They wanted to demonstrate why their move away from Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is a bad idea and why people shouldn't buy their cars (if they care about them still functioning after 4-6 years).

Carplay, not Airplay, but yes.

I am so glad that I insisted on buying a car with CarPlay five years ago. At the time a number of our options did not have CarPlay, but were otherwise quite solid cars. If I'd gone with any of them I'd likely be a lot less happy than I am now: given that I use CarPlay on literally every drive, it's probably the single most important feature to have.

I get that GM doesn't want to cede the important center console to third parties because it feels like giving up their control, but man, is it ever going to be the wrong choice for them.

What's stopping someone from spending a few hundred bucks at their local custom stereo shop and replacing the head unit with something else that is less user hostile? If everything else in the car is what you need, just replace the part you don't like if it's not available as an option.

It’s not as “integrated” into the car, but if you just want CarPlay, there are cheap single-purpose “tablets” that mount to your dashboard and either pair to your car’s Bluetooth or plug into the Aux port and just do CarPlay/Android Auto. Amazon is full of them. Ultimately it’s just a video and touch transport protocol, with some additional channels like illumination and I hear speed on some models.

Was it removing or has it been removed? Seems like a while ago they announced it.

Anyway, no way I was buying a GM car because of that. I don't believe a car manufacturer can create a better software experience than a software company.

I don’t understand why anyone would buy a GM car. This is just frosting on the cake.

After market stereos were always the norm for actual technology. Crutchfield made it super accessible.

Automakers moved into it to try and capture more of that stream.

And generally they can’t keep up.

Cars don’t seem to change much except for the dash tech.

So mane it’s time to own the smarts yourself.

You could get any car and get a big android screen (some have tesla size screens) for your vehicle like those made by phoenix android radio. Only mentioning them as an example not the only choice.

All the built in car screens and graphics continue to work, plus put whatever you like on it.

I have one of these cars, the last model year before they switched to carplay. The bluetooth implementation is dogshit...randomly speeding up songs, audio skipping, cutting out, etc. Occasionally forgets connections and has to be set up from scratch. Can't handle music and navigation at the same time...will turn down volume on music to handle navigation instructions, only to forget to turn the music back up for 5 minutes, by which time you've already turned up the volume to compensate and get blasted by the unexpected volume increase. And from what I can tell, my car does it better than most other manufacturers from the same era.

I think the only reason why the car makers switched to carplay/android auto is because they knew they sucked at infotainment systems and software and nobody wanted their bullshit, so they just outsourced it so they wouldn't have to try anymore.

I had a 2012 Toyota Camry once that I upgraded the stereo system so I could use CarPlay. Huge improvement. I think this is a really terrible move by GM considering all the people who have android and iPhones, why would you want this vehicle? It's a step backwards.

Wall Street, by all accounts. For an unsexy old-school company like GM, the slightest possibility of achieving a recurring revenue stream and control of customer data flow is worth risking everything. It's all they have to offer their stockholders at this point.

At the same time, it's not really a question of "risking everything." After 2008-2009, GM understands that there is no way they will ever be allowed to fail as a company. They don't see much downside in alienating large swaths of their customer base, simply because there isn't much downside. They think they're in a good position to take stupid chances, and unfortunately they are not wrong.

"Trust us," I whisper, as I condemn yet another product to the planned obsolescence graveyard.

HDMI is first and foremost (and at times, almost exclusively) designed to serve the needs of TVs and related devices. Its presence on PCs and other devices outside the home theater space is largely a consequence of the fact that HDMI until recently was just a new connector carrying DVI signals plus some extensions.

The more relevant connector here would be USB-C, which can readily carry a mix of DisplayPort video signals, USB (including HID), and power, over a connector that is now universal for smartphones. A phone today connected over USB-C could handle all the processing for a very "dumb" car head unit. Aftermarket head units are mostly Android devices already, albeit not literally using USB-C internally.

Yes this trend is rewriting the title is annoying. I wish there were a way to downvote posts.