VCN Automotive is a company that offers connectivity and telematics software for vehicles. And the proof that they are doing well is that 25 million cars around the world use systems developed by them.
For this reason, the warning that Tom Blackie , its CEO, gives us about the 'danger' that the technological giants Apple and Google increase their prominence in cars, can be understood as the 'tantrum' of a company that they are facing. 'stealing part of the cake' ... But perhaps he is not lacking some reason.
The point is that brands such as Renault and Volvo have already ceded control of almost all digital surfaces to Google's Android Auto. And Apple, for its part, has announced that it will use its Apple CarPlay interface so that the air conditioning systems , the seat controls and the configuration of the clock frames are managed through it. All this, as reported by VCN, means giving unprecedented control to these two technological giants.
Probably for a young driver who is in the sights of the manufacturers this is not a problem. But it is true that there are risks : the first is that the driver who is already fully familiar with one technological ecosystem (from Google or Apple) may refuse to buy cars from other brands that use the other ecosystem.
The second danger resides in the possibility that some functions of the car remain inaccessible if it refuses to update to the latest terminal, an aggravated problem if we take into account that a phone can be replaced every two years but a car can last us a decade or more.
The third comes from the latent possibility that some functions of the car disappear if one of these large companies decides to withdraw the support.
And the fourth and final is that brands are losing the possibility of individualization, and all the effort they are making to create more immersive experiences for their customers (in order to create brand loyalty) may end up falling apart from Silicon Valley. This, in Blackie's words, "could be the slippery slope that removes vehicle manufacturers from having the in-car experience entirely."
0 Comments