Software also offers the prospect of making money. It controls everything from how fast cars can accelerate to how they manoeuvre, how often they need to be recharged and how comfortable their passengers are. Carmakers are used to building mechanical and electronic devices but EVs rely far more on software. Such investments reach deeper than tensions with Apple over infotainment screens. Apple last year showed Mercedes-Benz among brands “excited to bring this new vision of CarPlay to customers”, but the carmaker has also announced plans for its own infotainment and software system, again using Google technology. GM will, for example, integrate its own navigation data with Google’s to guide drivers to EV charging stations.įew others have so far rejected Apple CarPlay (Tesla has never supported it), but GM is not alone in wanting more control. “We feel that we need to have control over the experience,” Nick Festa, GM’s director of digital business, told me this week. This would suit me fine, but I understand that it might irritate carmakers to invest billions in EVs, only to find Tim Cook occupying the front seat. Apple’s widgets would spread right across the dashboard display. Last year, it unveiled an expanded version of CarPlay in IOS 16 that can be deeply integrated into vehicle software, controlling not only music and navigation, but heated seats and air conditioning. I am not entirely sure how my car’s air conditioning works, or what the wiper settings mean: spare me from learning new technology for each brand.Īpple has instead grown more cheeky in trying to wrest data and display space from carmakers. It is hard enough to adapt to the regular updates to Apple IOS or Android, let alone tackle a different set of swipes, symbols and habits for the limited periods that most of us spend driving. We are used to the operating systems we have in our pocket.” As Benedetto Vigna, Ferrari’s chief executive, remarked at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car event recently: “For a car company to become a tech company is not easy. Many people prefer their smartphone software to their vehicles’ inbuilt displays. Surely I am not the only one to groan at this prospect. Drivers will be forced to rely on GM’s new dashboard display instead. It followed GM’s announcement that it will stop the use of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto on some of its new electric vehicle models in North America, starting with the Chevrolet Blazer EV. I therefore took a keen interest this week in General Motors’ appointment of Mike Abbott, a former Apple executive, to head its software unit. I could accomplish both of these on the vehicle’s inbuilt display but I find it awkward, so I plug in my iPhone and use Apple’s CarPlay software instead. DisplayBuddy users have recieved 44 free updates in the past year, adding support for the latest Apple Silicon chips (M2, M2 Pro and M2 Max), support for Siri and Mac Shortcuts, as well as several useful features such as synchronizing multiple displays, saving presets, and controlling display resolution and rotation.When I climb into my car, I set the map to my destination and then start to play music on Spotify. In contrast, DisplayBuddy is a powerful alternative to MonitorControl, offering advanced features while maintaining a simple user interface that does not interfere with user experience. However, it is no longer actively maintained (it’s latest release was in May 2022) and lacks support for the latest Macs, including the new MacBook Pros with the M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max chips. MonitorControl is an alternative to DisplayBuddy that has been appreciated for its simple user interface and open-source code over the years. DisplayBuddy and MonitorControl are two popular software tools that allow users to control their Mac’s displays.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |