After General Motors ditches CarPlay, it taps Apple for UI talent

General Motors announced back in March that it was ditching CarPlay from future vehicles, in favor of its own infotainment systems.

The company originally partnered with Google on this, but now seems to have decided it needs an Apple touch – by hiring one of the Cupertino company’s former design directors to work on the user interface (UI), along with three more former Apple employees …

General Motors and CarPlay

General Motors (GM) went all-in on CarPlay and Android Auto many years ago, starting with the 2017 decision to drop its own GPS system from its most advanced vehicle of the time, the Chevy Bolt.

Fast-forward to March of this year, and GM made a U-turn to drop CarPlay, claiming at the time that it didn’t want to be dependent on drivers having a cellphone. Because, sure, loads of American drivers don’t have smartphones.

Coincidentally, the company’s chief digital officer said that it planned to make tens of billions of dollars charging for app subscriptions within its own infotainment systems. Oh, and it would be sucking up driving data too.

“We do believe there are subscription revenue opportunities for us,” Edward Kummer, GM’s chief digital officer, added. The company is targeting $20 billion to $25 billion in annual revenue from subscriptions by 2030 […]

GM’s decision to stop offering CarPlay will begin with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer. This change, the report explains, will help GM “capture more data on how consumers drive and charge EVs.

Hired former Apple design director for UI

GM originally worked with Google to develop its own systems, but it seems that it later decided it needed some Apple design expertise.

In a LinkedIn blog post, GM’s exec VP of Software and Services announced that he recently hired Chris Matthews, alongside three other former Apple employees.

I am relying on the long-standing, proven leadership of Stacy Bogataj Lynett, Clyde Bulloch, Abdul Bazzi and Edward Kummer, but I’ve also looked to balance that with different thinking and turned to Silicon Valley to “hire up.” I want to welcome some of my new leaders:

Lori Mann is our new head of planning and program management and brings extensive background in software, design, project and resource management from her time at Apple, Uber and Nest.

Baris Cetinok is our new vice president of product, software and services. He is a former CPTO and has led product, engineering, design, and marketing at companies including Apple, American Express, Amazon and Microsoft. He has started new product categories, such as Office 365, Amazon Payments, iCloud and Apple Pay making him uniquely qualified to refine our software strategy and roadmap to drive product and engineering teams toward delivery.

David Richardson, vice president of software and services, joins us from Apple where he spent 11 years helping develop and lead Apple’s global infrastructure. He brings a wealth of experience in cloud computing and systems software from his roles in enterprise, startups and research.

Christopher Matthews, formerly a director within the Apple Design Team, is leading our new human interface design practice, which will enable us to move more quickly and creatively to deliver great experiences for our customers when interacting with our vehicles.

They join former iCloud software lead Mike Abbott, who joined the company back in May.

9to5Mac’s Take

As we’ve said before, dropping support for CarPlay is a dumb decision. In-car infotainment UI has always been terrible, and even if that changes in future, most people are going to prefer to use the UI and apps they already know.

Hiring some Apple design talent is a smarter move, but it isn’t going to change the fact that the company is simply giving people a reason to look elsewhere for their next car.

Photo: Chevrolet