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GM Makes More Room for CarPlay in Its New Trucks
General Motors is integrating Apple Inc.’s CarPlay in its latest infotainment system, three years after upsetting some consumers by eliminating the popular interface from its electric vehicles.
The new system will allow drivers to use CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto on a split screen that also shows key vehicle gauges such as fuel, tire pressure, Super Cruise hands-free driving and towing information. In addition, the system enables the driver to use vehicle functions and phone apps with less toggling between screens.
There are many reasons to resist CarPlay: control over the experience, integration across the car’s components and subsystems, and control over the customer relationship.
But customers generally expect CarPlay, and only a small number of players have gotten away with not supporting it.
Tesla and Rivian are two of them. The common threads: both brands are significantly differentiated, to the point where a meaningful number of customers will accept the trade-offs, and both have strong, deeply integrated in-house tech stacks.