GM Hires former iCloud Guy to Replace CarPlay

[Cmaier]

GM previously announced that they no longer intend to support CarPlay, because they’d rather introduce some clunky nonsense that lets them monetize the driver and forces the driver to jump through hoops to duplicate all the information they keep on their phone into a car infotainment system that will always suck.

The guy they hired for this endeavor turns out to be the guy who ran iCloud at Apple. I’m sure everyone at Ford is giggling right now.

General Motors Hires Former Apple Executive to Lead Software After Announcing Plans to Nix CarPlay

General Motors (GM) has hired Mike Abbott, a former Apple executive responsible for the company's cloud services division, to lead a new software...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Eric]

Another manufacturer I won't buy from in the future then. They should all offer both platforms if they want to reach everyone, playing favorites is just alienating a base you could otherwise appeal to.

 

[Citysnaps]

Another manufacturer I won't buy from in the future then. They should all offer both platforms if they want to reach everyone, playing favorites is just alienating a base you could otherwise appeal to.

Same here.

I suspect Apple will be watching what this guy and GM comes up with very closely.

 

[Herdfan]

Damn. I was looking at the new 2024 GMC Denali HD too.

 

[Cmaier]

Another manufacturer I won't buy from in the future then. They should all offer both platforms if they want to reach everyone, playing favorites is just alienating a base you could otherwise appeal to.

I think they also are abandoning android auto, but whatever they are doing involves Google. Read that somewhere. The point they are missing is that your entire digital life is on your phone. Every audio source. Every playlist. Every geographic location of every contact. Your calendar. Your telecommunication apps.

Replicating all that on a new platform and having all the data sync will never be possible, particularly not for a company like GM.

So it’s really just an f-you to the customers.

 

[Eric]

I think they also are abandoning android auto, but whatever they are doing involves Google. Read that somewhere. The point they are missing is that your entire digital life is on your phone. Every audio source. Every playlist. Every geographic location of every contact. Your calendar. Your telecommunication apps.

Replicating all that on a new platform and having all the data sync will never be possible, particularly not for a company like GM.

So it’s really just an f-you to the customers.

Or they'll simply not use the platform at all and just mount their phone and use it directly, like I do with the Tesla, whose proprietary system is total shit.

 

[Cmaier]

Or they'll simply not use the platform at all and just mount their phone and use it directly, like I do with the Tesla, whose proprietary system is total shit.

Somehow i think the GM system will be worse

 

[Cmaier]

BTW, contrast all this with, for example, BMW. CarPlay with iDrive 8 is completely integrated, to the point where it will even display nav info on the HUD and the instrument cluster, and list CarPlay app icons along with the built-in apps all in one screen. With your phone with you, it’s all completely seamless; want to listen to a ballgame using the MLB app? No problem. Prefer Waze as your nav app? Go ahead. Downloaded a podcast? It’s there, and the built in hardware controls can navigate, fast forward, etc.

Why would whatever GM comes up with be an improvement on all that? It’s certainly not an improvement for its customers. The only “improvement” is that GM can monetize it.

 

[throAU]

Another manufacturer I won't buy from in the future then. They should all offer both platforms if they want to reach everyone, playing favorites is just alienating a base you could otherwise appeal to.

I think part of it is they want to differentiate themselves and the other part is that they think they can do software.

Unfortunately history has shown that car companies have ZERO FUCKING IDEA about software outside of embedded management systems and even that's a stretch - witness the security clusterfuck we've seen over the past decade, never mind what's still coming out of the woodwork...

Toyota: Car location data of 2 million customers exposed for ten years

Toyota Motor Corporation disclosed a data breach on its cloud environment that exposed the car-location information of 2,150,000 customers for ten years, between November 6, 2013, and April 17, 2023.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[fischersd]

I just wish the bastards would finally get rid of all of those damn expensive fobs. Give us an app for our phones and watches already!!!

(and, yes, some of them offer subscriptions for that privilege).