- Most of General Motors’ new electric cars don’t have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in the U.S.
- That’s despite the cars’ infotainment systems supporting both features.
- Now, a new third-party mod wants to bring back CarPlay to GM EV owners.
General Motors removed Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from almost all of its new electric cars in the United States, and it’s planning to pull the plug on the two smartphone mirroring features for upcoming gas cars, too.
Unsurprisingly, the internet got mad, with some saying they would never buy a new car that doesn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto. At the same time, GM defended its position by saying the transition from the car’s native interface to one offered by the phone can be clunky and even dangerous in some situations.
“It wasn’t seamless, and frankly, in some cases, it could be distracting to move back and forth if you were doing something that you could do on a phone projection type of system, versus if you needed to do something in the vehicle,” GM CEO Mary Barra said on The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast in October.
But there’s now a solution for all the Apple CarPlay power users out there that also happen to own a GM-made EV that doesn’t have their go-to smartphone mirroring feature. It’s a third-party mod that involves some software tinkering and an external accessory, but it seems to work, as documented in a video by Electrified Outdoors.
A $55 adapter called CPC200-CCPA needs to be purchased to make it all happen, but the hard part comes down to an Android app that needs to be manually compiled and pushed to the car’s infotainment system via Google’s Play Store using a developer account.
As a reminder, the software in GM’s new EVs is based on Android Automotive OS, so it can run native Android apps. Thankfully, the developer has made the necessary code for the accompanying app open source, but it’s the owner’s job to put it all together. The hardware dongle comes with a USB-A cable, so a USB-C adapter might be needed, seeing how most of the automaker’s new cars come with the latter.
When it’s all done and dusted, there are some limitations. It only works with Apple CarPlay wirelessly, and there’s no native audio coming out of the add-on box. That said, music streaming from your favorite service still works via Bluetooth audio.
Siri commands appear to work just fine, as well as several apps, including Waze and A Better Route Planner.
On the project’s GitHub page, the developer said they will continue working on the project in their own time, but that they won’t be able to provide updates for the general public. However, a ready-made in-vehicle companion app might eventually surface on the Google Play store, making all of this tinkering unnecessary.
For now, though, this is the best shot GM EV owners have to get Apple CarPlay in their new cars. Another third-party solution was briefly available, but then it suddenly disappeared from the market. Assuming GM sticks to its guns, buyers will have two options: Come up with a MacGyver solution like we’ve described here, or learn to live without their beloved CarPlay.
