CarPlay is about to run out? Now it looks like yes. Just a few days ago, General Motors announced that it will phase out Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto from this year, and instead use the car system jointly developed with Google.
For Chinese consumers, support for CarPlay for joint venture brands and imported models (other than Tesla) should be considered a basic operation, and GM's choice probably means that CarPlay's good days may also be coming to an end.
The problem with CarPlay is actually the problem of mobile phone mapping
In fact, in addition to Apple's CarPlay, Google's Android Auto was abandoned this time, and what is more interesting is that the alternative to Universal Choice is actually to jointly develop a new car system with Google. From this information alone, it may not be CarPlay itself that is abandoned, but the mobile phone mapping solution is being abandoned by car companies.
For iOS users, CarPlay has always been a very convenient and stable car solution, although it involves two different connection methods, wired and wireless, but the convenience it can bring to consumers is obvious.
On the one hand, due to the lack of convenience in voice recognition and text input in early models, the advantages of iOS-based CarPlay are obvious, the use of mobile phones is more familiar to consumers, and Siri-based voice assistants can also solve some common basic operations.
On the other hand, since the mobile phone itself is also the most familiar electronic product for consumers, it also has obvious advantages in consumer usage habits and data accumulation, allowing consumers to seamlessly switch between various usage scenarios, and the entry threshold is almost zero.
However, there are still many problems with the mobile phone mapping scheme itself. The first is definitely the stability of the connection, CarPlay unexpected interruptions during the connection process or various problems caused by unstable mobile phone signal have always been inevitable.
At the same time, from the perspective of car companies, uploading relevant data to Apple is obviously not a good solution, not to mention that there are additional economic costs for car companies. What's more, in the follow-up CarPlay upgrade plan, Apple will also access more basic car data and ports, which is obviously unacceptable for car companies.
Not only CarPlay, but also the abandoned Android Auto, and Baidu CarLife, which is gradually losing momentum in China, are inevitably marginalized, all reflecting the core cognition that car companies hope to gradually focus on the problem of car machines.
The battle between vehicles and machines is, to some extent, a battle of data
In my cognition, in addition to the vehicle ecology itself, the real source of contradiction should be data. Whether it is for consumers, car companies, or developers of car machines, the source and destination of data will become the core interest contradiction point of this problem in the future.
For consumers, mobile phones are still the most familiar digital products, saving the most common daily data, whether it is favorite music or frequent places, whether it is the address information of friends or family, or the restaurants and shopping malls they are familiar with, it will be very convenient to find them on their mobile phones.
In the information channel, mobile phones that integrate the functions of dozens of digital devices such as PDAs, music players, portable game consoles, digital cameras, etc., have become containers of personal information. Continuing from this part to subsequent use scenarios will bring consumers a faster experience.
However, for car companies, this part of the data obviously cannot maximize the value, which is one of the reasons why domestic car companies would rather spend a lot of effort to develop their own car machines than choose to support CarPlay.
On the other hand, the current development trend of software and intelligence of automobiles makes data a real "priceless treasure". Even if you don't know exactly what the data can do right now, keeping it to yourself will still be a problem that must be solved. Third-party apps such as QQ Music or Amap, through the app's own cloud data, can also bring consumers a similar sense of data to use, and also reduce the cost of adaptation for consumers, which also gives self-developed car machines more room for operation.
When exactly will the Apple Car come out?
For a company like Apple, car development has always been on the road, but there has never been further news, and when it will come out remains a mystery.
Baidu is now gradually taking root in the automotive industry through centralized car and autonomous driving solutions, and Google's self-driving company Waymo has experienced some difficulties and problems, but on the whole, it has also left its own mark in the market.
On the contrary, car companies are more rapid in making mobile phones, Geely has released new phones after acquiring Meizu, and NIO's mobile phones are estimated to meet with everyone in a short time. Such a development trend can only show that everyone hopes to occupy more of the product ecology used by consumers - whether it is from car machine to mobile phone, or from mobile phone to car machine, it is only to see who can provide better product logic and use experience.
For Apple, the car project has never landed means that they still need to rely on CarPlay on the car side, but before BMW silently weakened the cooperation with CarPlay, this time GM officially announced the development of new car companies, combined with Volkswagen's own establishment of a software company and a series of operations, leaving little room for Apple.
So the question now is, can we still see the Apple Car?