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Hey folks, coming back at you with another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving.
Steve B, Attleboro, Massachusetts says I've been researching the new 2020 Subaru Legacy and many options are part of a bundle with factory onboard navigation.
With the number of cars coming out with apple Kerr plan in what auto he asks what's the point of paying for built in that house Steve here on one of the most contentious things that people ask me about when they're.
They're buying a new car.
Aside from which on to buy itself, the whole navigation option is really contentious stuff.
Many people say, I don't wanna pay for that.
Either ala carte at around 2 grand, or as part of a multi-thousand dollar package as you mentioned where you can't escape the nav.
Luckily there's an interesting trend going on in the auto industry called giving up.
Many car makers lately have said, you know what?
We're just gonna go with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay offer it alongside our stuff and in some cases in lue of it.
Look at what Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi just announced.
In just a couple of years their gonna start going whole hog on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto it's a major shift, Someone called it capitulation.
I just think it's wisdom to give people what they want.
The services and the interface that they use in the 98% of their life when they are not sitting in the car.
Don't make them change gears to some other nav, some other media, some other interface just because they wanna drive your product.
And Volvo's Polestar electric sports car brand is gonna go even further.
The whole center stack is just Android.
It doesn't even require you have or pair a phone.
The car is built with all that Google goodness right inside the firmware.
But all those car makers offering you the option of having Android Auto and CarPlay alongside their tech doesn't really answer your question, does it, Steve?
Which is, how do I avoid paying for their tech in the first place?
So this is where I gotta throw a bone to the automakers.
Let's run down some things that will not necessarily get you away from paying for their tech.
But might make you feel a little better about the fact that you did.
First of all, in dash tech from the factory has gotten a lot more like phones lately.
You swipe back and forth.
You can add and drop icons.
And the services in there are all the major streaming platforms.
Even look at what Ford is doing, offering Waze in their Sync head units, without CarPlay or Android Auto.
So they're really integrating at the core level.
Voice command in cars has gotten quite a bit better.
Let's say now it's only about a year or two behind what's on your phone, not five.
Hey Mercedes.
How can I help you?
There she is.
Turn on the massaging seats.
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I'm switching on the massage.
So very nice.
But at least it's progress.
Carmaker systems are very robust.
Not just in terms of environment.
And the fact they're mounted and solid and always ergonomically very stable.
But they also are good when they don't have a connection.
Like for traffic, they don't really need a connection.
Everything is built into the system.
But of course as many of you know, you can cache maps on your phone, so even if you are off of cellular coverage, the navigation will keep running.
In general, there can be less fussing when you're using in car tech versus that from your phone.
Sometimes your phone doesn't always handshake Bluetooth when you get in and out.
Sometimes it's just out of charge.
Sometimes you've got to run a nasty cable to it.
There can be a bunch of sort of noise around using your car and your phone together to get that phone interface on the dash.
What they call projection.
And then you've got full car integration that factory systems do which phones really can't.
This is the idea that, let's say, when you're getting low on gas.
Your Nab system could automatically start to populate nearby gas stations.
Your phone can't do that.
Or in some german cars the adaptive cruise control will actual operate the power train in a way that is anticipating what's Coming in the terrain ahead.
That's a sophisticated blend of powertrain, mapping, sensors, and more.
So you've got a deep reintegration with a car maker system that your [UNKNOWN] is not gonna do.
That's not really what it's aimed at.
Bottom line is don't look for car makers to abandon their own tech and mass even though we're seeing progress [UNKNOWN] at least [UNKNOWN] there's too much money to be made, these systems are pretty profitable, they love to bundle them with other things that you won't live without so they can't kind of force you to buy them And their dealers like the fact that if you want a map update you're going to come back to the dealer in many cases to get it.
In many cases pay for it, even though your phone does it more often and for free.
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