Interesting read on some car manufacturers dropping CarPlay

[scal_air]

The article only mentions a few (GM; Tesla and Rivian don't support it) but will this expand to others or hopefully fold under consumer demand?

Car manufacturers are ditching CarPlay in 2026: Here's why - Engadget

CarPlay and Android Auto are the best way around poor infotainment systems in a car, but some manufacturers don't want you to use them anymore.

www.engadget.com

 

[joec]

GM has already folded.

 

[scal_air]

GM has already folded.

Wow that article was dated 8 days ago!

 

[Carbonzhp]

CarPlay is great to make a cheaper car better with minimum effort. Apple puts huge limitations on manufacturers for their implementation of CarPlay. I lean on CarPlay in my Air quite a bit to make up for shortcomings in the native infotainment, but in cars that satisfy everything well (good music control, proper trustworthy navigation) I don’t personally miss it being excluded. It’s not in our Rivian and I haven’t missed it one bit because the native software thoroughly answers everything I need, and frankly in a better way than CarPlay would even be allowed to do with its constraints.

 

[Bdr100]

Car Play made sense 5-10 years ago as car manufacturers were adding bigger screen infotainment but had limited software expertise to optimize them. Currently however, virtually no manufacturer wants to still be offering Car Play. Most car companies are improving their infotainment, learning that that data can be monetized and as they move towards EVs and increasing software defined hardware, prefer to keep their systems in-house. They are still offering Air Play either due to 1.) Their in-house software sucks - Austin Martin, 2.) They were pressured by buyers and were worried about loosing sales - GM, or 3.) Both software and worried about loosing sales - Lucid.

As I have said in the past, Air Play/Android Autos days are numbered and will mostly disappear within 10 years.

 

[Miami_Lucid_Man]

I always thought CarPlay was a must until I tried out my wife's new Gemini-based Google interface in her new XC 90. That thing works so damn well. Best in car voice assistant I've ever seen. Maybe if Siri finally gets smarter (supposedly imminently) it will make things better on the CarPlay side.

 

[ke2]

Car Play made sense 5-10 years ago as car manufacturers were adding bigger screen infotainment but had limited software expertise to optimize them. Currently however, virtually no manufacturer wants to still be offering Car Play. Most car companies are improving their infotainment, learning that that data can be monetized and as they move towards EVs and increasing software defined hardware, prefer to keep their systems in-house. They are still offering Air Play either due to 1.) Their in-house software sucks - Austin Martin, 2.) They were pressured by buyers and were worried about loosing sales - GM, or 3.) Both software and worried about loosing sales - Lucid.

As I have said in the past, Air Play/Android Autos days are numbered and will mostly disappear within 10 years.

The above bolding is mine and a major reason I think car companies would be incentivized to go away from android auto/carplay. There is money to be made in the data that can be collected. Google is a 4 trillion company because of this exact reason (data collected about someone can be monetized)

 

[Leftlane]

I’ve never used CarPlay and I function perfectly fine without it in any of my cars. For my wife, it is a non-negotiable and she won’t even consider a car that doesn’t have it. She uses it 100% of the time.

 

[Macgreiner]

I didn't think I needed CarPlay until I used it. Give us options. Everyone wins.

 

[doubletwist]

Car Play made sense 5-10 years ago as car manufacturers were adding bigger screen infotainment but had limited software expertise to optimize them. Currently however, virtually no manufacturer wants to still be offering Car Play. Most car companies are improving their infotainment, learning that that data can be monetized and as they move towards EVs and increasing software defined hardware, prefer to keep their systems in-house. They are still offering Air Play either due to 1.) Their in-house software sucks - Austin Martin, 2.) They were pressured by buyers and were worried about loosing sales - GM, or 3.) Both software and worried about loosing sales - Lucid.

As I have said in the past, Air Play/Android Autos days are numbered and will mostly disappear within 10 years.

I hope you're wrong , unless carmakers start including a PROPER full app store that contains all the apps that are available via AA/CP - and even then I hope you're wrong because that doesn't solve the issue of having to log into god knows how many accounts and apps if you want/need to drive another car for awhile (eg
Loaner, rental on a trip, partner's/friend's car, etc).

