I don’t need to remind you that GM is ditching CarPlay starting with its 2024 model year EVs. We’ve covered that news extensively over the past year, routinely pointing out that it may not be a very wise decision.
Some of the early real-world reviews of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV have emerged, and it certainly doesn’t sound like GM’s “Ultifi” infotainment software is ready for prime time.
Both Edmunds and InsideEVs have published stories this week highlighting some major problems with their 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EVs. The headlines from both stories do a nice job of summarizing their respective experiences.
- InsideEVs: The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV Left Me Stranded In Rural Virginia
- Edmunds: Our Chevy Blazer EV Has 23 Problems After Only 2 Months
The full stories go in-depth on a multitude of problems both sites have had with the Chevy Blazer EV, many of which are hardware faults and failures. For this story, however, I’m just going to focus on some of the complaints about the new in-car infotainment system that replaces CarPlay.
Nick Yekikian at Edmunds describes the experience of GM’s infotainment system getting stuck in an infinite reboot loop.
“The recent trip from Los Angeles to San Diego — to attend a media event for the Blazer EV, funnily enough — started uneventfully. But then the window switches refused to work. And then the infotainment display completely melted down, stuck in an infinite loop of shutting off, turning on, displaying a map centered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and turning back off again. It did this until we pulled off the freeway and restarted the car. All was well after the reset, but an hour later, it happened again.”
Kevin Williams at InsideEVs:
Initially, the Blazer EV was just fine. But about 25 minutes outside of Gallipolis, there was a quick pause in the Bluetooth audio, and then the whole infotainment screen went blank. The heating, AC, and volume controls still worked, but all of the icons were missing. The gauge cluster’s Google Maps integration still showed my location, and I still had speed and range, so I figured the car was okay, and this was just a glitch.
Williams then goes on to describe the troubleshooting process, including multiple different reboots (while staring at an “Android booting…” screen), a phone call with GM, and research on Reddit.
I sat on the side of the road for the next 20 minutes, skimming through Lyriq forums and Reddit posts, hoping there was a quick fix and I could get back on the road. The consensus is that if the reset didn’t work, many Lyriq infotainment problems have been fixed when the vehicle goes into “deep sleep,” turning off many of its complicated computer modules. This would involve walking away from a locked vehicle for at least five minutes, something that wasn’t possible or safe to do on a busy freeway.
I contemplated turning around and calling it quits. However, I would need to DC fast charge anyway to get home, and I was so close to my first DC fast charging stop. It just made more sense to continue. The reset had also removed the directions I needed to get to the Gallipolis fast charging station. To add insult to injury, there was no way to input directions again because the main infotainment screen wasn’t working. I hastily plugged the address into my phone, and perched the phone near the vents, navigating to the DC fast charging stations via the tiny screen of my old iPhone.
9to5Mac’s Take
Could some of these software problems be caused by underlying hardware problems? Yes. Would having support for a mature and stable infotainment system like CarPlay likely solve some of these problems? Also, yes.
The Chevy Blazer EV experience hasn’t been awful for everyone, though. Our friends over at Electrek walked away with a more positive experience – even including the new infotainment system.
Still, it seems like GM may have jumped the gun with its move to completely abandon CarPlay this year. Some of these anecdotes paint a pretty disastrous picture of the state of the software. We’ll see what happens next, but so far, the company hasn’t shown any indication it will reverse the decision.
Remember GM’s attempt to argue that ditching CarPlay would make users pick up their phones less while driving? Funny stuff. I, too, love to spend 20 minutes on the side of the road trying to troubleshoot my car’s software. Very safe.
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