When I was shopping for a new car last summer, I knew I was looking for a small SUV and a hybrid. However, the third thing I had to have in my new car was for it to have Apple CarPlay. My iPhone is the center of my virtual world and it was imperative to make it bigger for my new vehicle.
This week, Mercedes Benz confirmed that it has no plans to support the next generation of CarPlay. It has realized that letting Apple take over the infotainment domain will destroy its ability to monetize digital services in the vehicle.
According to Richard Windsor, founder and owner of the company Radio Free Mobile-
“Apple announced a new edition of CarPlay at WWDC in 2022. This edition of CarPlay marked Apple’s shift from simply mirroring the smartphone to the vehicle’s infotainment screen to supporting the vehicle’s tool cluster and other displays. The toolkit will need to operate at a much higher reliability point than multimedia or navigation purposes and as such cannot be used safely on a smartphone.
“Mercedes does not go as far as GM in terms of CarPlay, however, by only supporting smartphone mirroring, Mercedes will offer many more features and integration with the vehicle, resulting in the user needing to keep the smartphone in their pocket. ” .
This resolution through Mercedes Benz is important. It’s difficult to give Apple a full display of tools, especially in spaces where the features relate to vehicle protection and maintenance. In some cases, this also prevents the company from adding its own value-added facilities through live software in the future.
However, by reflecting the capabilities of the iPhone, which comprises a significant amount of our virtual content, it becomes a functional medium capable of meeting the demands of potential Mercedes customers. In addition, it provides Mercedes with better and the ability to monetize new services.
However, this puts GM’s decision to not offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in their new electronic vehicles in a harsher light.
In a recent interview with The Verge, GM software vice president Scott Miller defended the decision to no longer offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in GM’s long-term EV lineup.
“We’re very comfortable with our decision,” Miller told The Verge. “We’re going to evolve and learn, and I think we’ll be fit here. “
The first GM vehicle that will no longer offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV. This ruling only applies to long-term GM electronic cars. GM cars based on ICE (internal combustion engines) will continue to offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while GM consumers who own cars equipped with those systems will continue to have similar features.
On the other hand, this means that a person’s digital life content will no longer be available on future GM EVs, which many may consider a deal breaker.
Next month at Apple’s WWDC in Cupertino, I expect Apple to share updated data on CarPlay, which may give us more clarity on how CarPlay will evolve and impact Mercedes and GM’s decisions.
However, I suspect that the inclusion and support of CarPlay on all future vehicles will continue to influence people’s buying decisions as modern consumers seek a seamless transition between their digital lifestyle and their driving experience. They desire connectivity and the convenience of accessing their favorite apps, navigation, and music streaming services directly from their car’s dashboard.
Disclosure: Apple subscribes to Creative Strategies reports from many technology corporations around the world.
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