Volkswagen AG abruptly ousted Herbert Diess, its chief executive officer and architect of the auto industry’s biggest electrification effort, after repeated clashes with labor unions chipped away at his support with key stakeholders.
Porsche boss Oliver Blume will succeed Diess within weeks, ending a four-year tenure in which Diess’ hard-nosed leadership style caused constant friction and undermined his effectiveness. Missteps on key projects including delays at VW’s software unit also contributed to the shakeup, people familiar with the matter said.
Can you imagine still being jet lagged from playing Chattanooga Choo Choo at the factory, only to discover that Lower Saxony has had enough of your antics?
I remember when Ford did this for Sync2 and Sync3. Nobody wanted to write apps for qnx, no matter how good the Microsoft tooling was. At its peak I saw 3 apps available in their app store.
If there were 0 cars available with Android Automotive, this gross misunderstanding would be understandable. Google Play store has a bajillion apps, you can’t run them on AA if they aren’t built and formatted for it. The YouTube app, which just rolled out, is slower than my first Sony smart tv from 2008.
Because Porsche’s own software is delayed, they’ll just adopt AA — and it definitely won’t take 2+ years to iron out the issues, like it has for the other OEMs using it.
Today I only had to force-reboot AA 3 times before my phone connected. But when it does work, it’s as good as Sync3 was in 2016.
And this is why I’m so hesitant to try any other UI besides Tesla’s… it’s not flawless, it’s not perfect, but it works for our use and more. Looking at the others, it’s like asking an iPhone user to start using Android
Can someone explain to me what people use their infotainments for? This is my use case, I jump in the car, the phone connects to infotainment and starts playing music. If I need navigation, I use voice to tell it where to navigate. That’s it, I don’t think I’ve touched the screen since initial setup.
I’m not sure why manufactures are getting into this creating their own UI crap, AA and CarPlay work great and offer a universal interface across vehicles, if they do want to do this fine, but give people the option to use whatever they want(a simple option to turn on or off whatever interface you want to use). The licensing fees for AA and CarPlay have to be minimal, I mean if my Chinese stand alone screen that I use in my hooptie mobile includes it and only costs $150ish, why isn’t it just standard in absolutely every vehicle built? Leave it to the German’s to force you to use what they think is best, although GM going down the same path as well, both out of touch with what customers want.
On my BMW, HUD only works with the car’s native nav system.
And when I use CarPlay + Google Maps, the map itself is much smaller on the screen.
CarPlay gets the nod for voice input, as my car automatically downgraded the software’s usability to useless status at 36 months unless I paid more for an additional subscription… I guess $1xx,000 doesn’t buy what it used to.
When CarPlay fails to connect to Android Automotive, and Bluetooth is paired, it just thrashes between the two unless you unplug the phone. Preferable to keep rebooting until it works, except when that doesn’t resolve the issue.
If you’ve others in the car, it gets plenty of use. First thing in the AM, kid turns on the heated seat in the back and switches to her streaming radio station (before I even get in the car).
For Tesla, the nav screen shows charging station availability and the cost at that location/time of day. You navigate to it, and the car starts pre-conditioning the battery if needed.
Also shows other charging locations like evgo, though not availability.
When waiting (for whatever reason), the young ones flip on YouTube, Netflix, TikTok and anything else that can go on the screen. I usually watch something loud with plenty of explosions when I’m charging at a SC or other stations
B/c once ICE is no more (or a lot less than it is now), how will brands differentiate their products? By selling you stuff (preferably subscription-based) through the infotainment system.
The manufacturers probably don’t WANT customers running Apple and Android (esp since I think Google used to mine for car operating data, which is why Porsche resisted adding it for awhile).
