth (I often have it off because it grabs my headphones etc when I don't want it to) and connecting it to usb (where'd the damn cable go? An apple using family member swapped it out for a lightning cable, and tossed the usb c cable in the back, or on the floor...)
Every now and then it won't connect anyway - or the usb cable is defective (it lives on the car floor so it has a short life), or the usb slot in the car (especially a rental) is defective.
A passenger might have a higher priority bluetooth device and it steals the connection.
When I get to my destination I forget my phone in the car because it is in my pocket most of the time - but not if you are going to use android auto!
If GM manages to do as well or better than Tesla on their infotainment system it would be a win. Unlikely for a dinosaur company like GM, but if they are using an android product there's a fighting chance.
[+] [-] irq|2 years ago|reply
You may want to make sure you’re familiar with the latest incarnation of the two products before you blame them for issues that have been solved.
[+] [-] beardedscotsman|2 years ago|reply
Every time I rented cars since I would always make sure it had apple CarPlay so I could drive any with a familiar experience.
Now today, my car has wireless CarPlay. My experience goes like this, I get in my car, turn it on, my head unit loads apple CarPlay instantly and I have Waze running which I like for speed camera notifications on new roads and my music and playlists instantly accessible.
It’s seamless, instant and I don’t touch my phone it stays in my pocket.
I would never consider a car with out either android auto or CarPlay. It’s mandatory for me and yes I miss out of heads up display of directions, but then I don’t have to pay an additional subscription to traffic info, or pay an update fee for new maps.
[+] [-] jerrysievert|2 years ago|reply
I ended up having to power the car off to get the dialog to go away, but in the meantime, drove in the right lane because I had no idea if I was speeding or not, and couldn't imagine trying to explain that to a cop if I were pulled over.
[+] [-] nerdjon|2 years ago|reply
I don't personally own a car but every time I rent one I know to grab a USB cable and to grab my phone out of my pocket to hook it up. That happens rare enough for it to be a habit for me, I can't imagine that being a serious issue for anyone who owns a car.
Any "hassle" (which I am not convinced actually exists) is outweighed by my music, my voice assistant, maps settings, etc etc etc all being reflected through CarPlay.
[+] [-] chimen|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duxup|2 years ago|reply
Somehow people do / handle this situation just fine.
[+] [-] philsnow|2 years ago|reply
Why would you turn on bluetooth? Haven't we all been collectively griping about every iteration of bluetooth for the last couple decades?? I do leave bluetooth on on my iphone (because I've gotten rid of peripherals that don't play nicely) but have bluetooth disabled in my cars. My Honda pops up an useless modal if your phone is paired with bluetooth and then you plug in the lightning cable for CarPlay, something about "HEY I'M DISCONNECTING FROM BLUETOOTH <OK> ".
> A passenger might have a higher priority bluetooth device and it steals the connection.
This is also why I wish I could disable wireless CarPlay in my one car that supports it; I want only the phone that's plugged in to be doing CarPlay.
[+] [-] mfuzzey|2 years ago|reply
I have the opposite problem on Android auto.
When I connect my phone (by USB cable) and start Android auto for navigation it also wants to use my phone for music too. The problem is that my daughter doesn't like my music and I haven't found a way of using navigation from my phone together with music from hers...
I generally end up using the built in navigator rather than my phone (which isn't as good as Google maps) to let my daughter control the music over bluetooth.
[+] [-] matthew-wegner|2 years ago|reply
* Turn on car * My music starts playing * Screen shows Google Maps, following location * If it's a longer trip, I'll pull phone out of pocket and place on magnetic mount that also charges it
This is even with a 3rd-party CarPlay screen! This device sends audio to the car via the car's Bluetooth, so my steering wheel controls still work. Only real downside is the wireless CarPlay audio lag (~2s).
[+] [-] isatty|2 years ago|reply
I drive a car made in 2019, and it has wireless CarPlay. I get in the car, start it up, CarPlay is ready for me in like 30s and I’m ready.
Drove a similarly aged economy car that had wired CarPlay and it was the same deal just the 10 extra seconds to plug in a cable.
I refuse to get a car without CarPlay, even when renting.
[+] [-] endperform|2 years ago|reply
I get in my car, plug it in, and it's ready to roll. No need to deal with Bluetooth or the like, it just works. I'm fine with plugging a phone in when I get in, rather than having it in my pocket and possibly falling out without me knowing about it.
[+] [-] ghostpepper|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ascorbic|2 years ago|reply
Isn't it uncomfortable sitting with a phone in your pocket?
[+] [-] Tagbert|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exabrial|2 years ago|reply
* Support an open protocol for rendering images/video/animations on the screen. Sorta like... you know, CarPlay.
* Have controls for what events are allowed to be sent to the connected device. Don't want your phone to know your Throttle Position? Turn that shit off. Don't want your phone to know whether it's dark/light outside? Turn that on/off too.
[+] [-] chrsstrm|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tptacek|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] explaininjs|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Axien|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bud|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mikestew|2 years ago|reply
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391283
[+] [-] fullsend|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SkyPuncher|2 years ago|reply
We have a Palisade. Hyundai has done so much right on their recent cars. I’m sure they’ve made even better EV’s
[+] [-] lockhouse|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tagbert|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scarface74|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ho_schi|2 years ago|reply
They were not greedy Big IT. Instead the defined Bluetooth as standard. The Result? My iPhone can talk with me in my Audi A4 (B8,2008). And even music because refit Bluetooth. And? Because the screen is set back in the center console (luckily no touch) I can place my phone there and use it for navigation.
Need for CarPlay? 0
Need for Android Auto? 0
:)
Carmakers should tell Apple and Google that they should come again with a free of charge standard remote protocol. SPICE or something similar. And carmakers with repeating fees? Don’t buy.
[+] [-] travisporter|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cwales95|2 years ago|reply
As noted in other comments, the standard infotainment systems in cars are so poor. Why would I opt for them in place of CarPlay / Android Auto? This is just greed. Plain and simple.
[+] [-] nashashmi|2 years ago|reply
I mentioned this before in an a previous post in April[2]. Car Dashboard designers are not good at software innovation. But they are good at positioning buttons into the right places. or move stuff around here and there. It's what they do. Like moving radio controls onto the steering wheel. In the case of Mercedes, they move the maps feature right into the driver's view. And they offer it in different formats, like text view, Augmented reality camera view, or map view. The same goes for radio content.
Hate to say it, but the flexibility the Mercedes dashboard offers makes it a more superior option compared to the built-in CarPlay and Android Auto that is also. I rarely use this superior option (or whenever I don't feel like connecting my phone by wire) because I am satisfied with CarPlay, and less satisfied with Android Auto (it crashes satellite view map).
Dashboard designers want more of the OS apps to be configurable and stretchable across the interface they install.
[1] http://canadianautoreview.ca/images/car_photos/2017-mercedes...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391235
[+] [-] comandillos|2 years ago|reply
Unless CarPlay includes a new interface for these kind of things, I would not be able to consider using CarPlay on a EV I am afraid.
[+] [-] thegeneralist|2 years ago|reply
Will definitely hurt GM sales, big time, and probably take several years to undo the damage. The innovation and speed to launch new services on carplay dwarfs whatever GM can do on its own, even with google, given the slowness of OEM software development and testing.
[+] [-] philsnow|2 years ago|reply
This statement would still be true if just one person per week makes a reservation.