I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in that being an absolute requirement for a car purchase. I guess it's not surprising that GM is making another stupid move though.
I love GM cars once you remove their terrible UI and escape to CarPlay/Android Auto. The biggest issue with cars is that they rely on a touch screen for controls and the UX is awful. I now have an Audi and a Porsche and the MMI suite is Android based. This isn’t too bad but the services and mapping are far behind Apple and Google.
My issue is that my #1 requirement (no functionality that requires a touchscreen to use) basically pre-empts me from having any other requirements.
I agree no touchscreen for AC/volume knob and some other things, but zero touchscreen at all (even for radio and menu) seems out there. Time to get a 2001 Cherokee.
My 2011 car can accomplish everything perfectly well without a touchscreen while I’m wearing giant ski mitts in -30 weather; I’m not interested in a downgrade.
Apple isn’t forcing anything. They don’t have exclusive contacts. Almost every car with CarPlay supports Android Auto.
Customers are just demanding it.
By comparison, nothing (not even Google) is stopping Apple from producing CarPlay for Android. All the APIs are there. They could even distribute it in the Play store.
Compare the PhoneLink capabilities between iPhone and Android, vs the macOS integration Apple offers iOS.
I was not talking about the infotainment OS. No one has an Apple OS running on a car so I don’t know how they could dominate the market.
It happily allows CarPlay from my iPhone.
CarPlay is (very roughly) the phone pushing video to the car's head unit like it's an external monitor (with a UI tailored for the size/location/usage of a typical car display).