[RandallBrown]

I spent some time around 2012 working on in car "infotainment" units at a large tech company for a large car company.

I was told that the infotainment systems were where a large chunk of their profit came from and differentiating their experience was important to the car company.

Of course, they wanted to use decade old CPUs and touchscreens to save money, so the experience was horrible. I left shortly after CarPlay was announced and our response was "That will never catch on."

[everdrive]

>I was told that the infotainment systems were where a large chunk of their profit came from and differentiating their experience was important to the car company.

I wonder how that could be true. Most car companies have pretty terrible infotainment systems, and I've never met anyone who genuinely loved the infotainment system in their car. (Most people I know tend feel that it ranges from "somewhat annoying" to "good enough".)

[hn_throwaway_99]

I think the important point is that the comment you are responding to was talking about 2012. CarPlay didn't come out until 2014, Android Auto in 2015. So before that, the only option for infotainment systems was various levels of suckage, and I think it was a differentiator among people wanting the "least sucky" system.

These days, even when I see the rate infotainment system that is pretty good, people still want CarPlay/Android Auto because that's what they're used to, and it already integrates with settings and data that have already been configured on the user's phone.

[gangstead]

It used to be a standard $1k - $2k upgrade to get the navigation system which I imagine was highly profitable. It certainly didn't seem like any car manufacturer put much effort into it. Sometimes they could even get you to buy $300 map updates! With Car Play and Android Auto I don't know who's paying for that any more.

[amelius]

Once you bought the car they now have a monopoly on the software that is available. There should be laws against this type of monopoly.

[vGPU]

Many cars can be modified even now with increasingly integrated entertainment systems. Beatsonic or its various Chinese copies are an example of this, it’s a box that hijacks the video stream and lets you add CarPlay functionality and stuff.

[zx8080]

Car manufacturers have money. They can and will lobby the monopoly status quo.

Money talks. I know it's hard when you want that nice car, but considering the above, the only way is just not buying the car with software lock-in. Only this stimulus can have some effect.

[patmorgan23]

There is. You can swap out the head unit with an aftermarket one.

[lsaferite]

Most modern cars I've seen don't seem to have old DIN sized head units these days.

[happytiger]

You used to be able to. It’s becoming increasingly difficult.