It will be interesting to see if CarPlay and Android Auto continue to dominate. Tesla has shown that you can sell premium cars without supporting either one, but it's still a relatively small player in car sales. The bigger test will be GM and whether its abandonment of both in favor of its own system will hurt sales. Personally, a lack of CarPlay support is a non-starter. I was a loyal Lexus customer for more than a decade, but when it came time for a new car in 2019 and Lexus STILL wasn't supporting CarPlay, I switched to Acura. Of course, now Lexus supports it, but they've lost me as a customer. I absolutely would have shopped GM because of their superior self-driving tech in some models, but now I wouldn't even consider a GM car without CarPlay.
It seems the biggest complaint about Teslas by Tesla owners and new EV shoppers is that the Teslas don't have CarPlay. This is driving many consumers to other brands of EVs that do support CarPlay.
Many years ago, the then CEO of Ford commented, "People shouldn't be shopping for their cars based on compatibility with their smartphones!" Well, that is EXACTLY the key feature I want in a car: it must work seamlessly with my iPhone. CarPlay fills that need.
GM going with Google strongly suggests that they fully intend on harvesting marketing data on my driving habits, where I frequent, and other details they can glean from me…and then start serving commercials through the car's infotainment system that I have to listen to before I can drive my car. I should point out that the Google Maps app does have features that I wish Apple Maps had.
Apple needs to make charging stations a much higher priority in their app than they do. I use Plugshare to find charging stations. Apple should add a feature that EV owners can turn on to show charging stations. Also, have Maps be able to route for an EV. Right now, I am using Plugshare for this feature, or I am forced to use the car's built in mapping feature—which is usually poorly implemented.
I wonder how the EU are going to handle this in the future. If one were to think like the EU, CarPlay is a lock in for the Apple iPhones. Even though Android Auto also locks one into an Android phone, there are over a dozen Android phone brands to choose from. There's only one choice with CarPlay. I can see the EU forcing Apple to supply EU auto makers and for any autos sold in the EU, a version of CarPlay that can also work with an Android phone. Otherwise the buyers of a new auto sold in the EU with CarPlay, would be locked in to buying an iPhone for as long as they own the car. And with some of these German cars, that could be well over 20 years, with several owners along the way. With each forced to use an iPhone.
I guess the EU could also choose to force EU auto makers to sell autos where the infotainment system can be easily and affordably be changed, even after the purchase. This way the original buyer and any future owners of the car when bought used, are not locked into buying a phone that is compatible with the infotainment system that originally came with the car. (As some would like to say here ..... it's my car and I should be able to install any software I want.) This also helps against any planned obsolescence from outdated infotainment systems that are no longer supported by newer devices. But then again, none of the EU auto makers are "gatekeepers" and fining them 10% of their World revenue for non compliance, would be a drop in the bucket, compared to fining Apple for the same.
Volkswagen alone has 75% of the revenue of Apple. That's not a drop in the bucket, that's a bucket that's three quarters full!
But each of the auto company brands (about 12 of them) that is owned by Volkswagen Group operates independently and generate revenue under their own brand. Porsche annual revenue is about $35B while Audi is closer to $60B. But their own Volkswagen brand autos (the auto company brand that cheated on the US smog emission test) is by far their biggest revenue generator at over $140B. So If Porsche autos were to violate an EU regulation and the fine is a percentage of annual revenue, would it be based on Porsche annual revenue or Volkswagen Group combined revenue of all the auto brands they own? I would think only Porsche annual revenue would be considered. But then again its the EU Commission making the rules.
I don't know or care. It's unlikely to happen anyway, you're just fantasising.
It will be interesting to see if CarPlay and Android Auto continue to dominate. Tesla has shown that you can sell premium cars without supporting either one, but it's still a relatively small player in car sales. The bigger test will be GM and whether its abandonment of both in favor of its own system will hurt sales. Personally, a lack of CarPlay support is a non-starter. I was a loyal Lexus customer for more than a decade, but when it came time for a new car in 2019 and Lexus STILL wasn't supporting CarPlay, I switched to Acura. Of course, now Lexus supports it, but they've lost me as a customer. I absolutely would have shopped GM because of their superior self-driving tech in some models, but now I wouldn't even consider a GM car without CarPlay.
.... Well, that is EXACTLY the key feature I want in a car: it must work seamlessly with my iPhone. CarPlay fills that need.
I venture to say that you don't necessarily need a car that works with your iPhone. What you want is a car that works seamlessly with *the data* that you buy and access through your iPhone. Just like an iPad is not tethered to your iPhone, nor is your computer, a carOS shouldn't have to either.
Also the article implies there are cars that only have Android Auto or CarPlay and not both. Are there examples anyone knows of?
Every car I've rented in the past two years that has one of them, also has the other. That wasn't always true, but for the last couple of years it has been.
Now of course, rental agencies tend to buy the highest trim line cars, so I guess it's still possible the less expensive trim lines might only have one, but it's software, so I can't imagine that car manufacturers would make that restriction when they can claim both as a feature. I could see them not offering it at all on base models to save a few bucks, or to incentivize upselling, but in this day and age, adding only one seems stupid.
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Many years ago, the then CEO of Ford commented, "People shouldn't be shopping for their cars based on compatibility with their smartphones!" Well, that is EXACTLY the key feature I want in a car: it must work seamlessly with my iPhone. CarPlay fills that need.
GM going with Google strongly suggests that they fully intend on harvesting marketing data on my driving habits, where I frequent, and other details they can glean from me…and then start serving commercials through the car's infotainment system that I have to listen to before I can drive my car. I should point out that the Google Maps app does have features that I wish Apple Maps had.
Apple needs to make charging stations a much higher priority in their app than they do. I use Plugshare to find charging stations. Apple should add a feature that EV owners can turn on to show charging stations. Also, have Maps be able to route for an EV. Right now, I am using Plugshare for this feature, or I am forced to use the car's built in mapping feature—which is usually poorly implemented.