Your new car probably wont have Apple Carplay Ultra

Today I learned that I’m not rich enough to get to play around with Apple Carplay Ultra in my next car. Sad as that fact may be, it does make sense when you think about it.

Just a few weeks ago Aston Martin presented their updated DBX with the option to let Apple take over every screen in the car with Carplay Ultra. I for one wouldn’t want any of this in my DBX, because I really like the aesthetics a Aston Martin having a Aston Martin dash, not on that looks like the UI on my iPhone.

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But it turns out I’ll probably never have to worry about that, because I probably will never have the privilege of owning a DBX and pretty much all other car brands are giving Apple the finger when it comes to adding Carplay Ultra to their vehicles.

And it makes perfect sense. The not so exclusive car brands that are turning their backs to Apple, like Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and all the french ones are saying they don’t like to hand over all access to all car systems to Apple. In addition to that, they see a future in which Apple takes away the revenue in-car services and subscriptions are expected to bring.

So it makes perfect sense that Apple worked with Aston Martin to launch Carplay Ultra. It’s one of those brands that doesn’t have to rely on a lot of other revenue streams. It makes its money from a ridiculous profit margin on not only selling the car, but also the regular upkeep and parts. Selling heated seats as an option, simply doesn’t make sense to the couple of hundred DBX-owners, who fully expect it to be standard in their cars anyway. As they rightfully should when you’re paying hundreds of thousands for a car.

What is most weird about the pushback of the not so exclusive car brands, is that Apple didn’t see this coming. They should’ve know the secretive car industry would not be very happy sharing information with other companies, especially when they have to pay for it too. I mean, Apple could finally build their own car with all that info, like it tried with Project Titan, from which Carplay Ultra is the lukewarm leftover.

Just so you know, having Carplay in your car isn’t free for car manufacturers. They have to pay a fee to Apple to get it in your hunk of metal. But these days they kind of have to pay that fee, because the majority of car buyers won’t even consider buying a car if it doesn’t have Apple Carplay or Android Auto.

There is another thing to take away from the pushback of the lesser car brands: we’ll be seeing more in-car services and subscriptions in the future. No, we wont like it. Yes, the manufactures know this. But they also need the extra revenue to survive the shitty state the car industry is in now.

On the other hand, the Chinese manufacturers are making almost all luxury services and things subscriptions make sense for, a standard feature on almost all cars they build.

Maybe the car companies are right to push back on Apple, but resisting the change at hand by trying to squeeze more money out of customers, doesn’t make sense in the long run either.

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In other news

Lucid and Rivian are expected to profit from Trumps new tax bill. I never expected to type those words in that sentence, but here we are. The tax cut is thought be a knife to the heart of the EV-sales in general, with multiple manufacturers dialing down the EV-efforts in advance to the expected sales drop. But that means Lucid and Rivian could benefit not only from the sales rush before the tax bill goes into effect, but also after it. Even though the tax credit of $7500 will disappear, companies with EV-only strategies will still be keeping to that strategy, but having to do so with less cars to choose from. That means they’ll have to turn to Lucid and Rivian, at least according to analysts.

Polestar and Volvo are really sticking to the being two different brands strategy by building cars in the same factory. While Volvo sold a lot of shares in Polestar earlier this year, and plans for more separation of the names was planned, cooperation is still going strong as the Polestar 7 will be built in a European Volvo-factory alongside a new Volvo. Implying a shared SPA3-platform.

As a fan of the Forza Motorsport franchise on Xbox, it was kind of hard to read that the team behind the game was being hit by the recent layoffs at Microsoft. Around 70 people were allegedly fired, which means uncertainty for the future of the game. Especially now, with the latest installment being presented as a game that possibly will never have a new iteration, but will constantly be updated. That last part is kind of hard to do without staff. Building a new title is even harder. Maybe it’s just time to say goodbye to Microsoft on all platforms…

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