Why GM is bailing on CarPlay
Why GM is bailing on CarPlay
Starting in 2024, the company's EVs will ditch phone mirroring in favor of their own software.
Last June, as Apple rolled out the latest version of its CarPlay sofware, the company made a point of mentioning that “79 percent of U.S. buyers would only consider a car with CarPlay,” and that 98 percent of cars in the U.S. include the feature. That 2 percent that doesn’t include CarPlay is basically Tesla.
That number will be growing as General Motors (GM) has said it plans to “phase out” CarPlay (as well as Android Auto) in its electric vehicles (EVs) in favor of its own software experience. Which, of course, they are—carmakers being known for their in-vehicle software design prowess. I am, of course, not serious. As someone who travels quite regularly and often finds himself driving a rental, I’m confident in reporting that on-dash software experiences are universally terrible.
It isn’t that CarPlay is so much better, it’s that CarPlay is basically just using your iPhone, which is at least familiar. Apple even describes CarPlay as “the safest way to use your iPhone in your car.”
The truth is, people like using their iPhone in their car. They use it for playing music and podcasts, for getting directions, for answering phone calls, or getting text messages. The experience is both familiar, and almost always better than trying to connect your phone via bluetooth to the cars infotainment system.
But GM now says that, starting with the 2024 Blazer, it will develop its own software based on its partnership with Google. There are two reasons GM is going this route:
The first is pretty reasonable. It’s become standard in EVs that when you type in a location, the in-car navigation will automatically take into account the state of charge of your battery, and include charging locations along your route if necessary.
Both Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto will give you directions using either Apple or Google Maps. The problem is, those apps do not know anything about your vehicle other than it’s location via GPS. They can’t give you a route that includes charging unless you specifically add the stops manually. Even if your iPhone knew you were driving an EV, it wouldn’t know anything about your battery or what the most efficient charging strategy would be.
The other reason is more simple. GM, like every carmaker, wants to sell you subscriptions. Remember OnStar? You could pay a monthly fee for emergency services built into your car. GM is basically the OG car subscription business.
Sure, if you want to listen to Spotify, the app will be built into the car but you’ll have to pay every month for a cellular connectivity package in order to use it. That’s exactly how Tesla does it now.
With CarPlay, you’re just running Spotify on your iPhone, which already has its own data plan. GM would rather make you pay more to do what you can already do, without offering any new functionality. This is purely about getting you to pay more money for what is already a very large purchase.
And, by controlling the software interface that you use to interact with your vehicle, it can also collect more data about what you do. More data means more opportunities to either sell you a subscription or service, or to target you with ads. And, make no mistake, carmakers are very excited about the potential to show you ads for stuff in your car.
Carmakers see the cars they sell as a platform in which to sell you more services. When GM looks at the iPhone, it wonders why Apple gets to be the one that controls the user experience. In the pursuit of growth, GM and every other carmaker are basically just getting greedy.
You can’t quit SiriusXM without a fight
This story first appeared at my column on Inc.com
As a general rule, if you can sign up for a subscription service online simply by entering your information and clicking a button, you should be able to cancel itjust as easily. If you make it hard for customers to cancel your service by forcing them to call you or jump through some other hoops, you are most definitely doing it wrong.
I'm sure there are people who run businesses who believe that introducing friction will help them reduce churn and keep more customers, but that is a terrible way to run a business. I mean, at the most basic level, should you really be trying that hard to keep people who don't want to be your customers?
I suppose you could make the argument that those people are still giving you money because they are still customers and, as a business, that's a good thing. You would, of course, be wrong. Also, do you really want unhappy customers?
There are, however, a lot of companies that take this approach. So many that the Federal Trade Commission has proposed rules to force companies to make cancellation as hassle-free as signing up.
"The proposed rule would require that companies make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one," says FTC chairperson Lina Kahn. "The proposal would save consumers time and money, and businesses that continued to use subscription tricks and traps would be subject to stiff penalties."
For now, however, we're stuck with terrible customer experiences. Consider the experience I had trying to cancel our SiriusXM account. It wasn't good.
If you want to cancel your satellite radio subscription, there's a nice button that says cancel. Unfortunately, if you click it, it takes you to this screen, where you discover that to actually cancel your subscription, you have to chat with a live agent.
After waiting for 14 minutes for the "live agent" to enter the chat, I was asked why I wanted to cancel. The simple request to cancel the subscription wasn't enough. The agent wanted to know why, presumably so they could try to convince me to stick around or sell me something else.
In case it isn't obvious, the reason people hate talking to customer service at most companies is that it always feels like the people you're speaking with are trained to make the company more money, not to actually, you know, serve the customer. This is a great example.
Eventually, I was able to get the agent to cancel the subscription, only to be told that I would still have to pay for an entire year since the annual subscription had already been renewed. Apparently, it was a "valid charge and your service is automatically renewed unless you contact us to make changes."
When they asked why a customer would still be expected to pay for a service they no longer had, the agent disconnected from the chat. Either the agent simply got tired of chatting, or SiriusXM's chat technology is as bad as its cancellation policy.
I reached out to SiriusXM for comment on this story but did not receive a response to my questions.
A quick look at the customer agreement confirms that, in fact, SiriusXM will automatically charge you for a renewal for the same amount of time as the original subscription. That's reasonable, but if a customer wants to cancel, they shouldn't be on the hook for services they won't use.
A paid Subscription, including those with a free or discounted introductory period, will continue for the length of your selected paid Plan ("Subscription Term") and will automatically renew for additional like periods or any other length described in our offer, unless you cancel prior to that renewal, your Subscription is cancelled by us, or you select a different Plan. Your account will automatically be charged (or you will be billed, as applicable) at the rates in effect at the time of each renewal, plus fees and taxes. If you do not accept the change in pricing, you have the right to reject the change by cancelling your Subscription prior to the change taking effect.
I guess that means that SiriusXM is justified in making its customers pay if they don't remember to cancel prior to their renewal. On the other hand, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. In this case, SiriusXM should definitely not expect customers to pay for an entire year of service when they cancel it shortly after the automatic renewal.
To be fair, I was eventually connected to a second agent who confirmed that the subscription was canceled and that I would not be responsible for an entire year's subscription to a service I no longer had. While that was much appreciated, I couldn't help but think that the entire thing should have been so much easier, and definitely should not have taken a half hour of my life.
Every company should make it as easy as Netflix, which has a giant "cancel subscription" button right on the account page. Netflix isn't scared of people unsubscribing from their service. They don't ask you to call or talk to anyone or wait in a live chat queue. It could not be more simple for anyone to stop paying money if they no longer want Netflix.
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