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Google on infotainment and more ways GM wants you to pay

3486 Views 19 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  nebula1701
After seeing a video showing how the hummer ev infotainment works I got to reading about it. The built in google maps and assistant require a data plan and wireless connection to work. You have to be signed in to a google account for it to work. You have to pay $25 a month for the connection package for it to work. I’m not a big fan of signing into google anything, paying $25 a month for the privilege and we get terrible cell phone reception around the island including my house. Maps can be downloaded for offline but they delete themselves the next day. The work around is to use CarPlay or android auto. Supposedly with CarPlay at least you will still get turn directions on the dashboard cluster and HUD, it seems to be buggy with Android auto for now, it won’t display the speed limit with either. Supercruise would be another $25 a month on top of the $25 for connection, I believe on star services cost more. There’s various plans in between to have app access to your car, remote access, etc… $15 each monthly.

It appears that this is how GM plans to make a lot of money in the future, charging handsomely for every little feature. On my wife’s Toyota we pay $5 a month for app access including remote services, this seems reasonable. Her car also reads the signs on the road and shows you the current speed limit, on top of having real lane tracing features that works on all our roads where the car drives itself with cruise control set, no monthly charges this came with the vehicle purchase.

To sum it up it’s not good for me anyways, supercruise does not work on our roads. My wife’s car $5 a month and I get remote services in an app, for remote start and locking, charge level and air pressure, odo and fuel, and cars location on top of more statistics and maintenance stuff. Car drives itself and tells me speed limits, we use CarPlay for navigation on the screen, built in maps are terrible, CarPlay navigation won’t display on console or HUD unfortunately.

GM wants me to pay 10 times as much monthly and the truck won’t even drive itself, maps won’t work out of cell range, even the crappy Toyota map works without cellular. That’s $6000 over the life of the truck and most of it won’t work right for me. They have the same motion eye chipset as the Toyota, supports the same lane tracing without supercruise and sign reading…Chevy doesn’t use these features on the chip you bought with the truck because they want you to pay for supercruise and google maps. Not happy to understand this all. I will be buying the very base model truck now, before I was thinking $60k. No doubt the base WT will cost $48k now.😡

I am still super excited about the midgate and decent range EV truck, but if one more shoe drops I might be considering a different brand. I’m already worried about GM quality. I really hope they don’t screw this up.
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I feel like you just fell down a big slippery slope decent into making yourself upset. Take a couple deep breaths and chillax a bit... you live in Hawaii after all... we'd all like to vacation where you're at.

Anyway, now that you've calmed down a bit, remember that GMC includes the advanced Supercruise features AND data for the first 3 years in the Hummer EV purchase. We don't know what the Silvarado EV will include, but we can hope that they would do something similar.

From there on out, you are right it is $15 to $25 a month depending what is going on. I do feel that anything subscription is obviously going to make people mad, but since the entire industry is moving toward some subscriptions, your options will be limited to avoid such things. And if you can read your own sign posts, you probably don't need these bells and whistles after 36 months so you can go spend money on spam musubis instead.

Tesla charges $9.99 to even get basic navigation map / traffic overlays and music. And of course their fully self driving is the biggest scam (uh oh... Elon may remotely shut off my Tesla now?)

Even my Volvo wanted $260 over 48 months ($5.21 per month) for the privilege of being able to connect to the car with an app and remotely lock the doors. I don't think any automaker is exempt from finding ways to juice their margins.
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GMC and Buick has announced there will be a mandatory purchase of those services, maybe the hummer ev first edition comes with those for 3 years. Chevy gives you a month of trial. We won’t be getting anything for free let’s be honest. What bothers me is they are using the same chipset as other manufactures that all support real lane tracing and things like the sign reading, they are gimping the hardware so they can sell supercruise. Even Ford who is pushing bluecruise keeps the default hardware capabilities of the motion eye chipset including lane tracing, hell all the the Kia’s and Hyundais support this basic functionality of the motion eye chipset. $5 a month for app access and remote services is completely reasonable, $15 or $25 is not. They have carefully segregated all the remote functions into different $15 plans so the $25 seems like the deal, so really it’s $25 a month minimum, another $25 a month for supercruise which the chipset does already in every other manufacturer, just without the hands free eye tracking.


