Apple CarPlay and Android Auto NOT coming to Ultimate Genesis (2015, 2016)

[jsmit86]

Agree it would have been nice to have, however for Apple iPhone users, Siri Eyes Free provides some of that functionality.

Agreed... it may be nice to have, but I'm not too concerned about the lack of email and texts on my car's screen. I can use Siri for sending and reading texts when needed.

The only app I really would get excited about is Waze, which will likely never happen for CarPlay.

 

[Wianek]

Manufacturers research shows that issues like this have very little effect on brand loyalty.

Some people change brands just to change, others stick with a brand for a few purchases and then change, or not.

For someone to say "I'll never buy a Hyundai again" is ridiculous because should they come out with something they want, they buy again.

Not to say there aren't a few who would cut their nose to spite their face, but these outliers don't matter much to the auto makers. .

Perhaps brand loyalty wasn't the appropriate wording for the point I was trying to make. If a portion of current '15 and '16 Ultimate Genesis owners boycott the Hyundai / Genesis brand and never make another purchase, it will have a marginal impact simply because there aren't many of these vehicles on the road. However, because luxury Hyundais are so uncommon, the Genesis tends to spark conversations and current owners have a strong influence on how others perceive the product and brand.

The way I see it, there will be a portion of current Ultimate Genesis owners who will feel slighted by Hyundai and turn negative on the brand even though the car itself is a great value. Now imagine if that same group of owners felt taken care... there clearly will be some impact of positive vs. negative word of mouth. I admit it's difficult to determine the exact value, but it appears Hyundai decided it's less than the R&D costs of making AA and CarPlay compatible with the Ultimate DIS.

Ultimate owners should be ambassadors for the marque and when lower lines get an important feature the top of the line doesn't get, it throws into question the company's basic philosophies. Not something you want to do with a product trying to crack a difficult market.

Agree 100%

 

[ksoze]

If a portion of current '15 and '16 Ultimate Genesis owners boycott the Hyundai / Genesis brand and never make another purchase, it will have a marginal impact simply because there aren't many of these vehicles on the road.

A boycott over not having CarPlay? Really? A third party product feature never promised by Hyundai and having zero effect on the cars safety, value or suitability. I am going to assume this was just a joke and we all just got a good laugh.

 

[haiku]

So I am a 2015 Ultimate owner and had hoped that CarPlay would come to the Genesis. And it looks like I was right - it is coming to the Genesis. What I never anticipated was that it wouldn't come to the Ultimate.

So I am disappointed particularly since a key portion of the reason that I purchased the Ultimate instead of Tech was my "bet" that the Ultimate would get CarPlay.

A good friend was so impressed by my Genesis that he was planning to buy a 2016 Ultimate. I explained to him a few weeks ago that it looked like the Ultimate would not receive CarPlay, and then called him today to confirm it. He will go with a German car now.

And I now wish that I had leased instead of purchased. The depreciation now makes upgrading to a Genesis with Carplay a foolish financial decision.

From a business standpoint, I think that Hyundai is making a big mistake as I too suspect that the decision was whether to spend time and $s for a small number of cars on the road, not that they couldn't make it work.

With the new Genesis marque, they could have built absolutely astonishing loyalty among the customers who had already bought their top end car (I would argue that the Equus is not a top end anything). What a great story to tell other customers - Hyundai/Genesis even retrofitted an 18 month old car - that's how they treat their customers! You can count on them. That's what matters, not whether the dealerships look like Lexus or Audi dealerships.

I still like the car, but a little bit of the romance is gone.

So I tend to agree with Wianek, even though I really did enjoy ksoze's work so ably portrayed in The Usual Suspects

And finally, Siri Eyes Free does provide some of the functionality. But not all - Nav being one of the big things that would be great to have.

haiku

 

[ksoze]

A good friend was so impressed by my Genesis that he was planning to buy a 2016 Ultimate. I explained to him a few weeks ago that it looked like the Ultimate would not receive CarPlay, and then called him today to confirm it. He will go with a German car now.

Your friend did not really want the Hyundai. He was looking for a way to get out of it and you gave him an out to use. If he really did want one, he would have either bought a tech model or gotten over it. I am willing to bet the number of buyers suddenly buying BMW's for more money just to get CarPlay numbers in the low single digits.

I am not getting the rabid fascination with CP and it's mysterious, mind bending effect on buyers now moving to more expensive cars or swearing off a brand. I am disappointed it will not be on my car, but it's not the end of the world and in tech it will soon be old and replaced by CarPlay 2.0. which will not compatible with 1.0 cars.

 

[ksoze]

I still like the car, but a little bit of the romance is gone.

