Car enthusiasts will still be surprised to learn that General Motors isn’t going to budge on their bizarre decision to ditch Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. According to GM, safety is one of the main reasons it moved away from the world’s leading smartphone monitoring systems.
GM feels quite comfortable with its decision, citing that it would replace Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with its infotainment system, which will be developed in collaboration with tech giant Google. This move will see GM’s upcoming electric vehicles with a different infotainment system than what users have been accustomed to.
The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV is the first of the many EVs to embrace the new move GM plans to unveil into the market. The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer addresses the safety issue often posed when drivers experience challenges when using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
While the internet comments haven’t been kind with GM’s decision to move away from Apple and Android, GM believes that the former infotainment system posed several issues. Some key issues must be addressed include poor connections, slow responses, dropped connections, and poor rendering. Usually, when drivers experience these issues, they reach their phones, which distracts them from focusing on the road. GM believes that such challenges render the phone mirroring systems ineffective.
Timmothy Babbit, GM’s head of product and infotainment, also argues in favor of ditching Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, citing the roads will be much safer without these systems in their EVs. However, Babbit admits that the theory hasn’t been proven and tested in the real world.
The new Google-based system, dubbed ‘Ultifi,’ will operate differently since it won’t rely on drivers’ phones. Instead, it will have Google-integrated apps running on its own.
For instance, Google Maps will be the main navigation app installed on Ultifi. One of the main perks of the new infotainment system is that users can log into the system and personalize it as desired. Drivers will also be able to control the system using voice controls. This eliminates the need to check their phones, a safety issue that distracted drivers on the roads.
Compatibility issues are another reason GM is considering axing down Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. GM notes that performance issues with these systems have affected their quality scores among their customers. Customers who experience challenges using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto point fingers at GM, which shouldn’t be the case. Babbit asserts that the phone manufacturers should be the ones to take the blame for such compatibility issues.
Rumor also has it that GM generally wants data. Changing their infotainment system is one way to ensure they have full control of the data they collect from their users. Initially, all the data they had belonged to Apple. So, it’s a massive gain for GM if they can get Apple out of the way.
While GM has reasons to eliminate Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, how their customers will respond to such changes is a risky gamble. GM can’t confidently predict that their customers will love the idea of removing an infotainment system they have been used to for some time now.
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