Automakers had their chance, it’s time to let Apple fix terrible car software
Apple announced two new partners for its next-generation CarPlay platform this week — Porsche and Aston Martin. The latter, a storied but historically technology-challenged (remember the Lagonda?) sports car brand that would greatly benefit from using someone else’s software, makes sense. But Porsche? That was more than a bit of a surprise to me — especially given the company’s storied reputation for engineering its own solutions and recently announced Android-based Macan. But I believe Porsche knows something much of the industry isn’t yet ready to accept: That Apple’s software can create far more value for Porsche’s cars than Porsche could ever create on its own. Other automakers should start living in this reality instead of chasing the fantasy that they’re software companies, if only we’d give them 10 or 20 years to figure it out.
The rise of CarPlay and Android Auto
First, let’s set some historical context — I think it’s essential for this discussion. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are roughly contemporaneous, with Auto launching on Hyundai, GM, and Honda beginning in 2015. CarPlay technically predated this, launching on the Ferrari FF in 2014 (yes, CarPlay debuted on a Ferrari), but it too saw wide adoption start in 2015 with major car manufacturers. Slowly but surely, even notoriously recalcitrant luxury marks like BMW and Mercedes came on board with these projected smartphone interfaces — almost assuredly because their customers demanded it, lest they jump ship to someone else who would give them what they wanted. Today, it’s difficult to find a new car (at least, in North America or Western Europe) without support for CarPlay and Android Auto that isn’t a Tesla or Rivian.
CarPlay and Android Auto always amounted to an exchange of value for automakers. Google and Apple would learn a lot about how people behave when interacting with in-vehicle infotainment systems (touchpoints, navigation routing, voice commands, and more). At the same time, carmakers would receive bleeding-edge connectivity and integration with popular mapping and audio services. This was a nominally equitable arrangement, especially given how far behind many OEMs were on their in-vehicle software in the mid-2010s. Projection’s only major downside, for users, was the lag, which especially when connected in the more convenient wireless fashion, is palpable.
That some manufacturers like GM are now rebuffing their tech titan partners isn’t surprising; projected modes were always a trade-off, one whose business impact was foreseeable. It would be much harder to convince customers to pay for things (e.g., a mobile data connection, mapping, streaming) they once received for free via these projected interfaces, and taking something away from people — even something they’d possibly be content without — always goes down badly. Put another way: Google and Apple had their feet in the door (connectors in the USB port?), and it would be hard to kick them out.
By 2018, though, most OEMs had signed on to the smartphone projection compromise, seeing no better solution (and a real risk of lost sales if they didn’t hop on the bandwagon). This gets us to the present day.
A new era: Projection rejection
Today, automakers face a choice: Forge ahead with projection integration and forego some maybe-there, maybe-not revenue, or take a page from GM’s (wildly unpopular) book and create their own walled garden ecosystem, albeit one built on top of Google’s Android OS for cars. But from the consumer perspective, this choice feels exceedingly arbitrary.
Broadly speaking, smartphone integration in the car isn’t any less desirable today than it was eight years ago when CarPlay and Android Auto launched (unless you drive a Tesla or a Rivian). Smartphones remain ubiquitous and become more capable with each passing year. And while the rate of innovation has stagnated, the average age of the smartphone in someone’s pocket is far lower than the car they drive. There is no reason to believe that will change in the coming decade. The technology we carry will, for the foreseeable future, be more capable than the technology that carries us. This is at the core of the in-car projection issue, and it’s a fight the carmakers can’t win. But some seem intent on fighting anyway.
GM’s decision to drop CarPlay is saying out loud what many carmakers are quietly thinking: “We should never have let these tech companies into our software stack. Tesla had the right idea all along.” In broad strokes, there’s an excellent argument to be made here, because software defined vehicle (SDV) architecture like Tesla’s is plainly the wave of the future. But the argument GM is making now — that developing an SDV platform is an excellent opportunity to kick Google and Apple off its cars, ripping off the proverbial “band-aid”— is being made far too late and with far too little conviction. The only way forward is for carmakers to take a “best of both worlds” approach: SDV architecture that is highly integrated with projected user interfaces.
The Tesla mirage
I am no Tesla apologist, and I think Tesla gets far too much credit for some things. But it gets far too little credit in the media for birthing revolutionary software technology that leapfrogged an entire industry (i.e., the world’s first software-defined vehicles).
Even without Android Auto or CarPlay, Tesla is still generally recognized as the world leader in vehicle software — rightly so. No one has ever really caught up, and it’s been over a decade. Rivian is always a step or two behind and the rest of the industry is a distant third. Still, everyone wants to be Tesla. This much is evident when you look at GM’s software strategy in its Ultium vehicles, Mercedes-Benz’s MB OS, or even the ongoing slow-motion train wreck that is Volkswagen’s Cariad division. There’s a race to be the “next” Tesla of car software, and it appears that… no one is winning. Or even driving on the course.
