I’ve previously covered the fact that GM is in the midst of ditching Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in favour of their own system that is built on top of Android Automotive. Which to be clear, is not the same thing as Android Auto. I’ve been watching this story for a while and the reaction to this move by GM is pretty negative. As in this will come back to haunt GM. Well, it seems that GM hasn’t figured that out as it appears that they are doubling down on making this change via this article:
Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, gave MT a better explanation at a press event for the new Chevrolet Blazer EV, the flagship vehicle in the no CarPlay or Android Auto strategy (and our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year winner). According to him, there’s an important factor that didn’t make it into the fact sheet: safety. Specifically, he cited driver distraction caused by cell phone usage behind the wheel.
According to Babbitt, CarPlay and Android Auto have stability issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the purpose of these phone-mirroring programs. Solving those issues can sometimes be beyond the control of the automaker. You can start to see GM’s frustration.
Babbitt’s thesis is that if drivers were to do everything through the vehicle’s built-in systems, they’d be less likely to pick up their phones and therefore less distracted and safer behind the wheel. He admits, though, GM hasn’t tested this thesis in the lab or real world yet but believes it has potential, if customers go for it.
Okay. Where do I start to unpack this? First of all, just because GM drops their own system into cars and ditch Android Auto and Apple CarPlay doesn’t mean that people will be less likely to pick up their phones while driving. After all, if there’s some sort of functionality that the car doesn’t do but the phone does, the driver is reaching for the phone. Full stop. Next is the “stability issues” that this GM talking head is referring to. I am going to assume that he’s talking about wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. And he does have a bit of a point. I’ve had the odd occasion where I had to troubleshoot issues getting new cars to work with either of those. And early implementations of either can be slow. But there’s a solution to that. It’s called a cable.
The big takeaway from this MotorTrend article is this highlights the fact that GM wants way more control over your in car experience. And in GM’s case that control includes coming up with an in car system that creates a new revenue stream for them by mining the daylights out of everything that you do in the car. But to be fair, they aren’t alone in wanting to do that. However GM seems far too keen on wanting to do this. And safety is the latest excuse for them wanting to yank features that people want because I suspect in private, they know that this move isn’t popular and they’re trying to find any possible way to get people to buy in. I think it’s safe to say that none of this is going to work for GM. And I suspect they’re going to find that out the hard way when people don’t visit their dealerships because they don’t have cars with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
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This entry was posted on December 13, 2023 at 9:02 am and is filed under Commentary with tags GM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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GM Says It’s Ditching Apple CarPlay And Android Auto For Safety Reasons….. WTF?
I’ve previously covered the fact that GM is in the midst of ditching Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in favour of their own system that is built on top of Android Automotive. Which to be clear, is not the same thing as Android Auto. I’ve been watching this story for a while and the reaction to this move by GM is pretty negative. As in this will come back to haunt GM. Well, it seems that GM hasn’t figured that out as it appears that they are doubling down on making this change via this article:
Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, gave MT a better explanation at a press event for the new Chevrolet Blazer EV, the flagship vehicle in the no CarPlay or Android Auto strategy (and our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year winner). According to him, there’s an important factor that didn’t make it into the fact sheet: safety. Specifically, he cited driver distraction caused by cell phone usage behind the wheel.
According to Babbitt, CarPlay and Android Auto have stability issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the purpose of these phone-mirroring programs. Solving those issues can sometimes be beyond the control of the automaker. You can start to see GM’s frustration.
Babbitt’s thesis is that if drivers were to do everything through the vehicle’s built-in systems, they’d be less likely to pick up their phones and therefore less distracted and safer behind the wheel. He admits, though, GM hasn’t tested this thesis in the lab or real world yet but believes it has potential, if customers go for it.
Okay. Where do I start to unpack this? First of all, just because GM drops their own system into cars and ditch Android Auto and Apple CarPlay doesn’t mean that people will be less likely to pick up their phones while driving. After all, if there’s some sort of functionality that the car doesn’t do but the phone does, the driver is reaching for the phone. Full stop. Next is the “stability issues” that this GM talking head is referring to. I am going to assume that he’s talking about wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. And he does have a bit of a point. I’ve had the odd occasion where I had to troubleshoot issues getting new cars to work with either of those. And early implementations of either can be slow. But there’s a solution to that. It’s called a cable.
The big takeaway from this MotorTrend article is this highlights the fact that GM wants way more control over your in car experience. And in GM’s case that control includes coming up with an in car system that creates a new revenue stream for them by mining the daylights out of everything that you do in the car. But to be fair, they aren’t alone in wanting to do that. However GM seems far too keen on wanting to do this. And safety is the latest excuse for them wanting to yank features that people want because I suspect in private, they know that this move isn’t popular and they’re trying to find any possible way to get people to buy in. I think it’s safe to say that none of this is going to work for GM. And I suspect they’re going to find that out the hard way when people don’t visit their dealerships because they don’t have cars with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
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This entry was posted on December 13, 2023 at 9:02 am and is filed under Commentary with tags GM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.