I'm not the target audience for this to begin with, but I refuse to own a car ever again that doesn't have Android Auto. What a bunch of anti-consumer bullshit. What are the odds GM starts charging a subscription fee to access apps on these vehicles?
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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I thought they already announced they would be targeting their infotainment as a subscription based service.
A quick duck duck go: https://www.pymnts.com/subscriptions/2022/gm-rolling-out-dozens-of-new-subscription-offerings/
GM is also competing for a piece of the $5.5 billion connected commercial vehicle market, as PYMNTS reported recently.
The company offers a fleet telematics solution called OnStar Vehicle Insights that features a vehicle locator, vehicle health, driver behavior, performance insights, daily trip summaries and remote commands. This last tool lets drivers lock, unlock and remote start the vehicle from a website or app.
I would rather have none of that in my vehicle, thanks.
I like my vehicles like I like my software - buy once for the features that exist now; upgrade when there is a compelling reason to do so. This rent-seeking subscription bullshit is crap.
I agree. It’s a line in the sand at this point.
I remember back in the 90s looking at these super cool CD players people and installed. I’m sure the nice ones were insanely expensive. CarPlay/Android Auto is a better UI than literally any other option ever put in a car. End of story.
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I refuse to own a car that doesn't have a DIN slot for my own tech.
What modern vehicles still have that? Most of the cars I've had lately and aren't even modern have proprietary shit
I have a 2016 Jeep which is relatively modern and installed an aftermarket head unit.
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I think the idea is to get you to pay for data for your car. Tesla is often cited as doing the same thing (eg no phone projection, use the built in), but their unlimited data price is super reasonable at like $100/year. I am not sure what GM is charging, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's more.
Yeah but I also already pay for a phone and am tired of being nickel and dimed at every opportunity. The price of the service isn't necessarily the issue -- it's the fact that there is a price to begin with.
Totally agree. Don't tell me more reasons why I want to pay like, "your car is a hotspot now!". I can already do that with my phone. There's no need to have a data plan per device in my mind if you already have a modem in your pocket.
I am not sure what GM is charging
To be honest, I don't really care what it costs I wouldn't pay. No car manufacturer in the world has ever produced a car with a good mapping system. I can't imagine why anyone would pay anything at all for a product that's worse than the free one in their phone.
And you can add horrible UIs to that list too, that GM system looks like ass
I’ve got a Dodge Journey they have horrible looking icons from 1995 with a shit looking red backdrop
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What are the odds GM starts charging a subscription fee to access apps on these vehicles?
that's why theyre doing it and both apple and google are helping them.
Ladies and gentlemen... FROM the company that brought us "Cadillac CUE" (all-capacitive-buttons information controls)...
...Something nobody wants!
I worked at a Cadillac dealership and I absolutely HATED the cars that had these. Barely functioned in the winter time
Had that in my '17 CTS, the screen did it's normal "I'm in control now" thing of random touch inputs until I finally had enough. Bought an aftermarket screen without the gel layer and replaced it, it was much better than OEM.
55” infotainment screen, in a fucking vehicle? That’s what I have in my living room. 🤯
with an aspect ratio of 20:1 across the entire dash.
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I would literally walk out of the dealership
The only reasonable response to walking into a GM dealership
I still don't understand why car brands don't just use Android Automotive anyway. Most native infotainment systems in cars still look and feel like they're from the early 2000s.
That 55-inch interface they're showing off really looks like some weird 2006-ish concept.
Edit: Apparently, it's running "Google built-in" which means that this particular system is based on Android Automotive OS and it's just running some proprietary launcher on top.
I wonder how long before they stop pushing updates to it
That's implying that they'll push updates at all
We all know that the look of the interface will stay the same throughout the lifetime of the car. At least with CarPlay or Android Auto, it represents the interface of your phone. CarPlay is a hard requirement for my vehicles.
Subscription based for a few years z then they'll just drop it
Nissan stopped updating the navigation for my 2016 car last year.
So... Pretty shit
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Back to Bluetooth and Google maps on your phone after the free data period ends. Such a bad move for consumers.
Not that I needed any more, but I’ll take reason I’ll never own a GM for $5000 Alex.
Y'know what would be great?
An industry standard system that would work properly with any type of phone, tablet or other mobile device.
Give it some time and there will be a guide to replacing the whole thing with a raspberry pi and cheap screen from Ali express.
It will also probably have more functionality and be less awful to use.
Fuck all these proprietary systems with their locked down ecosystems. Its blatantly planned obsolescence and will cause a ton of e waste. But fuck it as long as some shareholder is happy right.
Or, better yet, an alu plate and some soldered switches and knobs
We need a open standard fully open source alternative.
Why? They work with the phone you have.
Neither CarPlay nor Android Auto are open source, nor are either open standards.
Not on GrapheneOS.
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No problem, there are other cars to choose from.
Will be interesting to see how many of these they actually sell. I’m guessing it will flop and the factory will be retooled to build a different EV in a year. Same with Hummer line. These models are wayyyyy too niche.
I don’t think the market for these is consumers. I think it’s more targeted towards brands/companies. Suburbans are the “go to” vehicle for a lot of upscale valet services and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of those go electric to save on costs.
Call me crazy, but the way the bottom control screen is off centered from the central nav/infotainment bit above it looks horrible and I can't imagine buying such an expensive car with such an annoying design.
Eh. I have no CarPlay in my 2016 Prius and the proprietary system they have only makes me almost crash my car 30% of the time I use it so I can't complain.
Oh my, since when do cars have HDMI in? That's real luxury.
my friend has a ‘15 Honda Fit with a factory HDMI input - apparently it can be used when parked to project to the infotainment screen but I haven’t seen that feature used or on another vehicle since
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