But using a platform like Android Automotive to build a closed SDV ecosystem like Tesla’s and hoping to replicate its success is, to put it bluntly, incredibly arrogant. These carmakers are chasing a mirage. Tesla is far more than an SDV platform; it’s a lifestyle brand, a charging network, an app developer, and a lightning-in-a-bottle marketing engine with an incredible first-mover advantage. Much as Samsung was never the “next” iPhone, but the counterpoint to the iPhone, other carmakers must become the counterpoint to Tesla in this new SDV world — not try to become it. And that means embracing technology partnerships (i.e., projection interfaces), not eschewing them.
The Faustian bargain (of the century)
Apple builds the world’s most loved consumer software. And it’s aggressively courting manufacturers to put that software on their vehicles. It feels like this should be a no-brainer, and for some companies, it clearly is. That campaign is yielding tangible results, with brands like Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar-Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Ford, Volvo, Honda, and the Nissan-Renault Alliance on board as partners for the next generation of CarPlay. We don’t know to what degree these manufacturers will embrace that software (for example, if they’ll use Apple’s full instrument cluster overlay). Still, if the mockups released as part of the Porsche and Aston Martin announcements this week are any indicator, it seems clear that Apple is the guiding hand in this relationship. And that’s how it should be.
Legacy carmakers have proven utterly incapable of designing performant, usable software. They have proven incapable of iterating that software in a timely manner. They have proven incapable of developing it without significant bugs. And they have proven incapable of delivering value above and beyond that which a company like Apple (or Google) does via its ecosystem — and they almost certainly will never develop such capability.
As much as the vision of a software-defined vehicle future holds great promise, that promise will only be successfully realized by companies that partner broadly to integrate those platforms with outside technology partners. Tesla is a one-off — and an incredible one at that — but it shouldn’t serve as the model. The sooner carmakers realize this and stop chasing phantom revenue for subscriptions that nobody wants, the sooner we can all stop avoiding otherwise decent cars ruined by terrible, self-inflicted software faults.
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LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has just given us a closer look than ever at its upcoming lower-cost, smaller-format electric motorcycles ahead of their larger unveiling at the Milan Motorcycle Show (EICMA) next week.
While we got our first glimpse of the new machines earlier this summer, spotting a street and trail version of the smaller electric motorbikes, now we have a name for the models and a few more details.
Officially called the S4 Honcho, the new model will be a 125-cc equivalent that will be available in both a street-legal version capable of being operated by riders who possess a moped/light motorcycle license in Europe or a motorcycle license in the US, and a license-free off-road version.
“The S4 Honcho Street will qualify for A1 licenses in Europe and the UK and M-endorsement in the U.S., offering lightweight, urban-friendly electric mobility with intuitive performance and removable batteries,” explained the company.
The bikes appear to be powered by a centrally-mounted, chain-driving electric motor and a pair of removable batteries accessed by flipping up the seat.
LiveWire has remained fairly tight-lipped regarding the major tech specs for the bikes, as well as the price, but we do get a look at the dual removable batteries thanks to a new image posted to the company’s website.
There, we can see what appears suspiciously similar to a pair of KYMCO Ionex batteries, which would make sense given LiveWire’s close partnership with the Taiwanese scooter giant.
A couple years ago at EICMA I had the chance to check out KYMCO’s new Ionex batteries and e-scooter platform firsthand, which you can see in the video below.
While excitement has been building for LiveWire’s smaller electric motorcycles, the full unveiling of the bikes’ performance figures as well as the price tag will prove critical for gauging whether or not the mini-bikes could be a major turning point for LiveWire’s elusive profitability.
But the company isn’t betting it all on one horse, or one Honcho. Also in attendance at the show will be LiveWire’s full-scale concept of an electric maxiscooter built on the same S2 architecture that powers the company’s currently best-selling models, the S2 Del Mar, S2 Mulholland, and S2 Alpinista.
That scooter, built in partnership with KYMCO, will leverage the company’s fully developed S2 platform to create a more comfortable, high-performance urban and suburban-oriented model.
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Tesla is talking about finally bringing the next-generation Roadster to production in new job listing.
However, you shouldn’t hold your breath.
The prototype for the next-generation Tesla Roadster was unveiled in 2017 and was supposed to enter production in 2020, but it has been delayed each year since then.
It has become a running gag in the Tesla community and an example of CEO Elon Musk’s tendency to stretch the truth about timelines.
Since missing its original 2020 production timeline, Musk has given six updated production timelines for the new electric supercar, and each has been wrong.
The latest timeline hasn’t even been about producing the vehicle. It has been about the unveiling of a new version of the next-generation as the last prototype of what is supposed to be a “next-gen” car was unveiled almost a decade ago.
Musk has been talking about an unveiling and demonstration of the New Roadster by the end of the year.
