U.S.' biggest carmaker is ditching Apple CarPlay

(Image credit: Future/ iMore)

General Motors, the biggest car manufacturer in the United States, is set to phase out Apple CarPlay from its electric cars, starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer.

According to Reuters, the automaker is looking to phase out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies in favor of "built-in infotainment systems developed with Google."

This would be a significant setback for Apple as it would lose a large market share across North America in the vehicle dashboard market. Currently, Chevrolet, manufactured by GM, offers more models with Apple CarPlay than any other brand.

Pull over, Apple

The partnership between General Motors and Google is said to have started in 2019 as the automaker wanted to build better-integrated vehicle systems to get more data on the way people drive its cars.

Edward Kummer, GM's chief digital officer, and Mike Himche, executive director of digital cockpit experience, said in a recent interview,

"We have a lot of new driver assistance features coming that are more tightly coupled with navigation," Himche told Reuters. "We don’t want to design these features in a way that are dependent on person having a cellphone."

The company has announced that buyers will get Google Maps and Google Assistant for eight years at no extra cost.

The company plans to still offer Apple CarPlay in the combustion models of its cars and will allow for Bluetooth connectivity between iPhone and the vehicle. This means that while owners of 2024 electric models will not have Apple CarPlay they can still make calls and listen to music with the best iPhones on the market.

With WWDC announced for June 5, there are rumors of updates for CarPlay that would include deeper integration with vehicles. We're waiting for the first next-generation CarPlay vehicles to launch in late 2023 with the addition of widgets and support for multiple displays. So, whilst this will not be what Apple wants to hear, the future of CarPlay still looks promising.

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.