GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because they're unsafe

Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by viraptor on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @01:15AM (#38623357)

I've got abandonware in my Ford. It's got a bug in the Bluetooth stack which makes it unusable with my new phone. It's never going to be updated, so out of 2 users of that car, one can't play media and the other needs to deal with occasional infosystem crashes that require a full reset and re-pairing. You may be lucky today, but as years go by, you'll find some bugs too.

As Bluetooth standards evolve, you'll want non-recall updates in your car.

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Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by mulmen on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @01:24AM (#38623414)

Well the car is a 2010 model year and still works as well as the day it was new. The Bluetooth might stop working at some point but 14 years seems pretty good. The infotainment system might not even have been new that year and could go back as far as 2007.

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Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by wwweston on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @01:49AM (#38623556)

or an aux jack

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Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by viraptor on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @02:28AM (#38623787)

You mean a dongle to aux jack, because that's a new phone. I can also not use a cable and turn the volume up to max. Either way, that's a workaround for something that's actually broken and could be fixed with a software update.

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Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by wwweston on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @02:18PM (#38632729)

> You mean a dongle to aux jack, because that's a new phone.

Yes, that's the way most phones have gone.

> I can also not use a cable and turn the volume up to max.

My experience with 1/8" connections is that you have two means to change the volume, the one on the source and the one on the destination. There can be some issues with driving both hot (or one hot and one weak), but you set the destination in the modest middle and it works just fine.

> Either way, that's a workaround for something that's actually broken and could be fixed with a software update.

"Workaround" is the wrong way to refer to a "just works" physical standard that functioned reliably and adequately for decades without any need for continued attention / updates.

Especially when comparing it to a sand-castle software stack.

Wireless audio protocols have a few nice situational advantages, but they have not yet really reached a point where they're suitable outright replacements, and short of attaining wireless power combined with an utterly boring level of commodified stability, it's possible they won't get there.

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Re:GM says it's dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto beca... by mulmen on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @03:26PM (#38633697)

The disadvantage to the aux jack is I can only control volume while driving. With the built-in hard drive I can change songs as well. That is loaded from simple USB drives. 2010 was still the era of technology serving us.

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