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From Closed Car Pods to Open Mobility Experiences
How this Automtive Shift Mirrors the Internet’s Early Evolution
The automotive world stands at the cusp of a seismic transition from closed proprietary systems controlled by OEMs to open platforms that enable third-party innovation.
This shift mirrors the evolution that occurred online with the crumbling of walled gardens like AOL and CompuServe and the rise of the open World Wide Web. Just as the web unlocked exponential growth in information access, services, and participation, open automotive platforms promise to transform mobility experiences in ways we cannot yet imagine.
As Ford’s CTO Doug Field recently noted, the best ideas for future vehicles are not pre-installed by OEMs but have yet to be created by independent developers once granted access. Legacy OEMs face difficult decisions regarding if and how rapidly to open up. But those who embrace this transition stand to benefit tremendously while laggards could fade into irrelevance.
From Walled Gardens to Open Roads
The early days of the internet were defined by closed “walled gardens” like AOL and CompuServe that provided curated experiences via dial-up access. But the advent of the World Wide Web overturned this model by opening up the…
