General Motors takes Tesla route, says no to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto

General Motors seems to have taken the same route as Tesla for its future in-car infotainment systems that will be available in the upcoming electric cars of the brand. The US auto major has joined hands with Google to develop and completely new infotainment system that will be available in the future EVs of the automaker. This technology will bypass both the popular car connectivity features developed by Google and Apple, namely Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, reports Automotive News.

There are only a few automakers in the world that are thinking about bypassing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favour of a completely new infotainment system in their cars. Tesla and Rivian are among them. This decision has never been popular with the vehicle owners, but apparently not egregious enough to force them to buy an electric car from a mainstream automaker.

Now comes the question of why General Motors aims to develop a new infotainment system instead of using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Neither Apple nor Android charges the automakers a fee for including the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities in their cars. However, both the two tech giants get available user data whenever users use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

General Motors seems to be unhappy with this, and that is why the automaker is aiming to develop a new tech platform for a fresh infotainment system, which would unlikely allow user data collection. Instead, the data collected from the new infotainment system will be owned exclusively by General Motors. The automaker could use the data in any number of ways, including improving navigation routing and other vehicle systems. GM could also sell the data to third parties. However, the automaker has not confirmed these speculations.