 

[haiku]

sarcasm, much?

 

[ksoze]

sarcasm, much?

A little. I don't know how not having Apple maps for the nav takes away the romance from a car. If you are honestly that heartbroken, I apologize for making light of your pain through some humor. I'm just trying to understand the dire sentiment here and although I share the disappointment, I cannot get the extreme reaction to something that has been discussed here ad nauseam as likely not being available. When you bought the car back in 2014, it wasn't even on the map and you appear to have loved the car.

 

[haiku]

My romance comment was an attempt to be humorous.
When I bought the car, CarPlay was in the Soon-to-be-here stage and I spoke to several dealers about it.
And my friend, driving a 3 year old Sonata, was the one who initially brought up CarPlay, not me.

For those of us who have to drive long distances, CarPlay would add significant benefit. Different consumers have different combinations of needs and wants. Had I known at the time that it would be available on the lower packages, but not on Ultimate, I would have purchased one of the lower priced packages.

Again, I think it is a missed opportunity for Hyundai to really distinguish themselves even further. I know of one car sale they have lost. Perhaps that is the only one. Perhaps not.

 

[TbonePdx]

This may have something to do with Hyundai not willing to shell out the money for r&d, but it also may be due to the Ultimate package head units as they say. At least that's my opinion in my experience with already having had the head unit replaced in my Ultimate at less than 3K miles. My service advisor point blank told me: "Hyundai put too much technology into the new Genesis." And although I haven't verified this several other members here have said that the '15 Genesis Sedan technology category scored very poorly with Consumer Reports.

Tony

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[ksoze]

And although I haven't verified this several other members here have said that the '15 Genesis Sedan technology category scored very poorly with Consumer Reports.

Just checked and the Genesis got the 4th highest Owner Satisfaction results, only trailing the Tesla, Audi A7 and Lexus LS. Did not find a "technology" category, aside from the review, which praised the infotainment system. The used ratings (09-15) had the Audio scored low, but interestingly higher than the previous models years.

 

[jsmit86]

Regarding the theory that there are not enough Ultimate models on the road to make it cost effective.... I really don't think that's the issue.

Hyundai has 2 different platforms for their systems; DIS and AVN. Genesis has AVN 4.5 in Base, Signature and Tech models. Ultimate models have DIS 2.0.

The AVN systems are Linux/Android based with i.MX53 ARM Cortex-A9 core processors, and the DIS systems are Intel Atom E660T & Linux Meego based.

The DIS system is the OLDER platform. While it is higher performance for audio, and supports touch screen and the knob/selection on the console, it is based on a lower powered processor, and older tech.

You can read more at: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2015-hyundai-genesis-technology-review,3794-3.html

The point that I am making is that it may have been impossible, or very cost prohibitive to upgrade the Intel Atom based systems. This may have been due to a protocol that Apple or Google implemented that was totally out of Hyundai's control.

I worked in the consumer electronics industry for over 30 years, and I have been involved in the development of TV and AV product. I can assure you that sometimes features can be modified with software/firmware upgrades, and other times a desired feature cannot be implemented due to hardware limitations. (Example - I have a Vizio 4K TV that cannot implement 4K youtube because it does not have the necessary hardware to support the codec that youtube chose to use for 4K video.) My strong bet is that Hyundai bumped up against a hardware issue with the DIS platform.

My suggestion to Hyundai would be to offer owner's of the DIS system a free map upgrade at the time that AA/CP launch for the AVN systems. It may not totally satisfy everyone, but it would help ease the pain, and provide a gesture that Genesis truly cares about the owner's perception of support.

 

[Mike B]

Helpful information. Odd hardware juxtaposition!
Thank you.
Mike B

 

[jsmit86]

Helpful information. Odd hardware juxtaposition!
Thank you.
Mike B

While it seems odd, the DIS system architecture was also used on the Equus.

 

[BRJACKET]

Well, as an Ultimate Owner I am also disappointed. I do understand that there are no guarantees. However, I would guess that anyone here will research the heck out of a car before buying and therefore had some idea of AA existence. In that research, I think we all would have been led to believe that AA or CP would be available in the future. My interest in this is that I hate messing with my phone in the car. I wear reading glasses and it is too distracting to look at the phone screen. I liked the concept of AA because I can use the large screen instead. I also saw it (whether right or wrong) as a replacement for some of the Hyundai blue link features that i am currently paying for.

