[istillwritecode]

it's odd that you say that without having seen the competitor. This is evidence of belonging to a cult or being afraid of better things. Of course it's possible that the new one is shit, but I think I'll make my own mind up.

[pfranz]

It's odd you go straight to a trope about a cult. If I'm happy with something I don't always have the time, energy, or interest to seek out something better.

It's completely unsurprising to expect the first generation of something like this, even if it was amazing, to have annoying flaws. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound amazing. Car companies have a long track record of disappointing infotainment systems and there's zero reason to expect anything better here. In fact, the problems in this article sound identical to the ones I had with Honda's most basic level infotainment system just a couple years ago. It would freeze and the only fix was turning off the car...a difficult solution on road trips. Asking the dealer about it, they said there was no update process for it--maybe a newer model year wouldn't have that issue?

[shiroiuma]

>It would freeze and the only fix was turning off the car...a difficult solution on road trips.

Back in the days of manual transmissions, this wasn't so hard. I remember having to do this for some odd reason (don't remember) back in the 90s: just clutch in, turn off the ignition, restart the engine, clutch out.

On my most recent car which had an infotainment system, there was some kind of three-button combination you could press to reboot the system without restarting the car.

[pfranz]

I was kind of expecting some magic button combination, too, but was told there wasn't one.

The car was actually a manual transmission and the thought did occur to me. My worry was something like steering lock or some other issue while trying that while driving down the road would cause a horrible accident.

[jug]

It’s the same reason why people have car brand preferences in general. We don’t call someone preferring Volvo a cult member because they haven’t tried out several competitors. It’s just the way things are when you find something you know you enjoy. The power of knowing what you have is strong and isn’t necessarily about “politics”.

Also, let’s not pretend it’s not a little weird to have someone build a car in 2023 that doesn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto and isn’t firmly in the budget segment. It’s not only going to feel unusual, but market pressure for improvements on GM will be completely different if you use their custom system than something that is more standardized and used by orders of a magnitude more customers.

[hedora]

CarPlay lets me choose third party apps like Here We Go maps, tidal and overcast.

That’s not going to be true of the GM thing, since the whole point is that they want to charge subscription fees and sell data their services gather.

[ElFitz]

I personally don’t know any auto maker that has a good, or even just not noticeably bad, track record at making consumer software.

Considering that, I have no reason to believe they are even capable of producing a somewhat reliable average UX.

So I’m with the GP on this one.

But I may be wrong.

[pseudocomposer]

The “cult” thing might make sense if there were any history at all of GM, or really even any auto maker, making a better infotainment system than CarPlay. But it’s never happened.

Imagine GM were a home builder who suddenly said they will no longer sell any homes they build, only rent them out. You are free to sell your house with your 3% mortgage, and go back to renting, to see if you prefer it. But those who choose to continue owning are not in a “cult,” and they’d think you were making a pretty bad decision. And they’d almost certainly be right.

[shiroiuma]

I'm guilty of calling Apple users cultists myself, but the idea that any car company, worst of all GM, could possibly make an in-house infotainment system that would be nearly as good as the very cheapest and worst Android or Apple phone is sheer lunacy. There is absolutely no evidence they can make anything decent, and a mountain of evidence that everything they've ever made has been utter trash.

[iAMkenough]

I'm not part of a cult. I just have the foresight to realize it's cheaper to buy a new phone than it is a new car.

Knowing Google, they'll sunset this project within a few years and these GM EVs will lose support and fall behind on the features Google adds to their own hardware.

[willio58]

1. Not in a cult, just like plugging my phone into my car and everything feeling natural and comfortable

2. Don't get it twisted, GM is locking down their system for a reason. And I'll give you one guess as to why - money.

[iAMkenough]

Sidenote: I would be more open to this approach if GM created a modular upgrade option for the infotainment system. Today's hardware will not run tomorrow's software the same as tomorrow's hardware.

[magicalhippo]

For me, CarPlay/Android Auto was a must when we got a new EV this summer, as I see it as a backup in case the car's interface gets borked in an update, or abandoned.

I don't currently use it because I find the native interface superior, but I do want the option.

[joezydeco]

All car software is abaondonware after a period of time. This idea of constant software updates, risky as that is, only came about recently. And no manufacturer is going to update every year of every model forever.

[figassis]

I’m happy for you to send me $40k so I can experiment.

[Der_Einzige]

If you aren’t leaving this exact same comment on all the Tesla shilling going on, you’re not genuine about your beliefs and I’ll write you off as a paid shill.