General Motors will offer Google’s Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay on more than a dozen Chevrolet vehicles for the 2016 model year, the industry’s biggest bet yet on dashboard displays that mimic smartphones.

 

Chevy will be the first automotive brand to offer both Android Auto and CarPlay and the first to roll out either across a broad range of models, GM said in a statement today. The telematics systems give drivers the ability to control maps, text messaging, music and other smartphone features and applications through a vehicle’s center-stack display.

 

Google and Apple generated buzz last year when each said it would offer an interface for cars, promising to satisfy demand for intuitive touch-screen systems that work like the smartphones consumers have already mastered. But these systems have arrived later than many industry watchers expected, likely slowed by thorny issues such as legal liability and regulatory compliance to avoid distracted driving. 

 

‘Reason for purchase’

 

Chevy is going big by offering Android Auto and CarPlay in 14 Chevy models, including its top-selling nameplates: the Cruze and Malibu sedans, Silverado light- and heavy-duty pickups and other vehicles that account for about half of Chevy’s global sales volume. GM said the services would be available wherever those models are sold, including the U.S., China and South America.

 

Alicia Boler-Davis, GM’s senior vice president of global connected customer experience, said Chevy customers have made it known that they want smartphone functionality in the car.

 

“We believe that it is a key factor for customers and a reason for purchase,” Boler-Davis told reporters during a media briefing here on Tuesday. “It is a differentiation.”

 

But Chevy’s lead likely will be short-lived. Hyundai said Tuesday that it has begun offering Android Auto on the 2015 Sonata, making it the first brand to offer the service. It’s “coming soon” to more than two dozen other brands in the U.S. and overseas, including Ford, Jeep, Audi, Honda and Subaru, according to Android's website.

 

CarPlay today is offered only on two Ferrari models. Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are slated to integrate it into their systems eventually, Apple has said. Others are likely to follow.

 

More at:  Autonews

    

 

GM Press Release

 

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Chevrolet To Offer Android Auto and Apple CarPlay In 14 Vehicles For The 2016 Model Year