GM ditching CarPlay could go bad, complain car dealers

AppleInsider

GM's replacement for CarPlay is due at the end of 2023, but its dealers are in the dark about when that will be and what it will do to sales when buyers figure it out.

GM snubs CarPlay

Together Apple CarPlay and the equivalent Android Auto are the in giant majority of cars launched today. That's why it came as such a surprise when GM announced that it was dropping support for these systems in favor of its own, new one.

Now according to the Detroit Free Press, the first GM cars without CarPlay are due to start being launched in the fall. Yet with just a few months to go, GM car dealers say they are still in the dark.

"I don't even know the name of (GM's) new system," a source representing many dealers told the Detroit Free Press, "much less what benefits our customers can expect."

"Nobody has had any communication from GM," continued the dealer. "What am I supposed to tell my customers?"

There is reportedly no beta test, at least not outside GM. Then with CarPlay's satisfaction rating always being high, the dealer representative says the GM's system can't afford problems -- and can't afford to be anything less than spectacular.

"The new system can't just work," said the dealer source said. "It has to be the best in the market. It's got to be better than CarPlay."

"Why are we doing this with the launch of our most important new vehicles?" continued the dealer source. "Shouldn't all the resources devoted to developing it have been spent on launching the actual vehicles? There's an infinite number of ways this could go bad."

"We would hate for there to be a hiccup in the launch of these key new products," said another source, identified only as being a dealer or salesperson. "We have a lot riding on this."

GM has previously said that people who buy a new GM electric vehicle will get access to features such as Google Maps for free -- for eight years. After that, GM expects people to subscribe for what they used to get free with CarPlay, and ultimately sees it giving GM a potential $25 billion revenue stream.

According to the Detroit Free Press, GM has now also says that its unnamed system will do everything CarPlay can, except allow users to dial your iPhone contacts. Users will have to add a separate contact list to their car's system, and thereby return us to pre-iCloud days and the confusion over which device has the right contact details.

"CarPlay's not broken. Why fix it" said another source. "The risk of failure is very high."

Perhaps aware that GM would be pulling out of CarPlay support, Apple gave an unusually early sneak peek at the future of the feature at WWDC in 2022.

Read on AppleInsider

goofy1958

Well, what will happen is that GM will lose customers like us. No carplay and adding in subscription costs - hard pass. We will never own a GM EV because of this, and had actually considered them prior to this boneheaded decision.

robin huber

Can’t believe they will hold to this decision. I predict that they will reverse it one way or another, perhaps by “splitting the baby.” 

SomeoneWithOpinions

Not that I would have ever considered a GM vehicle to begin with but this is a really dumb move on their part. 

mknelson

robin huber said:

Can’t believe they will hold to this decision. I predict that they will reverse it one way or another, perhaps by “splitting the baby.” 

That, or somebody hacks it in to GM's Android Automotive Installation. In Teslas you can add Carplay via a website - not 100% sure how that works.

diz_geek

I had been highly considering a GM EV recently - decent price, decent performance for what I would need it for. Then this news broke and I went “nope”. 

And then a week later they announced they were discontinuing the model I had been considering so it made the choice to not buy even easier.

PeteAZ

Haven't bought a car in almost 10 years... was looking at the EVs myself (including Equinox EV), and without CarPlay, hard pass.

Mark1234

At the NY Auto Show, I made a visit to the Chevy display specifically to tell the rep I’d never consider a GM car if they dropped CarPlay. He was surprisingly aggressive in pushing back: wanting to know if I drove a GM vehicle now. I said I have an Audi, but I’ve owned 3 GM vehicles in the past and always consider them until now. He was quite dismissive, seemed uninterested in my opinion, but I’m sure this will hurt them far more than any subscription income they might scrounge up.

baka-dubbs

I think one of the dealers nailed it on the head, if your going to do this it has to be better than Carplay.  I have 0 faith that GM is capable of that.  Volvo added Carplay to the Android Automotive OS they are using in new cars(which is already a better default OS than just about anyone not named Tesla).  My guess is that this will hurt sales and there will be an OTA update halfway through the model year that adds Carplay back in.  It really is shooting yourself in the foot because you want to sell "Services" that people are already getting for free.

anonymouse

goofy1958 said:

Well, what will happen is that GM will lose customers like us. No carplay and adding in subscription costs - hard pass. We will never own a GM EV because of this, and had actually considered them prior to this boneheaded decision.

What will actually happen is that Mary Barra will end up spending more time with her family.

payeco

Can’t wait to read the HBS case briefing in 5 or 10 years about this disaster.

MplsP

mknelson said:

robin huber said:

Can’t believe they will hold to this decision. I predict that they will reverse it one way or another, perhaps by “splitting the baby.” 

That, or somebody hacks it in to GM's Android Automotive Installation. In Teslas you can add Carplay via a website - not 100% sure how that works.

From what I’ve read you use a raspberry pi that the phone thinks is the car. The pi then functions as a web server. Tesla’s built in browser then shows Apple CarPlay on a web page from the pi. 

thedba

AppleInsider said:

GM's replacement for CarPlay is due at the end of 2023, but its dealers are in the dark about when that will be and what it will do to sales when buyers figure it out.

GM has previously said that people who buy a new GM electric vehicle will get access to features such as Google Maps for free -- for eight years. After that, GM expects people to subscribe for what they used to get free with CarPlay, and ultimately sees it giving GM a potential $25 billion revenue stream.

Read on AppleInsider

Probably enough time for them to walk back on this. 

However leaving Car Play out from the get go will turn many North American buyers away from them.

Traditional auto manufacturers have put out terrible user interfaces in the past and there's no indication that that's about to change. 

The exception to that seems to be tech companies (Tesla, Rivian) who have their own systems and their interfaces are far superior to that of the traditional auto makers. 

zeus423

GM is ill-informed as to how much people like CarPlay. Scratch GM off my prospective future car list. 

suddenly newton

They didn't actually listen to customers, which is a classic GM move.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2023/04/14/gm-apple-carplay-phaseout/11664653002/

Appleish

A primary reason we own GM cars is for CarPlay integration. So they just lost an easy six figures just from us.

tahoejr

If this new system is going to be so good, users will naturally migrate to it.  Until they have to pay for something they can get in just about any other vehicle.  

Cesar Battistini Maziero

Very simple, I will not even consider a car without carplay and once the new CarPlay launches cars without it, will not be considered.

MplsP

GM making its own infotainment system... what could go wrong? Maybe they need to go back and look at Ford Sync or Toyota prior to CarPlay for an example. 

According to the linked article they are also ditching Android Auto so GM is running the risk of pissing off most of their consumer base. I'm sure there are a few octogenarians who won't mind that their Buick doesn't have CarPlay but the rest of their consumer base likely not be happy.

I own a Tesla Model Y. In general Tesla's infotainment interface is fairly good but I still miss CarPlay and it remains one of my main complaints with the car. More importantly for GM, when I tell others the response is usually a combination of surprise and disappointment. The sources quoted here have it exactly right - GM shouldn't mess with what's working. If (when) they mess this up I'm sure not a small number of buyers will look to the competition. 

FileMakerFeller

suddenly newton said:

They didn't actually listen to customers, which is a classic GM move.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2023/04/14/gm-apple-carplay-phaseout/11664653002/

And now it's obvious how much they don't talk to their dealers either.

jimh2

This will be a disaster much like “New Coke” and they have already been given multiple warnings. Thinking about it this may be closer to the Bud Light incident in terms of sales impact. There will be people on the lot who were told it doesn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto, and they will walk away. Others will never go to the lot, even if they are lifelong GM product owners.