I like most people here made the decision to buy the Genesis due to value. I felt like I was getting way more for my money. My biggest concern was value over time and how much the car will depreciate vs. other cars. My previous cars had been Lexus LS460 and Audi A6. I was looking at the Lexus GS350 this time and one of the biggest reasons I went with the Genesis was how much more technology it had vs. the Lexus. even without AA, the Genesis is way superior to the Lexus in technology. I don't know if I would have loved the AA or wound up not using it, but I never met a gadget I didn't like so I really wanted it.

My bigger concern now is depreciation. The Ultimate Genesis hasn't sold as well as I think Hyundai would have liked and what the company really needs is customer loyalty to spread the brand. I would not warn off anyone due to AA but the whole process has made me less confident. The top of the line car should have everything since the customer is shelling out the most money. To offer desirable features on lower level cars and not allow the people who have spent the most to have access, in my opinion, will hurt the brand in the long run. Hyundai makes the most money off the Sonata brand but if they are serious about the Genesis, I think they have to do better.

 

[BigTree]

Regarding the theory that there are not enough Ultimate models on the road to make it cost effective.... I really don't think that's the issue.

The point that I am making is that it may have been impossible, or very cost prohibitive to upgrade the Intel Atom based systems. This may have been due to a protocol that Apple or Google implemented that was totally out of Hyundai's control.

My suggestion to Hyundai would be to offer owner's of the DIS system a free map upgrade at the time that AA/CP launch for the AVN systems. It may not totally satisfy everyone, but it would help ease the pain, and provide a gesture that Genesis truly cares about the owner's perception of support.

The free map upgrade is a great idea, especially with a new version (10) that is going to be available in June. I hope someone at HMA monitors this board and suggests it to the powers that be. That said, I don't really hold it against Hyundai that Car Play and AA won't be available in the Ultimate. Genesis owners were never promised anything beyond, "they hope to add that function" (at least I wasn't). For all the Android buffs, I had android based phones for years and promised operating system upgrades were always delayed for months or often not even provided for the older phones. One buys a product as it is and anyone saying they bought the Genesis because they wanted/needed Car Play/AA was choosing the wrong car.

As for letters of complaint to HMA, well there's nothing wrong with expressing your disappointment, but I doubt the tiny sampling of Genesis owners represented here will make much of a difference. Hyundai sells about 30,000 Genesis a year and I suspect we represent less than 1% of that figure. Obviously HMA analyzed this and would have preferred to be able to offer the upgrade, but couldn't make it work. For me, I love the car and now that I have an iPhone, the Siri Eyes Free is something I use almost every day. If I still like it this much in 3 years I'm sure Car Play will be in the 2019 Genesis I will be driving then.

 

[jimmygez1961]

hyundai usa called me today they told me apple car play so far is not going to be in the genesis ultimate but its going to be in the lesser genesis line up i told them i want to file a complaint. i just don't understand with todays technology why can't they make it work they have it a car thats thousands of dollars less i guess they can put a man in space but they can't make a program work in a car

 

[ZoggyBottom]

Like many, while not the end of the world, I am disappointed that my Genesis Ultimate will not be getting Android Auto and CarPlay.

Mostly, I think it's been poorly handled and communicated by Hyundai. After implying and teasing that it was coming, now it's not (at least not for everyone).

Even bigger for Hyundai, especially as they launch the new Genesis brand, is that this does not help build the brand... making the Ultimate less than Ultimate and having disappointed current owners makes it harder for them.

 

[NTX]

A lot of people on their high horses here, but what can you do. We all spent a good amount of money on this vehicle, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

I still highly doubt it's lack of processing capability from the DIS unit to handle AA/CP. Isn't the majority of processing power for AA/CP done through the phone with be head unit acting more as a replicator?

Regardless, it seems like there's a lot of possibilities with this car. There's an App Store, but only 1 app (ported from the AVN system I might add). There's 3G connectivity, but nothing but Google results to use it. There's a high definition capacitive screen, but nothing different from the competition to really make that shine.

 

[Pamplona/Beige]

Jsmit86 thank you for the detailed explanation of the how's and whys of the differing platforms and why it won't be in the Ultimate trim model.

Point of information, most models with differing options/trim levels at most brands have the target model that the vast majority of people will buy, it rarely is the top end model. So saying Hyundai should please one group over the other because we spent more seems like an emotional concern versus a hardware run in.

There are so many things to concern ourselves with and be passionate about. A feature that was mentioned but never officially promised and now won't be fulfilled across the entire range for likely (at the time) unknown platform differences is not that big of a deal.

If that feature is that important to anyone the remedy is simple. Trade in and upgrade. The fact that this level of a vehicle even has it available or in the works for future vehicles is probably ahead of many other manufacturer's timeline.

Caveat emptor applies here. Nothing is guaranteed unless expressed and in writing.