Today, I’m talking with Baris Cetinok, who has one of the longest titles of any person we’ve had here on Decoder. He is, officially, General Motors’ senior vice president, software and services, product management, program management, and design.
Those are a lot of words that mean Baris is in charge of all the software in the cars that GM makes, which is a lot of cars. And if you’ve been following any of the drama in the world of car software, you know it also means Baris is the guy who has to defend GM’s decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from most of its cars, especially EVs.
Now, Baris didn’t actually make that call, which GM announced in early 2023; he only joined GM about a year ago, after a stint running services at Apple including Apple Pay. But it’s his job to make sure that GM’s software platform, which is called Ultifi, is so good that people won’t miss CarPlay. That is a tall order. Every time we do a Decoder episode with a car person, we talk about CarPlay, and then we get an avalanche of emails from people who say they’ll never buy a car without it. See, we really do read all the emails.
Read more on: TheVerge
