GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020(gmauthority.com) |
GM Deprecating In-Car App Store for Models as Recent as 2020(gmauthority.com) |
I get that GM doesn't want to cede the important center console to third parties because it feels like giving up their control, but man, is it ever going to be the wrong choice for them.
For example, to connect their system to the internet, that'll be $20/mo. I'd guess GM gets a large portion of that revenue. If you're using CarPlay, there's no reason for you to buy their service.
It looks like GM makes around $1,000 in profit per vehicle. If half of their customers give them $20/mo for a decade, that's $1,200 in additional revenue. If AT&T takes half of that, it's still $600 which is a solid boost to their profits.
Now, you might say that fewer people would buy their cars and I'd agree - but companies make short sighted plays all the time that backfire. Someone does the kind of back of the envelope math that I did above and says "omg, I can increase our profits by 60% with this one easy trick" and it's wrong because the world doesn't work like that, but you put together some consultants and consumer surveys that are favorable and you get the green light.
I know: GM is just killing their relationship with consumers. I agree with you. But think about what Unity did to their developers. Unity saw the chance to charge a fee every time a game was installed and all the money that would bring - and didn't think about the predictable developer backlash. Companies do these types of things.
Automakers moved into it to try and capture more of that stream.
And generally they can’t keep up.
Cars don’t seem to change much except for the dash tech.
So mane it’s time to own the smarts yourself.
You could get any car and get a big android screen (some have tesla size screens) for your vehicle like those made by phoenix android radio. Only mentioning them as an example not the only choice.
All the built in car screens and graphics continue to work, plus put whatever you like on it.
The days of single- and double-DIN stereo swapping are slipping away fast. You're pretty much stuck with what you get when you buy the car, so it had better be what you want.
We use CarPlay with our Mazda. The heads up display on the windshield displays the next turn information from Apple Maps.
Edit: it looks like Lineage has support for Android Automotive: https://lineageos.org/Changelog-30/
Anyway, no way I was buying a GM car because of that. I don't believe a car manufacturer can create a better software experience than a software company.
The infotainment only adds to reasons to not buy GM.
I'll also point out that "deprecate" is not a fancy synonym for "shutting down"; it means that something is discouraged and might be removed in the future. GM is not deprecating the app store; they are removing access.
As it so happens, the vendor intended to say that they were insta-sunsetting/deleting/ending-access-to that endpoint. The switch wasn't too much effort for an engineer on the team but that was honestly my first encounter with the fact that "deprecation" today means "deletion" to a lot of people.
There's a few things like this that have semantic drift over time:
1. deprecate -> delete
2. refactor -> rewrite
3. data normalization -> data cleanup
4. hash/encrypt -> now often interchanged
5. authenticate/authorize -> interchanged
6. bricked -> has error, often recoverable
I think the only reason why the car makers switched to carplay/android auto is because they knew they sucked at infotainment systems and software and nobody wanted their bullshit, so they just outsourced it so they wouldn't have to try anymore.
We need to go back to the days of headphone jacks and analog AUX ports. Seriously. Something simple, reliable, and extremely well-understood.
Cars should be a lot more modular, but the market is consumer-hostile in general and it won't happen without regulation. There should probably be some standardized car-infotainment interface, and consumers be required to buy the infotainment system aftermarket to get more competition and quality in that area.
The more relevant connector here would be USB-C, which can readily carry a mix of DisplayPort video signals, USB (including HID), and power, over a connector that is now universal for smartphones. A phone today connected over USB-C could handle all the processing for a very "dumb" car head unit. Aftermarket head units are mostly Android devices already, albeit not literally using USB-C internally.
Getting HID through HDMI is nothing compared to that. Just Arduino level stuff. It only has to be standardized for interoperability. Car brands that seek to disinfect cars of Apple/Google disease will benefit a lot from that.
Now this is the problem. Money on a large scale just becomes a huge conflict of interest. This is where regulation should come in, but real regulation, not the bs of the crooked business man that manages the country in the same way.
Excuse me if I'm snarky.
Who is forcing your hand here.
At the same time, it's not really a question of "risking everything." After 2008-2009, GM understands that there is no way they will ever be allowed to fail as a company. They don't see much downside in alienating large swaths of their customer base, simply because there isn't much downside. They think they're in a good position to take stupid chances, and unfortunately they are not wrong.
People have had 45 years to get the message. My Michigan parents' lives changed[0] when they got their first Toyota after a lifetime of Big 3 vehicles. Too bad it took so long to get out from under the indoctrination.
[0] Okay I exaggerate but really nice having a vehicle without something constantly broken and/or leaking
For the other car, though... no way, no how. It is stuck with what it has. Its touchscreen is a nonstandard size, seamlessly integrated into the dashboard, and not used by any other cars AFAIK. Fortunately it's also pretty good. It supported wireless CarPlay from day one, and it isn't from a manufacturer that relies on fracking its own customer base for $20/month. Safe to say nobody will be building an aftermarket replacement for it.
CarPlay is a purchasing factor for me personally. I've always liked Volvo, but now that they all run AAOS the last few times I rented one I had to reboot the head unit when I got in the car to get CarPlay to work. Funny how vehicles running AAOS don't really integrate well with a competitor...
Or simply not buy the car to begin with
Edit: no, but neither do the 9th gen civics, lol