GM announced plans to promote their own in-car phone software experience Ultifi in place of CarPlay and Android Auto.

They are accelerating plans to build a new system with 2024 Chevy Blazer being the first car without CarPlay and Android Auto. GM is hustling in a bid to capture more driver and passenger data. The excuse is to offer a better charging and navigation experience for consumers.

Most Manufacturer Systems Suck

I don’t know about you, but most native in-car systems are not good. Most have indecipherable levels of menus. Settings for GPS, nav, and mapping are often times buried behind multiple screen taps. And who designed the aesthetic of these systems.

I know people who will not buy cars if they don’t ship with CarPlay. The CarPlay experience is automatic, seamless, and smart. Often times CarPlay is just plain smart enough to pick up navigation when you get back into the car, and begin playing music.

The truth is, Apple and Google are software companies by default and have users of UI and UX to build user focused experiences.

GM’s VP of Software, Baris Cetinok claims El Goog and Apple aren’t innovating fast enough. I don’t buy it. I think the real play here is GM getting more access to phone data so it can repackage and resell features beyond the car.

After a year of announcing its break from CarPlay, it’s hard to see any real examples of Ultifi in use if you don’t have a Chevy Blazer.

We’ll wait and see if GM changes their mind.

-MJ