General Motors in dispute with dealers over retrofitting CarPlay
GM's electric vehicles only have their own software. Dealers who nevertheless installed CarPlay in the USA were reprimanded.
A General Motors building: no CarPlay for EVs.
(Image: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock)
General Motors (GM), once the largest car manufacturer on the planet, does not like Apple's CarPlay: as early as 2023, the company announced that it would only allow iPhone integration in combustion cars, but not in modern electric vehicles (EVs) of various brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac or GMC. The company has now started to prohibit retrofit kits for these vehicles and has explicitly banned their installation by its dealers. This is reported by the US car blog The Drive.
Dealers had to install
For vehicles on the so-called Ultium platform, there was previously only one retrofit option for CarPlay: a system from White Automotive & Media Services. In addition to CarPlay, it also supported Android Auto. But that is now a thing of the past. GM is said to have instructed at least one Chevrolet dealer to refrain from installing it on request. White Automotive is also to be completely excluded from sales via the dealer network, according to reports. The company has since removed the project from its website. There is currently no possibility of attracting further dealers to carry out the installation.
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The models that were previously supported included the Blazer, Equinox, Silverado, Sierra and Lyriq electric vehicles. CarPlay could be installed both wired and wirelessly on the car screens – apparently even including the instrument cluster. Siri could also be called up directly. However, the installation was complex and required the vehicle to be taken to a dealer workshop. And this is apparently where GM came in.
"Critical vehicle functions" affected
According to sources at GM, the technology is said to have had a "negative impact" on "critical" vehicle functions that the company did not want to accept. It is also conceivable that the system could be switched off later by means of a software update. GM only provided official information to the extent that it would only accept "aftermarket solutions" if they had been thoroughly tested and approved by GM. White Automotive announced that it had taken the difficult decision to discontinue the product. It was no longer viable in the long term.
GM wants to equip its vehicles with its own software wherever possible, even if the company also cooperates with Google. The car manufacturer is following in the footsteps of Tesla and Rivian, who rely on their own software and describe it as one of the reasons for their success. GM also planned to offer certain features only as a subscription.
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