Mastodawn

Matt West Oct 31

This Decoder episode is infuriating. I expected to hate-listen to it, and HOO BOY was I right.

As expected, Nilay asked about GM's intention to ditch CarPlay/Android Auto. The excuses and justifications that Sterling Anderson and Mary Barra are just heaps of shit. In particular, Sterling's assertion of “nobody uses iPhone mirroring" is both incorrect and built on a foundation of false equivalence.

God damnit this makes me so unnecessarily angry.

https://www.theverge.com/podcast/803379/gm-ceo-mary-barra-sterling-anderson-cadillac-iq-ev-autonomy-interview

Why GM will give you Gemini — but not CarPlay

GM CEO Mary Barra and new Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson discuss the company’s major AI, autonomy, and EV ambitions.

The Verge

Leon Cowle Oct 31

@caseyliss You and me both, sir! Here I commented to Gruber about it: https://hachyderm.io/@leoncowle/115464337950093635

Leon Cowle (@[email protected])

@[email protected] This decision continues to boggle my mind, @[email protected]. I listened to @[email protected]'s Decoder episode on this, and came away thinking that GM's CEO and Chief Product Officer's arguments were utter bullshit (and more than a little disappointed that Nilay didn't push back harder against arguably-facetious arguments). Sure, have a go at making a superior interface. Nothing wrong with that. But not offering CarPlay as an OPTION doesn't make any sense, from a customer perspective. If GM's interface is better, customers will use it. If it's not, they should be able to fall back to CarPlay. Compete! Also: you won't WIN *any* customers by NOT offering CarPlay, you can only LOSE customers. Makes no sense! EXCEPT... I can only assume that their true reasons, which they can't admit to publicly, are more nefarious: that it's all a play for the soon-to-explode in-car-subscription business. Can't nickle&dime folks for stuff if they can get it for free with CarPlay. (I would likely buy a Blazer EV tomorrow, were it not for the lack of CarPlay -- but it's completely off the table. How many customers are there like me? I suspect many!)

Hachyderm.io

Mathew Schaffer Oct 31

I honestly had to stop listening. I couldn’t take her seriously anymore.

@caseyliss Glad someone else listened so I don't have to. I find the absolute horse shit from GM on this to be impossible to listen to. They just want to collect and monetize all the user data, as well as sell subscriptions. End of story. The rest is all excuse making.

Christian Kent 𝘊𝘒 :＼﹥Oct 31

@buck @caseyliss Sign nothing when you buy a car. Wait until they frog-march you out the door and cancel the sale, which they won’t.

And vote with your wallet. More than ever.

Mark Levison Oct 31

I appreciate your service to humanity.

I’ve never owned a GM. This makes it even less likely. Probability is approx 0.

Nathan Gillespie Oct 31

@caseyliss while they make up preposterous propaganda to justify their position, does it really matter? The proof will be down the road when it impacts sales. We aren’t drivers of GM vehicles right now and this is just one more reason to not consider their vehicles.

Michael Katz Oct 31

@caseyliss it's so dumb. point blank: i'm not buying a car without carplay. i would wager that anyone with an iphone feels the say way. iphone owners are the demographic that will buy a car. don't they understand this?

Nic Goodman Oct 31

@caseyliss I have a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV and irs by far my fav car I’ve ever owned. But the CarPlay decision alone has guaranteed that I won’t get a Chevy as my next car. I have 0 trust in GM to make a good in-car system. I’m even hesitant on a Rivian because of that same issue but their system seems at least halfway decent.

@monkeyclaw @caseyliss Agreed! The 2023 Bolt still has CarPlay just FYI😏

Casey Liss Oct 31

@monkeyclaw Chevy Bolt is way underrated

shac ron ₪‎Oct 31

@caseyliss All they can see is recurring revenue. Everything they say and do is distorted by that lens and made to justify that desire.

@caseyliss As someone who's owned 5 GM cars over the last 30 or so years, I will never again be buying another one because of this. They really need to read the room.

