The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing Apple for anti-competitive behavior, and we’ve just learned that CarPlay is part of the case against the tech giant.
In filing the case, Threads user and Substack author George Orosz (@gergelyorosz_) noted a section about Apple’s advancements in automotive technology.
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The war on automotive software
Car companies are struggling to decide what to do with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. On the one hand, consumers are looking for technology that is usually better than using the car’s native navigation or media system. On the other hand, they don’t want their customers to primarily interact with an interface they don’t own or control, and which works and feels the same in every vehicle.
The filing describes CarPlay as another example of Apple taking advantage of the iPhone user base to drive out competitors. It says CarPlay prevents the development of other “disintermediation technologies that interact with the phone but reside outside of the device.” But the cheekiest part was about the next-gen version of Carplay, which Orosz pointed out:
“Apple told automakers that the next generation of Apple CarPlay would take over all the displays, sensors and gauges in the car, forcing users to experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience if they wanted to use any of the features offered by CarPlay,” the complaint states.
It sounds scary, but it’s not entirely true. While Orosz suggests that this CarPlay “takeover” could be why GM is ditching Apple from its future products, that phrase isn’t quite right. According to an automaker source familiar with the next-generation CarPlay implementation, Apple isn’t “taking over” any part of the car. Instead, the car can provide gateways for Apple’s software to communicate with its own displays, sensors and gauges. For example, if you want turn-by-turn directions to appear in your gauge cluster, then yes, your iPhone needs access. The next version will also support things like adjusting the climate control or adjusting the headlights via CarPlay, so CarPlay will be connected to those sensors.
But according to the source, there won’t be much difference in how the car performs or looks with or without CarPlay enabled. You won’t need a passcode to turn on the wipers, and CarPlay will be an interface placed over the OEM’s software interface, not something that bypasses it.
It is, however, a deeper integration of your phone into your vehicle. That alone may be enough for the DOJ to deem it anti-competitive. After all, if you can control all of your car’s settings through Apple’s software, are you really a Toyota infotainment user or just another iPhone user who can bring the same software experience to any car? It may sound like a meaningless distinction, but it is important to car manufacturers. That’s why Tesla, Rivian, GM and others don’t want to integrate CarPlay. They want their software to be different and consistently different from their own vehicles, but with unique selling points. They want to win the software war.
Apple, on the other hand, wants your infotainment experience to be based on the phone you have, not the car itself. Whether you own a Toyota, Porsche, Subaru or BMW, they want you to be an iPhone user first and foremost. According to the DOJ, this is not good for competition, innovation or consumers. The government is suing to correct this. If he wins, expect big changes in the world of automotive infotainment.