While General Motors has already announced that it will no longer offer Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support in its upcoming EVs, Ford remains committed to those third-party applications, which many consumers have long preferred over OEM infotainment. In fact, Ford CEO Jim Farley has gone so far as to criticize GM’s decision and reiterate that Ford will continue offering Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in its vehicles moving forward – and we’ve seen multiple improvements and new features added recently, too. However, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has now filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple claiming that the next-generation version of CarPlay is taking things a bit too far.
“Apple’s threatened dominance over the automotive industry goes well beyond the Apple Wallet and Apple’s demands on car makers to allow innovative products and services on the iPhone,” the lawsuit reads. “Apple’s smartphone dominance extends to CarPlay, an Apple infotainment system that enables a car’s central display to serve as a display for the iPhone and enables the driver to use the iPhone to control maps and entertainment in the car. Like the smartphone market, infotainment systems are increasingly considered must-have capabilities in newer vehicles.”
“After leveraging its smartphone dominance to car infotainment systems, Apple has told automakers that the next generation of Apple CarPlay will take over all of the screens, sensors, and gauges in a car, forcing users to experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience if they want to use any of the features provided by CarPlay. Here too, Apple leverages its iPhone user base to exert more
power over its trading partners, including American carmakers, in future innovation. By applying the same playbook of restrictions to CarPlay, Apple further locks-in the power of the iPhone by preventing the development of other disintermediating technologies that interoperate with the phone but reside off device.”
This is certainly an interesting development given how important Farley says Apple CarPlay is to Ford’s future, and it comes at a time when the automaker is working to make it more prevalent in its vehicles. However, some experts disagree with the DOJ’s interpretation of Apple’s next-gen software, noting that automakers still control how it will work.
“Even with the next-gen system, OEMs don’t actually have to let Apple take over all the screens,” Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights and an expert on vehicle software, told The Verge. “They can limit the interface to whichever screens they want.” Abuelsamid noted that automakers still need to provide their own software to operate these features, and can’t assume that every customer has a smartphone – or an iPhone, specifically – which means that they must provide an alternative, regardless.
We’ll have more on this soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
F apple
For a company dedicated to Android Auto and Car Play, it would be nice if Android Auto/Google Maps didn’t crash every 20 minutes on my ’23 Bronco. If I took it to my dealer, are they going to say it’s my phone’s fault or throw up their hands and say they have no idea what’s wrong?