Chris Leboe Oct 31

@caseyliss This is such a wild way to get people to not buy your cars.

Dave Gray Oct 31

@caseyliss the thing is, what’s the end goal here? Have they done the numbers/forecasting to suggest that it’ll all work out in the end?

Say they do have some buyers that stop buying the vehicle. Maybe they will generate so much revenue from those that stay they think it’s worth the risk? Then other car manufacturers see the revenue potential in forcing people to use their own dog shit systems that they, themselves cave and implement it? If ALL the manufacturers do, then GM’s gamble paid off? 🤔

Scott Crick Oct 31

@9bitsoftware @caseyliss I actually think this is what they’re counting on. In their eyes, they’re being “trailblazers”. Others will see the “success” they have and want in on that too and, eventually, CarPlay and Android Auto are gone.

I don’t actually believe that will happen, but I do believe they think it will.

@caseyliss I finally caught up with this episode the other day and all they did was ensure I never consider GM again.

The smugness to equivocate this with Steve Jobs decision to remove things like a disc drive and say “get over it” was infuriating on so many levels.

@Slamchez @caseyliss I haven’t gotten there yet, but I knew it was doomed when CEO said consumers weren’t coming around to EVs. Wonder if she heard what ford said about consumers wanted faster horses.

Scott Wright 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Oct 31

@caseyliss @gruber had a bit a couple of days ago about rental cars and how renters demand car play.

I owned a Tesla for 6.5 years. No Carplay. The Podcast player got better, but never as good as Apple Podcasts. Forget about Overcast as a stretch goal. It lacked basic features like scrubbing.

The beauty of CarPlay is that there are markets for niche apps and by supporting CarPlay you enable them.

jasonclarke Oct 31

@caseyliss Yeah, it annoyed me too. Car manufacturers aren’t (yet) willing to confront the idea that their phones and personal data are more important to people than their cars. The car is an accessory to the phone, not the other way around. But then I realized I don't have to buy one of their shitty cars that doesn't have CarPlay, and that's fine. Plenty of other good cars will have it.

old man and the cbowns Oct 31

@caseyliss god that was bad; the corp speak from them was also off the charts and makes me worry about their tap water. I wish Nilay had pushed them further on two fronts: 1. Name apps until they admit not every one of them will be in the car’s OS. 2. Push them to do the actual hard work of building a split screen AirPlay + in-vehicle display that’s like, good! The screen takeover argument made sense a decade ago, but they’re shipping displays now that can fit well more than one thing at a time.

Ben Munson Nov 1

@caseyliss used to be they would say GM was a bank with a car company attached, now they want to be a data broker as well

@caseyliss let them ditch carplay and let's give it a couple of years before GM either needs another bailout, disappears or changes course entirely. this problem will sort itself out :)

Sam Ellis Nov 1

@caseyliss Anderson and Barra were incredibly condescending to their own customers. In contrast, Decoder's interviews with Ford's and Rivian's CEOs portrayed them as straight shooters.

Andy Levy Nov 1

@sammiemo @caseyliss condescending AND arrogant. I would love to see this blow up in their faces but I think there are too many brand loyalists who will make excuses for GM and buy anyway, despite it being a lesser experience.

I agree Rivian’s CEO was more of a straight shooter but Rivian is also not offering CarPlay. At least his stance wasn’t “we know better than the consumer,” but rather “we think we can build an equally compelling experience given the opportunity.”

Dave Mason Nov 1

I guess #privacy is the 'elephant in the room'?

I don't see any mention of it in this thread, or in the podcast transcription.

Yikes!

Dave Mason Nov 1

After reading the article, my reaction isn't "Oh, no! They're taking away something I love."

(Disclosure: I don't pair my phone to my car for privacy reasons. I've never used Apple Car Play or Android Auto. But I completely get it--I've had digital "things" taken away that I love. It sucks.)

Instead, my reaction is "Oh, no! GM will be giving all the data they have on us to Google."