Starting with the 2022.5 model year refresh, most trims of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra light duty pickup trucks adopted a new, horizontally-oriented 13.4-inch center stack display. Visually attractive and quite functional, the screen is generally a pleasure to use… unless you have an iPhone and use Apple CarPlay.
You see, with this next-gen infotainment system, GM configured CarPlay in such a way that it only has access to roughly 70 percent of the screen, with the remaining 30 percent reserved for a permanent sidebar from the native infotainment system. Here’s the infuriating part: the infotainment system does not allow this sidebar to be removed while running CarPlay, meaning that CarPlay can’t run full screen and take full advantage of the display.
CarPlay only has access to about 70 percent of the screen
Not taking full advantage of the available real estate is bad enough already, but the system’s restriction in running CarPlay full screen also makes it look discombobulated due to vastly different appearance of CarPlay when compared to the sidebar. But wait, that’s not all.
The kicker is that the sidebar can be removed when using Android Auto. The sidebar can also be removed when running the native / built-in Google navigation app – one that will cost you money to use at one point or another (by way of an active OnStar subscription). But the point is that GM has elected not to give CarPlay the ability to be used full-screen in both trucks.
The native Google Maps navigation app has access to the entire display
A workaround involving a jubilee of third-party dongles, which can be had for around $600, is available. Though we plan on spending more time outlining this hack later on, this isn’t something iPhone-toting Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra owners should have to resort to. Instead, GM should be the one to address this.
The good news is that this isn’t a hardware limitation, but rather a software one that GM made consciously, and can therefore fix by letting CarPlay users remove the sidebar . The even better news is that GM can deliver this fix via an Over The Air (OTA) update, the primary purpose of which are scenarios exactly like this one.
It’s been four model years since GM released the software and hardware platform being used in the refreshed Silverado and Sierra. A cursory search reveals just how many people are frustrated with this limitation, meaning that it’s highly unlikely that GM isn’t aware of the issue. So the only question that really matters here is whether GM cares enough to issue an update. Maybe they’ll get around to it by the time the next-gen Silverado and Sierra get here.
- See more about the 2027 Silverado and 2027 Sierra
Comments
About time someone shed some light on this. It’s been 3 years since I bought my LTZ. I guess gm hates CarPlay.
Once I run out of bumper to bumper, I’ll give ram or Ford a chance. They don’t play these stupid games. Sad that it’s come to this. This is my 7th Silverado but will be my last. GMC shouldn’t get the better interior either.
I’m in the same boat. I like everything about the truck except for this. As long as Ford doesn’t switch to that silly ipad screen, the F150 will be my next truck.
It’s just a way for gm to milk you for the OnStar subscription to use their map. They started to treat CarPlay like a second class citizen with the trucks and are going full bore on the EVs.
Trucks today are as much about tech, convenience and comfort as capability and durability. Gm knows this and it won’t be good if they continue down this road.
It is simply a money grab with GM wanting to develop new revenue streams plain and simple by charging you for their Connected Services. People are keeping vehicles far longer now for various reasons mainly due to up front costs and the fact that they are lasting longer.
Cry me a river and buy a better phone!
Tell me you didn’t comprehend the subject matter without telling me you didn’t…
Problem isn’t with the phone or the software but rather with how gm implemented it.
Apple themselves is infuriorating everyone with their next-generation CarPlay. Which was announced in 2022, promised to “arrive in 2024”… and of this post is still vaporware.
If Apple won’t bother with it, why should the automakers?
Next generation? Just implement the current generation properly. It’s really that simple.
Bought GM for 40 years but quit when On Star started selling driving info to insurance companies. Just one more thing that makes GM suck out of touch.
I’m running a Binzie box to solve this. It’s about $200, will need some configuration but the outcome is fullscreen CarPlay. GM has lost a customer with this BS stunt.
This is comical some of the comments and makes it easy to tell who doesn’t need a truck and buys it for the status symbol in their local suburban neighborhood. Let me break it down for you. If need specific truck things (ie measuring power, mpg, payload capacitates, tow numbers, axle ratios, etc) but you change brands if one fits better in all those parameters but you change because of a luxury feature or an LED tail light and other silly image concious gimmicks, then you are that buyer who thinks driving a truck increases their status and isn’t actually using it. Ryan A., Macklining and Ray White, you are those buyers…It is sad trucks are more status symbols than work vehicles these days, and those buyers are part of the reason they are so expensive. You know how much development costs are added to develop massaging seats, napa leather and ambient internal and external lighting? All things people who use them as trucks never asked for…
I don’t agree. People like their conveniences no matter what they are, whether it’s a WT or an Ultimate. I had a 2022 GMC 2500 SLT. I had to buy it used because in 2022 production had not caught up with demand yet because of Covid. I loved the truck but It didn’t have the surround vision cameras. I love the both the convenience and the safety factors of the cameras so I bought a 2024 Denali. It even gives me views down the side of my fifth wheel and shows the trailer wheels when I’m turning. I like that feature so I bought a new truck. People like what they like and know what they don’t like. It has nothing to do with status in many cases.
