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b_b  ·  580 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens. Buttons are back!

The thing about GM that many people don't understand is that while it's very modern and cool for Tesla to say, "We're a tech company who makes cars," GM is and has been since the days of Alfred P. Sloan a finance company who makes cars. Ford's essential business since Henry Ford founded it was to make money by making cars. Ostensibly that's how GM's forerunners thought, too, but Sloan came in as a guy who knew next to nothing about the car business but had ideas about management and finance in the days when that was cutting edge, and he convinced the board to hire him on the theory that he would turn GM into a financial giant first and foremost. And he did. "What's good for GM..." and all that nonsense. That ethos has never really left, as evidenced by the fact that the GMAC sub-prime debacle was what really fucked them in 08 (Ford never took a bailout because they had mortgaged their corporate logo and Chrysler is just a shitty company who makes shitty cars, but the Feds couldn't justify saving GM while fucking Chrysler, I guess). So if I had to guess I'd assume they've focused grouped, forecasted and modeled this move every which way they can think of and are still left thinking it's a good idea. But I don't see how. Fun fact I just got done having lunch with 4 car GM designers, 3 of whom are late millenial to early gen Y, and one of whom I'm married to. I asked if they were aware of GM killing CarPlay, and my wife, the dinosaur of the group had not heard that, while the other 3 said, "Yes, what the fuck do they think they're doing?" We'll see. At least for now my Sierra still has buttons and dials (the screen is for nav and radio and nothing else). I will never drive an iPad on wheels or whatever.