| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg's newsletter on the future of the auto world. Read today's featured story in full online here. The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV was the nicest ride Michael Waldron had ever owned. When he purchased the $62,000 electric SUV last November, he was enamored with its "radiant red" paint, buttery acceleration and deluxe interior with slick displays stretched across the dash. There was just one big thing missing: Apple CarPlay. General Motors had revealed the prior spring that it was ditching support for Apple's infotainment hub in its new EVs so it could bolster GM's in-house Ultifi platform. It was a buckle-your-seatbelt move. For tens if not hundreds of millions of drivers, CarPlay has become the default home screen of the center console, an iPhone-enabled grid of apps available in vehicles ranging from Fords to Ferraris. According to Apple, as of 2022, 79% of US car buyers would only consider purchasing cars that were CarPlay compatible.  Illustration: Ariel Davis for Bloomberg Businessweek At first, Waldron, an iPhone user, kind of liked Ultifi, which came with decent services for navigation and media. But little annoyances crept in. Unlike CarPlay, which allows drivers to listen to recent texts by clicking on Apple's touchscreen app, Ultifi is only able to access new messages over Bluetooth if the driver has previously granted permissions. Waldron, who lives in Iowa, could no longer ask Siri for directions to a friend's house by name; instead, he entered addresses into Google Maps. His wife, another iPhone owner, hated its lack of Apple's music and podcast apps. Larger problems reared up on a family road trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving. After a warning light randomly popped up on the main screen, apps kept crashing before the display blacked out altogether. With the system bricked, no settings could be changed for the 600-mile drive back to Des Moines, not even the SiriusXM channel, which was stuck on 1990s radio. "My 4-year-old is now very well-versed in my music taste," says Waldron, who depended on his iPhone planted in the cup holder for the rest of the journey. Once home, Waldron's Blazer went to the dealership where it stayed for a month as technicians tried to diagnose the glitches. He wasn't alone: Press reviewers and numerous customers ran into major software failures and vehicle faults, forcing GM to ground the vehicle and halt all sales starting in December. As the weeks dragged on at the shop, a service rep asked Waldron if there was anything he could do to make the situation right. "I said, 'Well, you could put CarPlay back in it,'" Waldron recalls. "The guy was laughing and said, 'I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing a lot of that.'" But GM had ensured that wasn't possible. The new Blazer was the first test of CEO Mary Barra's risky bet to replace CarPlay with an alternative it had built itself. GM is gambling that its own software group, led by recruits from Apple, Amazon.com and Google, can create a better dashboard experience, supplant CarPlay, and eventually reap massive digital sales. Carmakers so far have tolerated CarPlay as a way to please customers, but GM's move is a sign that they're starting to sour on the arrangement.  GM CEO Mary Barra on the floor of GM Design West in Warren, Michigan, in February. Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg A traditional car company attempting to take on Silicon Valley in tech only to subject its customers to subpar functionality and embarrassing bugs is almost too on the nose. The poor quality of MyFord Touch, Toyota Entune and other infotainment products seeded the desire for a real tech company to provide a modern replacement such as CarPlay in the first place. But as CarPlay grows wildly popular and seeks more data and instrument controls, Apple threatens to become the "iOS of the vehicle," says Alan Wexler, GM's senior vice president for strategy and innovation, referring to Apple's ubiquitous mobile operating system. "It's a physical vehicle, but it's an iPhone you're driving." Apple attempted to make a car itself, and it was ultimately a humbling exercise. It invested years and billions of dollars in the effort, an open secret known as Project Titan, before abandoning it in February. But the phonemaker had certainly learned enough during the process to burrow Apple software deeper into Jeeps, Mazdas and Volvos. Indeed, Apple's latest version of CarPlay syncs with onboard sensors to manage vehicle settings, climate control and even oil and gas gauges. Letting Apple show fun and convenient infotainment apps inside cars was one thing; letting it control how cars feel and drive is not something GM could stomach. If Apple completely captures car software, it could govern how GM connects with its own customers and earns digital revenue, relegating it to being a 115-year-old metal bender. Hence Ultifi. GM says it hopes the software platform can spark a boom in service add-ons and paid subscriptions for services such as assisted-driving systems and premium safety features. The software team has been busy crafting iOS-quality features to convert the iPhone faithful: polished layouts for viewing maps and songs alongside speed and mileage data, clever tools for monitoring EV battery life, adjustable ambient lighting with a Skittles bag of colors. What was the point if drivers could reflexively tap over to CarPlay? "The minute you decide to Balkanize and outsource those pieces, you cannot create those kinds of experiences," says Baris Cetinok, who runs GM's software and services group and who previously spent years at Apple developing its iCloud and Wallet services. "This is not just about receiving a couple of voice messages and playing podcasts."  The interior of a 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS. Source: General Motors Despite the Blazer's bumpy introduction, GM remains committed to escaping Apple's gravitational pull. (It will do so without the Ultifi branding, which it's phasing out.) But the more its customers rely on iMessage or subscribe to Apple Music or use a bundle of iHardware, the more they'll resist switching. "Detroit has discovered Apple's lock-in," Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney tweeted in April 2023, when GM faced a public backlash over its Ultifi-first announcement. The US Department of Justice even targeted CarPlay in its recent antitrust lawsuit against Apple, warning that it's increasingly "forcing users to experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience." Apple says CarPlay provides a smarter and safer way to use an iPhone in vehicles, and that it's inaccurate to suggest it's somehow blocking the development of other technologies simply by offering CarPlay as an option for automakers and iPhone users. GM is now racing to refine its software and convince customers that it's worth breaking old habits for. If the company can smash through the gates of Apple's walled garden, GM projects that digital services will bring in as much as $25 billion annually by 2030. Then again, it might end up simply alienating droves of Apple loyalists like Waldron, who bought an iPhone mount for his Blazer once the GM software was fixed. "If my nav screen bricks again," he says, "I can at least make it useful by suction-cupping my iPhone to it." — By Austin Carr and David Welch For more stories like this, sign up for the Bw Daily newsletter here.  Tesla Superchargers. Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg Elon Musk has upended a deal the White House saluted early last year to open Tesla's electric-vehicle chargers to other automakers, dealing a blow to President Joe Biden's EV agenda. Musk decided in the last week to eliminate almost the entire Supercharger team at Tesla, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The CEO hasn't publicly confirmed the move or offered a rationale, but has said the company will slow the expansion of its charging network. In addition to potentially compromising budding partnerships with other carmakers looking to tap Tesla's chargers, another consequence of Musk's move may be undercutting Biden's EV push in the midst of his reelection campaign. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked electric cars on the campaign trail and predicted a "bloodbath" for the auto industry if he isn't elected. Read More: - Tesla gives back some of $82 billion gain from tentative China deal.
- Musk has called relying on maps "foolish." Turns out, Tesla needs them.
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