Lol I found the Chevy plans, it’s even worse!


so is that $15 a month for the basic plan, $40 for the one that supports google maps, or $60 a month with onstar. Don’t forget $25 a month for supercruise. That’s more then $10k over ten years. These are significant costa.
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The whole app/access charge stuff is a big ripoff, IMO, but since that's where the industry is going, either I live with it or stay with my ICE truck. Well..., my ICE truck will stays regardless.

I don't want SuperCruise, lane departure stuff etc., but the minute they figure that they can start charging a monthly fee for me to get AC in my WT EV Silverado, I'm outta here. :rolleyes: So yeah, all in all, since I probaby can't avoid them all, my truck will have the least amount of monthly access fees possible.
Honestly it’s a mess I can’t figure it out other then they are going to be charging a lot monthly and I wont be paying for it. We will see how the rest go, I understand I might need to pay a monthly fee for an app that offers remote services $5-$10 a month seems reasonable, $15 hurts, paying $85 for all services is a rip off! As I explained my wife’s car basically does it all for $5 a month.
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What are you so upset about? You live on a little island. If you live on Oahu, it's 112 miles around. If you live on the Big Island, you don't have many roads. The other smaller islands, forget about it, you're not going to get lost.
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😂 good argument. We have more roads then Oahu, it takes 2 hours to get to the other side. More then 300 miles if you drive around. However I like to use navigation to get to specific new addresses, sometimes to estimate travel time and traffic. All these things work by default on most car navigation and has for many years. I’m happy using CarPlay, but it has the same limitation as the the built in navigation on the Silverado, doesn’t work without a cell phone signal. I think some people might like to be aware of things like this in addition to the costs associated with all these “features”

Whether it’s $2k for the basic plan or $10k, these are significant expenses when costing The truck over it’s life.
I haven't used my car's nav system in years, or the radio for that matter. Just use carplay, and have all the services I need on my phone. That way I can carry my favorites from one vehicle to another seamlessly. Maybe I am old fashioned, but certainly not ready to allow my car to steer itself yet.
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You might not like it, but the car steering itself on highways and other roads is standard now on a lot of cars especially EVs. So is a built in map system that can take an address and guide you to a location without a cellular signal or subscription.
I have cars that are supposedly capable of steering themselves, and have built in nav systems in all of my current cars, I just choose not to use them, as the nav is usually out of date, and I do not trust the car to steer when I am perfectly capable.
Current family fleet includes 2019 Kia Stinger, 2019 Buick Envision, 2019 Toyota RAV4, and 2021 Mustang Mach E. All have some degree of lane tracking, and factory nav systems. I just choose not to use them.
It will be interesting to see what happens if it's mandatory and you don't pay. It's probably pretty easy for them to turn your truck off. Then it's probably pretty easy for you to get a young kid to turn it back on.