 

[ke2]

I hope you're wrong , unless carmakers start including a PROPER full app store that contains all the apps that are available via AA/CP - and even then I hope you're wrong because that doesn't solve the issue of having to log into god knows how many accounts and apps if you want/need to drive another car for awhile (eg
Loaner, rental on a trip, partner's/friend's car, etc).

I don't think most of the apps in the app stores work with android auto/carplay so this is not meaningful

 

[DeaneG]

I hope you're wrong , unless carmakers start including a PROPER full app store that contains all the apps that are available via AA/CP - and even then I hope you're wrong because that doesn't solve the issue of having to log into god knows how many accounts and apps if you want/need to drive another car for awhile (eg
Loaner, rental on a trip, partner's/friend's car, etc).

Android Auto / CarPlay is great for rental cars. But I've never even considered wanting it in our Volvo EV with native Google nav, Gemini, and an app store that has pretty much everything I use in a car.

OTOH I use Android Auto nearly every time I drive the Gravity, pretty much just for Google navigation and Gemini.

 

[doubletwist]

and an app store that has pretty much everything I use in a car.

This is the kind of line that is starting to really tick me off. Not at you specifically - just the idea being given as any kind of reason that AA/CP isn't needed.

That's great that it has all the apps YOU need, but that doesn't help everyone else, and in no way justifies taking the choice away from those who still want or need what Android Auto and CarPlay provide.

 

[DeaneG]

...That's great that it has all the apps YOU need, but that doesn't help everyone else, and in no way justifies taking the choice away from those who still want or need what Android Auto and CarPlay provide.

Right, it's all going to depend on an individual's specific needs. We're an android household and the native AAOS android apps do what we need. Not the case for all, and certainly not the case for the majority of iOS users.

BTW I feel the same about people who will die on the hill of not allowing native Google maps on their car, and by extension, keep it from me as well.

 

[doubletwist]

Right, it's all going to depend on an individual's specific needs. We're an android household and the native AAOS android apps do what we need. Not the case for all, and certainly not the case for the majority of iOS users.

The ONLY case that's needed is, can the native system provide all the apps the users could possibly want? If not, then there's no valid reason to take away the choice from those who prefer it.

 

[RajD]

I think CarPlay is a major advantage in lucid over Rivian and Tesla. I use both screens to have Waze navigating on top and using native Navigation on the lower screen to consider new routes, verify existing ones, and explore the area. It’s super useful.

I also think Siri is better at generating outbound messages accurately than my Tesla messaging did, though I’m sure Grok is adequate.

And yes the other apps can be helpful to many owners so why take away the choice?

 

[DeaneG]

... there's no valid reason to take away the choice from those who prefer it.

No valid reason from the customer's point of view, anyway.

 

[ke2]

The ONLY case that's needed is, can the native system provide all the apps the users could possibly want? If not, then there's no valid reason to take away the choice from those who prefer it.

Do you know all the reasons why a car manufacturer would want to remove android auto/carplay? If not you can't back up this statement. There may be some very valid reasons not to have android auto/carplay (I'm not saying I know the reasons but assuming there are no reasons brings up the ass u me phrasing).

Now If I was a car manufacturer I'd be really wary about giving data to Apple and/or google. While the car folks don't seem to know what to do with the data that doesn't mean the data isn't valuable and giving away the data for free isn't a good way to stay in business (I could be totally wrong on this but that's my take to the tug of war that's happening)

 

[Saksak]

Personally, I think competition is good. I’d rather not have everything controlled just by Apple and Google/Android. Innovation will happen when auto manufacturers compete for the best infotainment system to help differentiate their vehicles.

 

[doubletwist]

Personally, I think competition is good. I’d rather not have everything controlled just by Apple and Google/Android. Innovation will happen when auto manufacturers compete for the best infotainment system to help differentiate their vehicles.

That's fine. you have the choice to not use Apple and Google products, and stick with the native apps, and I have the choice to stick with the Android/Apple stuff .

Don't get me wrong. If there was an open-source (free as in speech) AA/CP-like solution that was supported by all the auto manufacturers and let me control my apps and data in the car, I'd 100% use it!

Until then, I'd rather not add yet another company to the list of those who have access to all of my information.