@TMI if I’m understanding correctly, you don’t agree how people who buy the trucks end up using them. If you don’t see the flaw in your reasoning, then nothing I will say will resonate with you. Here are a few more things to consider.
First, CarPlay is a matter of convenience, usability and safety. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with it being a “status symbol.” I just drove from Springfield, Missouri to Miami, FL in a Sierra AT4 and used CarPlay to route me. It would have been nice to have CarPlay run full screen. Is that a “status symbol” for you?
Second, who says that those who want a truck for truck things also don’t want a good CarPlay experience? A good friend of mine is a professional auto transporter who tows an enclosed trailer with his Silverado 3500 HD. It’s a $100K rig and he spends 16 hours a day in it. Another friend just got a Silverado 1500 WT for work. He spends a good ten hours a day in that truck. Both of these people deserve a proper CarPlay experience.
Third, and this one may come as a shock to you, but trucks today are used more often as family and personal vehicles than for pure “truck things.” This is why Crew Cabs have grown in popularity over the past decade or so.
Summing it up, trucks today need to be versatile vehicles that can handle work and personal use, balancing comfort, convenience and safety just as the baseline. Trucks on the mid to higher end of the spectrum need to varying degrees of luxury. This is where the market is today and it’s the customer expectation.
Don’t get me started on the off road packages. A ZR2/AT4X shouldn’t be priced above a Denali or High Country and come with all the luxuries, it should start with a lower end model and be a package to add to WT, LT and maybe LTZ models (the latter just to get some extra money). Those buyers are the ones who will actually use or need the features. The guy who spends 90k isn’t off road taking advantage of what they have to offer, but the guy who works in the field or will spend closer to 50k is more likely to need and use those.
Rich people problems.
Yeah. These trucks are essentially for the well off, and are expected to do everything well.
$75K for a Sierra AT4 or a Silverado ZR2 is no chump change.
How many trucks are sold on “How much will my payments be?” terms with ridiculous 8+ year loans? 80% of them?
And the lifters won’t last that long.
Mary and her buddies at Meta are not going to let Apple interfere with her private jet with her google buddies.
So even though we want Apple , she says sorry appleites , eat cake.
Apple is the dominant phone for the auto enthusiast so not meeting the customers needs is not bright. When GM said it would phase out ICE customers registered their dissatisfaction. Is this a similar situation.
Apple is a rich thug, used to pushing everyone around and getting their way. Where Microsoft was at one time.
There’s more to this than GM being clueless and “not meeting the customers needs”.
Apple is rich, but far from a thug.
Everyone else in the industry has figured out how to do full screen carplay. GM hasn’t on its key products. Do better.
Apple is the “dominate phone” for low IQ dunces & dolts who aren’t too “bright.”
Android Automotive is clearly the superior software & Apple CarPlay integration works much better than Apple’s own native system.
.
The next gen most likely will not have apple car play nor android auto support. It will be a google native platform like the current 2025 EV models. per internal conversations.
if GM gets rid of CP and AA in ICE vehicles, that decision will be their downfall until they wake up and reverse it.
Everything got to exspensive years ago, I purchased a 2001 2500HD NEW & still have it
Pretty sure my 2025 Tahoe uses full screen in Car Play. But I was told the software was different than the current trucks. The buttons run along top not on sidebar.
I’d just be happy if my wireless charger worked. My phone charges fine on my office charger, my home charger and in my Ram, but not in my Silverado.
Absolutely hate the new “infotainment”’systems—drove my wife’s 22 Buick 2000 miles for holiday visits- prefer FM radio- everytime car play was used for maps the radio feature hid like a pack of prairie dogs. And it crashed my imaps where the phone can’t show a moving map only turn by turn directions
WOW a lot of cry babies. The Apple Car play is a certain resolution for old cars with small displays like Toyota and Honda are using so it cant take up the whole high res screen. The screen is so large they would have to stretch it and it look very weird like your TV zoom mode.
Wow! I have a 2024 Sierra SLT 1500 and a Ford F-350 crew cab dually. I travel quite a bit in the GMC and use Apple Car Play for navigation, Podcasts, music, etc. I have no issues with any of the above. I had a 2019 GMC that was more of a pain due to the phone needing to be plugged in for Car Play to work. Switched to a 2022 Yukon with the vertical display. I really liked it. I love how easy it is to have multiple phones in the truck and switch between them with ease. I do that with up to five phones at a time if my wife and girls are with me. Maybe it’s because I got use to navigating the screen and features back in 2022 but I’m 54 and can use everything on without issue. Why is anybody staring at the map anyway? I only look at the navigation screen to see how far the next turn is and whether it’s a right or a left. The GMC setup is awesome for towing. What else do you need? Resturaunt’s, hotels and Coffee shops are one click away. If anyone is choosing a truck based on the infotainment screen, that’s fine but don’t mess with the things that matter to those of us that need trucks. I seriously have no idea how most Americans would get anywhere if they had to read a map or use directional instincts. What a silly thing to whine and cry about.