General Motors has enlisted Google to help build infotainment systems for electric vehicles.
The automaker will stop using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto systems beginning with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer, Reuters reported Friday (March 31).
The decision is a blow to Apple, and another example of how — as PYMNTS wrote earlier this year — 2023 is shaping up to be “The Year of the Connected Car.”
Instead of CarPlay and Android Auto, company officials tell Reuters that General Motors (GM) will design on-board navigation and infotainment offerings for future EVs in partnership with Google.
The move marks an acceleration of GM’s goal to make its vehicles a platform for digital subscription services. The plan is to focus on connecting in-vehicle infotainment and navigation with features like assisted driving.
“We have a lot of new driver assistance features coming that are more tightly coupled with navigation,” Mike Hichme, GM’s executive director of digital cockpit experience, said in an interview with Reuters. “We don’t want to design these features in a way that are dependent on the person having a cellphone.”
Car buyers will get access to Google Maps and Google Assistant at no extra cost for eight years, with plans to eventually add applications such as Spotify and Audible.
The collaboration with GM is one of several Google has inked with carmakers in the last year. In February, Mercedes-Benz announced it has formed a long-term strategic partnership with Google that has its roots in navigation and entertainment.
The companies will start off by giving Mercedes-Benz customers access to Google’s Place Details function, which provides information about more than 200 million businesses, including business hours, photos, ratings and reviews, around the world.
The companies said they would bring Google’s YouTube app into the Mercedes-Benz infotainment system and use Google Maps data to set up automatic speed adjustments before cars encounter intersections, roundabouts or curves.
“We’ll provide our AI and data capabilities to accelerate [Mercedes] sustainability efforts, advance autonomous driving, and create an enhanced customer experience,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said in a news release announcing the partnership.
As PYMNTS wrote at the time, this latest initiative — the enhanced customer experience — “is one that we note evolves when entertainment, real-time navigation and yes, commerce are woven together.”
And as noted here in January, these partnerships “show that all parts of the ecosystem — the payments firms, the software providers, the dealers and of course the automakers themselves — seek value in enabling vehicles to connect with all facets of everyday commerce and social interaction.”
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