Most buyers don’t want a native system, and one-third of consumers say they won’t purchase a car if it doesn’t integrate with their smartphone.
Carmakers risk disaster if they reject Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. According to a recent McKinsey & Co. consumer survey, about one-third of buyers won’t purchase a car without smartphone integration.
A lack of support for smartphone connectivity, according to 30% of buyers of electric vehicles worldwide and 35% of consumers of cars with internal combustion engines, is a deal-breaker. For General Motors, which announced in December that it will be phased out of such integrations in future EVs, that number might have significant ramifications.
Similar inflexibility is seen among American consumers: 25% of EV buyers and 38% of buyers of gasoline-powered vehicles would not buy automobiles without smartphone mirroring.
Kevin Laczkowski, worldwide co-lead of McKinsey’s automotive and assembly group, stated that there is a danger if an OEM steps away from seamless smartphone integration.
The poll findings are a little more nuanced than that; among drivers who would be prepared to pay for smartphone integration include those who purchase gasoline-powered vehicles (17%) and electric vehicles (almost 30%).
Reflect/Mirror
The popular mobile phone interface is mirrored on infotainment panels via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In a midyear Wards Intelligence study of automobiles for the 2023 model year, both saw installation rates exceeding 90%.
Automakers are hesitant to give up greater control over the in-car experience to tech companies, so those screens have turned into a fight for infotainment. With more and more software integrated into cars, the infotainment center serves as both a visual indicator of distinction and an important driver touch point. The interface is viewed by automakers as a gateway for valuable subscription services that increase brand identification and are sold to car owners.
In particular, the dominance of CarPlay has drawn more attention.
Focus has been drawn by the US Department of Justice to what it claims are Apple’s anticompetitive CarPlay practices. The upcoming phone-projection technology can project content from the main infotainment panel onto other screens, such as the instrument cluster. According to a government antitrust lawsuit against Apple filed in March, that would impose a “iPhone-centric experience” on drivers; however, industry analysts believe there is more to the tale. In order to extend CarPlay’s reach and establish the necessary technical infrastructure, automakers would need to come to an agreement.
According to Aston Martin, some systems will be able to utilize the upcoming Apple CarPlay version this year, which will feature displays across several interfaces. In certain forthcoming models, Porsche is also integrating the latest version of CarPlay. In the meantime, other automakers are attempting to regain authority over the infotainment system.
Screen time
Neither Android Auto nor Apple CarPlay are supported by Tesla Inc. or Rivian Automotive Inc. According to Rivian’s initial research, 70% of its consumers desired CarPlay for their cars. After clients become accustomed to the business’s internal system, that dropped to 30%, Bloomberg said.
GM thinks it can do the same.
A GM spokesman, Anna Yu, stated that “the infotainment experience should feel custom to each driver and vehicle.” “We’re moving toward a native system that easily syncs with the customers’ phone of choice, and enables deeper integration with vehicle controls and status, alongside features like voice assistant, navigation, music, texts, calls, apps and more.”
In fact, in the last few years, native infotainment systems have advanced dramatically.
“Systems have gotten vastly better than they were,” according to Sam Abuelsamid, chief analyst for e-mobility at Guidehouse Insights, and “automakers have learned a lot about interface design” during the past ten years.
However, there are barriers preventing users from embracing native infotainment systems. McKinsey researchers asked what automobile owners would do in the event that smartphone integration was removed from their present vehicles in a separate question on their survey.
Merely 35% of respondents worldwide indicated that they would transition to utilizing an in-house system supplied by the carmaker. When asked which brand they would buy a car from next, 52% indicated they would just use their smartphones, and 14% said they would buy a new automobile altogether.
Just 28% of respondents in the US stated they would go back to the original system. If smartphone integration were removed, more than 60% of respondents stated they would continue to use their phones, and 10% said they would transfer brands.
Manufacturers think their in-house infotainment systems can win over customers, even if those buyers are first drawn to Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Abuelsamid concurred. According to him, drivers would adjust to native infotainment systems in the same way that they did to smartphone projection. Many of those critics “will probably change their mind” after they “try out these native systems without projection,” the speaker claimed.
Post time: Jun-19-2024