The funniest thing about this is that the new potentially disasterous ICE system that they want to introduce has been code-named Edsel.
The second funniest is that the name of the CEO is Barra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel_Ford
https://daringfireball.net/2023/05/gm_edsel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Barra_engine
It was a complete custom UI running on QNX. It had nothing to do with the WinNT platform, or any of its derivates.
This problem with proprietary screens can be resolved/mitigated with a cheap Android Auto/CarPlay dash-mounted remote display. They are basically a touchscreen tablet on an arm, with Bluetooth, an Aux Output and a cigarette lighter plug. There are cheap ones ($300) and incredibly cheap ones ($50).
I would recommend GM dealers (who don’t want to sell their franchise back to GM because this is a fucking stupid move) to invest in pallets of these things and give them away for free to new car owners who aren’t satisfied with the factory In-Car Entertainment.
Most manufacturers have apps for managing customer relationships (servicing, vehicle features etc). I’m surprised more manufacturers have not created CarPlay/Android Auto interfaces for these Apps.
Porsche also refused to enable Android Auto on their vehicles for a very long time because Google were making outrageous demands for vehicle telemetry information as part of licensing agreements.
Ford contracted Microsoft to create the Ford Sync system which is still (arguably) the best UI/UX for a In-Car Entertainment system and is compatible with CarPly and Android Auto.
Ironically it never worked with any of the Windows Phone devices…
Google changed their policy. Porsche consider their vehicle telemetry to be Trade Secret. Porsche also considered that the demographic of customers that deliberately chose Android instead of IOS and wanted to use an in-car interface were not worth the effort.
They have also rolled out CarPlay to most historical vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz original foray into CarPlay was restricted to certain In-Car Entertainment systems, that were only fitted to certain models. They also had issues with Android Auto licensing early on. Early variants could be configured for Android Auto or CarPlay, but not both. This was fixed in a software update about the same time that Porsche resolved their issues with Google.