A big gamble by General Motors (GM) is causing consternation for its dealers in the all-important race to sell cars — namely electric vehicles.
A big gamble by General Motors (GM) is causing consternation for its dealers in the all-important race to sell cars — namely electric vehicles.
Well that’s one way to make sure I never buy a car. If the car does not have Apple CarPlay and the android equivalent I literally won’t buy it. Given if it’s too old to have that technology that’s one thing, then I will still look at it, but if it’s new or newer… yeah no.
For slightly older cars without those features, it’s often simple to replace the radio head unit with an aftermarket one that has them, and a larger screen, and capability to add a reverse camera if you don’t have one.
I did this in my 2012 Tundra and having the option of Car Play or Android Auto is so nice. Having Waze navigate, PlexAmp stream my music and have all that info on the display is awesome. Meanwhile my wife’s 2015 Rav4 has outdated, out of support navigation and slow as hell interface. I’d love to replace it too, but I’ll have to see if replacing it breaks any of the cars other functions. I’ve used Crutchfield the past three I’ve replaced. Put in your car model and they will add everything you need to get it going.
Seeing so many brands (especially GM) with their full LCD displays, I know those will eventually have some kind of problem. It’s insane to me to have those be the main panel display. I can’t imagine the cost to replace them or if you can even get the parts in 5-10 years.
This problem with proprietary screens can be resolved/mitigated with a cheap Android Auto/CarPlay dash-mounted remote display. They are basically a touchscreen tablet on an arm, with Bluetooth, an Aux Output and a cigarette lighter plug. There are cheap ones ($300) and incredibly cheap ones ($50).
I would recommend GM dealers (who don’t want to sell their franchise back to GM because this is a fucking stupid move) to invest in pallets of these things and give them away for free to new car owners who aren’t satisfied with the factory In-Car Entertainment.
Exactly.
And you are definitely not alone. Super out of touch corporate goons.