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GM hands CarPlay its own window on the 2027 Silverado and Sierra
Phone projection gets a picture-in-picture window in GM's new truck software. The native features now have to hold a driver's attention while CarPlay is already on screen, and GM's product manager makes the case for bigger tap targets.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- GM's next-generation truck interface arrives on the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and 2027 GMC Sierra 1500 later this year, carrying picture-in-picture phone projection for the first time.
- In some trucks the interface spans more than 60 inches of screen, the combined size of the instrument cluster, the central display and the passenger screen.
- Trailer-aware navigation identifies a connected trailer so Google Maps can route around it, and the dimensions an owner enters follow them to another vehicle through their GM account.
- The oil dipstick becomes a virtual measurement on the truck's status screen, though GM says the majority of physical touchpoints stay physical.
- A swipe-down panel borrowed from smartphone design handles device switching, settings and privacy, including turning off the vehicle's microphone.
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Why it matters
- contradiction GM argued against phone mirroring in its electric vehicles and is now designing around it in its trucks, so a shopper comparing the two showrooms gets two philosophies from one company.
- decision GM's software team no longer wins by owning the center display. It has to build features a driver will leave a projected phone screen to use, and that is a harder bar than filling the space.
- constraint Checking the oil now depends on the truck's display and software being awake. An owner in a driveway with a dead screen has lost a check that used to need only a rag.
- capability Trailer setup survives a change of truck, so the measuring happens once instead of at every trade-in, and the portability only works inside a GM account.
Picture-in-picture changes what GM's own software has to be good at. When phone projection keeps a window, the native interface stops being the only thing on the center display, and every GM-built feature gets chosen against something the driver already knows how to use. The stated goal of the redesign is to cut the dangerous tapping and swiping needed to reach the most-used controls [18].
Three screens, and by the combined figure GM gave, they average about 20 inches each [16]. There is room for a media player, a driver-assist animation and a projected map at once [3].
Colin McCormick, GM's group product manager for Google built-in, projection and profiles, frames the extra space as bigger tap targets and larger interactive elements [6][8]. "Living in Michigan, the roads are terrible, so I'm trying to tap on a very small tap zone while hitting a bunch of potholes," McCormick said [7].
Teams shipping big dashboards usually describe the extra glass as headroom for features. GM says its customers keep asking for hardware, and that putting a key function on a screen because the screen exists buys the company nothing with them [10]. Physical buttons stay for HVAC, and airflow direction opens as a flyout on top of them [9].
The more interesting change is a split GM made in the information architecture: settings, which an owner visits once and then rarely again, are now separated from controls, which get tweaked often [13]. McCormick said the old interface felt disjointed because functions took over the whole display, so the media player now stays visible while a queue panel slides in from the side [14].
The Verge calls the picture-in-picture notable given GM's previously stated hostility to phone mirroring in its electric vehicles [5]. Its report covers the 2027 gas trucks and does not describe any change to the EV position [17]. The concession, in other words, lands in the trucks that had CarPlay all along.
The settings-versus-controls split is a test any team with a crowded screen can run, on two axes. Does the feature need data only the vehicle has? Is it used while the vehicle is moving? Trailer identification and routing answer yes twice, which is why they sit in the driver display and on the homescreen card [15]. Device switching and the microphone kill answer no twice, and they live behind a swipe-down panel where nobody has to hunt for them mid-drive [12]. The quadrant with no vehicle data and constant use in motion is music and navigation, and picture-in-picture hands that quadrant to the phone [1].
What to watch
- Whether picture-in-picture projection spreads beyond the 2027 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500, and whether GM's electric vehicles get phone mirroring at all.
- Whether more tangible tools follow the oil dipstick onto the status screen in later model years.
- Whether trailer dimensions stored in a GM account move outside GM vehicles, or stay tied to the account.