(That isn't to say that I think GM will somehow produce anything other than a captured rent extraction tool)
There is no cost reason to exclude the option. Even if I don’t use it, if I’m buying a $30-50k new vehicle it better have it, even if that’s for the sake of resale or future family members I might pass the car down to. My 2016 has it, why am I tolerating the removing of such a feature?
If you want unscientific evidence you’ll notice that the Honda Prologue (has CarPlay) outsells the Equinox EV it’s based on.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/06/about-one-third-of-car-...
The UX difference compared to my phone, and the change in speed / etc.. was infuriating. The experience with my phone was ALWAYS better.
An argument based on the desires of fiscally illiterate people with 19.99% APR loans on oversized cars would make more sense if I worked for an auto company, thankfully I don't.
And again I’m not making some kind of pro-consumerism buy a new car right now argument, I’m just saying that in 2025 CarPlay and Android Auto are high demand features that a lot of people insist upon.
I’m not making some kind of profound statement on the state of the car industry or whether infotainment is too deeply integrated into vehicles.
I’m just saying if it was time for me to buy a new car I’m thinking twice about buying something that’s not giving me phone mirroring, just like I want my car to have FM radio even if I rarely or never use it.
You can find infotainment replacement systems for more recent cars. Example: https://www.caraudiocoho.com/products/mazda-6-car-radio-mult...
I love how authoritatively you say this, as though this is meant to be just so patently absurd it doesn't require any further argument. This is an attempted reductio ad absurdum, but the absurdum in question fails to actually be abusrd.
Not everyone wants to drop $50K every few years on some liquid-glass-operated subscription-based monstrosity. Some people much prefer cars operated by knobs and dials, that are easy to repair, and dirt-cheap to replace. It's simply superior tech.
The 2004 Accord has a DIN slot in it. Which has a myriad of options available for it, despite the dwindling aftermarket.
Have you seen how to upgrade a 2023 Honda Accord infotainment system? You can't without major work. You can use the factory head unit, and feed all the amplified signals into a $1000+ sound processor, with a bunch of other modules specifically built for the car, then run the speaker outputs out to some crazy-ass 8 channel amplifier (because more speakers means the stereo is better for some reason), then feed that back to your speakers. And then at that point, all you've upgraded is the audio, not even the head unit itself. And why does it even have a center channel again?
Also, people obviously care about what infotainment is in their cars, as there is a huge amount of people saying they won't buy a car without CarPlay. Sounds like people DO want to augment their infotainment systems. Nobody is trying to do it, because you can't do it. Imagine if you could buy the car you wanted, and install your own accessories in it.
You made a claim that you can’t upgrade these systems without $1000 of gear and I proved that idea wrong with a single link. It doesn’t really matter that it’s Android 12 - nobody really cares because all it has to do is run CarPlay and Android Auto. As long as the system can do that it’s infinitely upgradable from a software perspective. Nobody’s actually using the base Android system.
I also have a friend that spent under $500 to add CarPlay to a Chevy Sonic with a similar system and they’re very happy with it.
And that’s why I want a car to have CarPlay and Android auto, because it negates any need to upgrade the system down the line. The upgrades happen on your phone.
Imagine if you could install your own accessories in it…like the one I linked? I mean, again, I get it, it’s not a simple DIN setup but for the 1% of people who are interested in upgrading their car system this this is a real product you can buy for basically any car model. I owned an Alpine head unit for my 2005 Volkswagen and I wouldn’t really describe it as not janky compared to the OEM head unit, but the thing had Bluetooth and that’s all I needed.