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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

$300k and they still cannot add CarPlay/android Auto functionality?

It's clear at this point that they don't want to, and frankly, the car is better for it. UI is fantastic, I don't need Google's UI messing with it.

It’s kind of lame to not be able to make use of the huge catalog of apps that integrate with Android Auto and CarPlay. For example, I use a podcast app that’s on iOS and Android. It has worked seamlessly across multiple phones and cars for me, but it’s not on the Tesla. They’re making the same mistake every other automaker did of building their own boutique infotainment OS. Everyone else has figured out by now that supporting Android Auto/CarPlay is a good way of filling in all the gaps.

Use Bluetooth?

Sure Bluetooth will play the audio, but the app has a bunch of other controls: choosing an episode, skipping commercials, adjusting playback speed, etc. I’ve used that and it’s a big step backward to the 2000’s. I end up wanting to go on my phone while driving.

On the other hand, there was a bug in CarPlay that locked out part of the UI in the Music app in my car when the car was moving. To say that was beyond annoying is an understatement. (Who would use a car radio to play music?) It was a regression introduced during an iOS upgrade and it took Apple over a year to fix and was only patched when they rolled the major version.

If there was deep hardware-software-vehicle integration this would have never happened and would have been caught in testing. Unfortunately since CarPlay is developed in a disconnect from the display device, and insufficient testing is done due to the plethora of vehicles out there, bugs like this can and will happen.

Ironically, this is the antithesis of the common praise levied on Apple's "controlling both the hardware and software" approach.

The car is definitely worse off, especially outside the US.

I consider that a feature. Not supporting monopolies is a good thing.

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