DETROIT (AP) – By the end of the year, nearly every major automaker will begin offering Apple’s CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto, two systems that effectively turn a car’s dashboard screen into a smartphone.
General Motors made the biggest move so far Wednesday, announcing that both systems will be available in seven 2016 Chevrolet models starting in the summer. The Apple system will appear in seven additional Chevy models. Earlier in the week, Hyundai announced the Android system in the Sonata midsize car.
Experts say the move to systems devised in Silicon Valley is an admission by the automakers that people favor the way their smartphones work over the automakers’ own touch screens and voice commands, which have been prone to glitches. The in-house systems have cost the car companies millions and dinged their quality ratings.
People are familiar with smartphones and have music libraries, podcasts, social media contacts and other personal items on them, said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology research firm in San Jose, California. Automakers, he said, have realized that most drivers can’t be bothered learning a whole new car-based system.
“We just want familiar. We want our content, our services that we already own on our phone. We just want the car to have the representation of that on demand,” Bajarin said.