This week, Tesla has posted a new job listing for a ‘Manufacturing Engineer, Roadster‘. In the job description, Tesla mentions working on battery manufacturing equipment for the Roadster:
Tesla is looking to hire a Manufacturing Engineer to contribute to the concept development and launch of battery manufacturing equipment for our cutting-edge Roadster vehicle. In this role you will take large scale manufacturing systems for new battery products and architectures from the early concept development stage through equipment launch, optimization and handover to local operations teams. Battery development is at the heart of our company, and this is an exciting opportunity to work directly on the central challenges for the all-new Roadster product architecture while still in its early development stages.
The comment does point to Tesla starting to set up manufacturing for the production of the new Roadster.
Since this does sound like early manufacturing development work, it would be optimistic to hope to see new Roadsters rolling off the production line by the end of next year. More likely to be in 2027.
In its updated annual installed production capacity chart, Tesla listed Roadster production as still being in the “design development” phase as of last week:
The location of Roadster production is also listed as “to be determined.”
The new job listing for a manufacturing engineer on the Roadster program mentions being based in Fremont, which could mean Tesla plans to launch production at its California factory.
Tesla next-gen Roadster
As unveiled in 2017, the new Roadster was supposed to get 620 miles (1,000 km) of range and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds.
It was listed for $200,000, and a “Founder Series” was also offered for $250,000.
At the time, Tesla used the Roadster as a prize for its referral program when it badly needed to generate sales. A few dozen Tesla owners referred enough new sales to win one or two free new Roadsters each.
Some have suspected that Tesla didn’t want to bring the vehicle to production because it would have to deliver over 30 of them for free and hundreds more at heavy discounts due to its original referral program.
Others believe that updates to the vehicles have led to delays.
Shortly after the unveiling of the next-gen Roadster in 2017, Musk discussed adding cold-air thrusters to the supercar to deliver unprecedented racing performance and possibly even allow it to hover over the ground.
The CEO referenced demonstrating that the “Roadster can fly” on several occasions in the last few years.
Electrek’s Take
It looks like we are talking about the Roadster possibly coming to market in 2027—maybe late 2026 at the earliest.
That’s roughly 10 years after it was unveiled.
I’ll believe it when I see it. And if it does happen, I might have one or two flying Roasters for sale.
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Just like it says on the tine: TV brand SHARP is following Sony into the automotive space with the new LDK+ concept that transforms into a mobile movie theater. It’s a type of concept we’ve seen before – but not like this!
The SHARP LDK+ promises to be a Living room, a Dining room, and a Kitchen on wheels – and more (the plus, obviously), building off the decidedly more blobular™ concept first shown back in 2024. This updated version, however, takes the LDK concept and brings it significantly closer to reality by basing it on Foxconn’s “Model A EV by Hon Hai Technology Group” chassis.
And, now that it’s a little bit closer to some kind of reality, it might be time to climb on the SHARP hype train and take a minute to genuinely enjoy the movie/gaming environment the company is promising to deliver with the LDK+ concept.
Get hyped, kids
Not to be overly crude here, but if you roll in a van with a sliding projector table, opaque windows, and fully reclining seats, you probably hit the “family planning” section of your local Walgreens on a regular basis. Similarly, as more and more young people find themselves struggling to afford their own space, offering a vehicle that delivers a little privacy. And even if that’s more Netflix than chill, I think it’s bound to find a few buyers.
Whether I’m right or wrong about that will remain to be seen for a while, however. The official press release is light on specs, offering the following description of the LDK+ concept …
The second iteration of “LDK+” retains the original concept while featuring both high maneuverability with its compact body and a spacious, relaxing interior. Developed based on the“Model A” EV by Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), this compact minivan model offers an expansive cabin layout.
When parked, the vehicle can be used as a theater room or a remote workspace. A console box equipped with a table and projector is placed between the driver’s and passenger’s seats. By swiveling the driver’s seat to face backward, it creates a living room-like atmosphere where you can sit around with the rear seats. Pulling down the screen installed above the rear seats allows you to enjoy movies or conduct online meetings on a large display. Through Sharp’s AIoT platform, which connects AI and home appliances, the vehicle links with household devices such as kitchen appliances, air conditioning, and laundry systems. The AI learns residents’ lifestyles and preferences, creating personalized new ways of living. In addition, the system can connect with V2H (Vehicle to Home) solutions, enabling efficient energy management by integrating solar power generation and residential storage batteries.
SHARP
… but skipping automotive basics like battery capacity, anticipated driving range, and the usual horsepower and torque figures. Pricing and, perhaps most importantly, when the vehicle might see the light of day weren’t revealed, either.
SHARP LDK+ concept
All of which is to say: they’re probably never going to actually build something like this – and that’s too bad, because a new-age Honda Element/Nissan Cube-style boxy little EV would absolutely sell like hotcakes.
SOURCE | IMAGES: SHARP, The Japan News.
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