General Motors To Fully Ditch Apple CarPlay, Android Auto UPDATED

Update: “We are not making any changes to existing vehicles. If your car supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, that will continue. Both will remain available in all GM gas-powered vehicles for the foreseeable future. As we advance toward our centralized computing platform, we’ll gradually move to a better, more deeply integrated experience — a direction the broader industry is taking as vehicles become more software-defined," a GM spokesperson told TTAC in an emailed statement.

"This will happen over time, not overnight. We value our collaboration with Apple and Google and remain focused on delivering experiences customers love.”

General Motors is going even further in its drive to ditch smartphone-mirroring systems.

The company was already going to get rid of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its electric vehicles, and now CEO Mary Barra has said that the systems will be going away in its ICE cars, too.

Why? Well, Barra says that getting rid of the systems will reduce distractions as in-house infotainment systems improve.

Right now, you can get these systems in two GM EVs -- the Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer EV. Barra told The Verge's Decoder podcast that systems will leave ICE cars as they undergo generational redesigns or mid-cycle refreshes.

Barra said the systems were too "clunky". From the podcast:

“It wasn’t seamless, and frankly, in some cases, it could be distracting to move back and forth if you were doing something that you could do on a phone projection type of system, versus if you needed to do something in the vehicle.”

She added this:

“When you look at the fact that we have over 40 models across our portfolio, you don’t just do this, and they all update,” said Barra. “As we move forward with each new vehicle and major new vehicle launch, I think you’re going to see us consistent on that. We made a decision to prioritize our EV vehicles during this timeframe, and as we go forward, we’ll continue across the portfolio.”

GM's newest in-house systems will run on Android Automotive, and will run native Android apps. That might lead to frustration for iPhone users.

Here comes the editorializing from the author: I can't say I like this. I am iPhone user, and I like CarPlay because it often performs certain functions better than in-house infotainment systems do. Despite owning several Apple products, I am no Apple fanboy (I do my computing on PCs), but I do prefer to run CarPlay over factory infotainment when testing new cars. Of course, I still mess with in-house infotainment for review purposes, but CarPlay just works really well, and I've seen Android Auto also work well when riding with a Droid user.

To be fair to GM, some of the apps that work well in CarPlay, like Google Maps, will likely be part of the Android system. Still, I have a sneaking suspicion that most iPhone owners will be unhappy.

Anyway, if you're an iPhone owner who likes CarPlay and wants a GM product with an ICE powertrain, you still have time. How much time depends on which vehicle you have your eye on, and its product cycle.

UPDATE: General Motors reached out after publication with this statement, attributable to a GM spokesperson.

“We are not making any changes to existing vehicles. If your car supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, that will continue. Both will remain available in all GM gas-powered vehicles for the foreseeable future. As we advance toward our centralized computing platform, we’ll gradually move to a better, more deeply integrated experience — a direction the broader industry is taking as vehicles become more software-defined. This will happen over time, not overnight. We value our collaboration with Apple and Google and remain focused on delivering experiences customers love.” 

That doesn't really deny that GM will move away from the systems as it refreshes/redesigns vehicles -- it just means it will be a while before it happens. In other words, it might not be the next refresh or redesign, as I implied before. It could be the next gen or the one after that.

So, GM is planning to make this change -- just not that soon. And if you own a car with one of these systems, you should be fine.

[Image: General Motors]

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