For years, drivers have enjoyed a simple handshake deal with automakers: buy the car, plug in the phone, and get Android Auto or Apple CarPlay on the dash. That deal is now fraying. General Motors, one of the world’s largest car companies, announced it would drop Android Auto from its electric vehicles and eventually from all its models. Instead, GM will deploy a custom infotainment system that uses Google’s Gemini AI. Other brands like Rivian and Tesla never offered Android Auto at all. The vast majority of 2026 vehicles still support it, but the shift away from phone projection is real—and driven by data, subscriptions, and a race to integrate artificial intelligence.
How phone projection took over the dashboard
Android Auto began as a simple mirroring system, letting drivers connect their phone via USB to get a driving-friendly interface on the car’s screen. Adoption was slow at first. Toyota and Ford tried building their own systems, and BMW even charged $80 a year for CarPlay while ignoring Android Auto entirely until 2020. Car buyers did not go for that. They wanted seamless access to music, maps, and contacts without extra fees. Automakers gradually caved, and Google made integration easy by not charging for it.
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In 2017, Google introduced Android Automotive OS (AAOS), a full operating system for vehicles that does not depend on a phone’s processor. It debuted with the Polestar 2 in 2020. Traditional manufacturers like Volkswagen found that building an in-car operating system was harder than expected. Several, including Volvo and some Stellantis and GM brands, adopted AAOS. But the underlying trade-off remained: Google collects data from drivers, including GPS and mapping info, which it can use for ad targeting. Carmakers get none of that data.
Why GM and others want their own systems
GM says it needs sat nav data to improve EV charging routes. “With Android Auto or Apple CarPlay environments, the vehicle energy model or road segment data is sending energy usage and everything else associated with it to the phone, and it’s pretty difficult to off-board it from the phone,” its infotainment manager told a GM-focused outlet in 2023. By using its own system, the company claims it can offer intelligent routing that considers charge state, range, and station availability, along with integration with its Super Cruise driver assistant. It also notes that its system will still handle calls and streaming via Bluetooth pass-through for Siri and Google Assistant.
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There is also a financial angle. GM has acknowledged “subscription revenue opportunities” from its own infotainment platform. That echoes BMW’s earlier attempt to charge $18 a month for heated seats—a move that drew wide criticism. Rivian and Tesla, which never adopted Android Auto, sell premium data plans for about $150 a year. Even automakers that still support it, like Kia, put remote locking behind trial subscriptions that eventually require payment. The push toward recurring revenue is hard to ignore.
Rivian, whose operating system is built on top of AAOS, told a tech publication last month that deep AI integration makes phone projection debates obsolete. Tesla has long argued for full control over the driver experience. Both believe that carmakers can offer better features with built-in hardware and software than by offloading the interface to a phone.
Drivers push back on losing a feature they love
GM’s decision sparked immediate backlash. Many readers of a major tech site said they would not buy a car that lacks Android Auto or CarPlay. There is growing resistance to subscription services in general, and paying for in-car features has chafed many people. Automakers have also demonstrated a poor track record at building infotainment systems; clunky interfaces and slow updates are common complaints. It is a bit of a mess for consumers trying to decide what to buy.
Still, Android Auto and CarPlay remain available in most 2026 models. Traditional automakers have repeatedly shown they struggle with software, so the phone-projection standard is not going away overnight. As some brands go their own way, others will continue supporting the system, and it should keep improving. For now, the dashboard remains a battleground between what drivers want and what automakers think they need to build. The handshake deal is not dead yet—but it is no longer automatic. The whole thing is kinda frustrating for anyone who just wants their maps and music to work without a second thought.