I don't want to pay for a built-in nav even if it's free to use. I can get any navigation I need from my phone for free. I'm hoping that the WT won't have it. If it's going to be too expensive to run it, I just might have to look at something else.
Right, these features should be and are standard on most vehicles now. The fact that they aren’t is a major negative for the Silverado EV. I understand the nav thing, it’s sort of inevitable, sucks there isn’t an offline function for people who need it, should be an option with google maps it is on the phone. I think google maps is fine by most people, but having to log into google sucks, I don’t want to, so does paying for data since offline maps don’t work.
No doubt the ability to disable the truck is there, supposedly all 24 models are supposed to be able to sense if you are inebriated. Brave new world, I want to have an EV Truck and charge it off my solar, but I also don’t want to pay huge monthly subscriptions or have the government or GM shutting it off when they feel like it. I want my cake and want to eat it too, I am paying for it.
It all comes down on what you want to use and if you want to pay for it. Sorry your cell service is horrible, but in my area it is fine enough. I also use android auto in my current Silverado and don't have any issues using google apps. As others have mentioned other companies are also moving to some type of subscription service not just GM. I'm sure you'll get a couple of months free to try stuff and if you like enough, people will subscribe. Just like XM. I've never paid for radio, but I have lots of friends and family that love it and are willing to pay for it. So it all comes down to preference.
What do you get as far as cruise control without supercruise? Is it basically ACC then? I agree that certain things should be free. A good example is knowing the charge level. When I charge my ELR I just want to know it's charging and at what level it is.
You get ACC and the lane jerk correction, which I personally hate and turn off. I don’t expect them to provide wireless services and an app without paying, but I do think $15 for a basic plan is a bit much considering Toyota offers the basics like charge level, remote lock, start and GPS location on my wife’s car for $5 a month. They are tracking us everywhere we go and selling that data to 3rd parties, we shouldn’t have to pay extra for the privilege. It’s very greedy. Same for the google maps, they are getting endless data and google is making a killing, why do we have to pay to have it connected?
Another way to look at it, the truck is connected and tracking you already, they are making money off that data, you then have to pay more on top to use what is already there and profiting GM. I wonder if I can disable the connection like I did with onstar before, maybe this results in the truck not operating as it’s in violation of some clause.

I just looked it up and ford pass is free. So GM charging $15 a month, Ford is free and Toyota is $5. Makes me upset just thinking about it.
After seeing a video showing how the hummer ev infotainment works I got to reading about it. The built in google maps and assistant require a data plan and wireless connection to work. You have to be signed in to a google account for it to work. You have to pay $25 a month for the connection package for it to work. I’m not a big fan of signing into google anything, paying $25 a month for the privilege and we get terrible cell phone reception around the island including my house. Maps can be downloaded for offline but they delete themselves the next day. The work around is to use CarPlay or android auto. Supposedly with CarPlay at least you will still get turn directions on the dashboard cluster and HUD, it seems to be buggy with Android auto for now, it won’t display the speed limit with either. Supercruise would be another $25 a month on top of the $25 for connection, I believe on star services cost more. There’s various plans in between to have app access to your car, remote access, etc… $15 each monthly.

It appears that this is how GM plans to make a lot of money in the future, charging handsomely for every little feature. On my wife’s Toyota we pay $5 a month for app access including remote services, this seems reasonable. Her car also reads the signs on the road and shows you the current speed limit, on top of having real lane tracing features that works on all our roads where the car drives itself with cruise control set, no monthly charges this came with the vehicle purchase.

To sum it up it’s not good for me anyways, supercruise does not work on our roads. My wife’s car $5 a month and I get remote services in an app, for remote start and locking, charge level and air pressure, odo and fuel, and cars location on top of more statistics and maintenance stuff. Car drives itself and tells me speed limits, we use CarPlay for navigation on the screen, built in maps are terrible, CarPlay navigation won’t display on console or HUD unfortunately.

GM wants me to pay 10 times as much monthly and the truck won’t even drive itself, maps won’t work out of cell range, even the crappy Toyota map works without cellular. That’s $6000 over the life of the truck and most of it won’t work right for me. They have the same motion eye chipset as the Toyota, supports the same lane tracing without supercruise and sign reading…Chevy doesn’t use these features on the chip you bought with the truck because they want you to pay for supercruise and google maps. Not happy to understand this all. I will be buying the very base model truck now, before I was thinking $60k. No doubt the base WT will cost $48k now.😡

I am still super excited about the midgate and decent range EV truck, but if one more shoe drops I might be considering a different brand. I’m already worried about GM quality. I really hope they don’t screw this up.
I traded in a 2019 Yukon Denali XL for a 2022. The Google Assist absolutely is the worest piece of technology that I have ever experienced. Her are some of the differences and/or problems:

1) Calls dropped or don't go through Rarely happened o 2019. Need to pull over about 50% of the time to make a call. Useless unreliable system.
2) When using voice calling it's about a 50% chance the call goes through. The screen will show the name I am trying to call,and it is spelled exactly as it appears in my phone, yet it will state, "Not In Contacts". My 2019 Truck never had this issue.
3) Will try to voice call a contact and it will show the name on the screen but call a plumber in another State. (The system has called Plumbers, Locksmiths, Electricinas, Doctors) CRAZY!
4) Everytime I try to use Voice calling, google maps appear on the screen.
5) Will show speed limit on Heads Up Dispay about 25% of the time. Old truck always showed the speed limit.
6) Can't use the phone when connected. Have to go through Google Assist.
7) All my XM presets disappear about once every 90 days. Just XM, AM and Fm are still in Radio????
8) Loses some of my contacts. The contacts on my phone just disappear (Radomly). This is a known problem as others have complained about this. Nver had this issue with 2019 Truck.
9) Trying to call Voicemail. Most of the times, it will not connect. When it does connect you have to ttoggle throgh the screens to get to the keypad. Old truck (2019) keypad would immeadiately pop up and go back after I checked my messages. Not this truck.
10) Long pause in between every opertion. 2019 Truck was so much faster at every command.
11) Can't use the Steering wheel controls to answer a text. I could answer a text on my 2019 truck without having to use the touvhscreen.
12) Many texts aren't recieved. lately, it will show a text and not show the text or let me know the contents of the text. It just says, would you like to replay? Never had this problem with the old truck.
13) Radio constantly freezes. have to turn off ignition, wait a few minutes and then it works again. Had this happen very raely on 2019 truck

In closing, this radio SUCKS and I wish GM would go back to the old system. It was so much better in every respect. I actually love the truck, the performance, and the style. I HATE the Radio/Infotainment system. There are actually many other isues, but these are the ones that IRK me the most.
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I traded in a 2019 Yukon Denali XL for a 2022. The Google Assist absolutely is the worest piece of technology that I have ever experienced. Her are some of the differences and/or problems:

1) Calls dropped or don't go through Rarely happened o 2019. Need to pull over about 50% of the time to make a call. Useless unreliable system.
2) When using voice calling it's about a 50% chance the call goes through. The screen will show the name I am trying to call,and it is spelled exactly as it appears in my phone, yet it will state, "Not In Contacts". My 2019 Truck never had this issue.
3) Will try to voice call a contact and it will show the name on the screen but call a plumber in another State. (The system has called Plumbers, Locksmiths, Electricinas, Doctors) CRAZY!
4) Everytime I try to use Voice calling, google maps appear on the screen.
5) Will show speed limit on Heads Up Dispay about 25% of the time. Old truck always showed the speed limit.
6) Can't use the phone when connected. Have to go through Google Assist.
7) All my XM presets disappear about once every 90 days. Just XM, AM and Fm are still in Radio????
8) Loses some of my contacts. The contacts on my phone just disappear (Radomly). This is a known problem as others have complained about this. Nver had this issue with 2019 Truck.
9) Trying to call Voicemail. Most of the times, it will not connect. When it does connect you have to ttoggle throgh the screens to get to the keypad. Old truck (2019) keypad would immeadiately pop up and go back after I checked my messages. Not this truck.
10) Long pause in between every opertion. 2019 Truck was so much faster at every command.
11) Can't use the Steering wheel controls to answer a text. I could answer a text on my 2019 truck without having to use the touvhscreen.
12) Many texts aren't recieved. lately, it will show a text and not show the text or let me know the contents of the text. It just says, would you like to replay? Never had this problem with the old truck.
13) Radio constantly freezes. have to turn off ignition, wait a few minutes and then it works again. Had this happen very raely on 2019 truck

In closing, this radio SUCKS and I wish GM would go back to the old system. It was so much better in every respect. I actually love the truck, the performance, and the style. I HATE the Radio/Infotainment system. There are actually many other isues, but these are the ones that IRK me the most.
Do you have the latest OTA updates for the system?
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