Happy Sunday War & Peaceniks! Shall we take a Sunday Drive?
For years, the Streaming Wars have focused on two fronts: The Home and The Phone. Today, I’m here to tip you off to a new front in the battle for our attention: Your Car.
Anyone who went to this year’s Consumer Electronics Show would be forgiven for mistaking it for the Auto Show. Sony unveiled the Afeela, its own car coproduced with Honda and featuring a dash display created by Fortnite’s Unreal Engine. BMW showed off the terribly named i Vision Dee, which can change its color in seconds. Plenty of carmakers from Peugeot to Mercedes also drove out their new electronic vehicles, with longer range battery lives and new charging functions.
Yet, for all the auto tech on display, I found it strange how little mind-space was dedicated one of the most important parts of a car’s tech: the Entertainment System.
Oddly, automakers seem blithe to the fact that they have ceded their entertainment operating systems to a phone-maker: Apple. 98% of all new cars in the US now come with Apple CarPlay software pre-installed. Apple’s entertainment operating system is now table stakes for selling cars: 79% of car buyers say they will not buy a car that does not have CarPlay.
Meanwhile, Apple’s newest version of CarPlay allows Apple to take over the entire operating system of your auto - including the dashboard and environmental controls - demonstrating how CarPlay and Apple represent a true existential threat to car companies…
“The auto industry faces an unappealing choice: Offer CarPlay and give up potential revenue and the chance to ride a major industry shift, or spend heavily to develop their own infotainment software and cater to an potentially shrinking audience of car buyers who will purchase a new vehicle without CarPlay.”
The last few years have changed Americans’ relationships with their cars. Lockdown made cars more in demand, but nearly impossible to buy. The concept of “car as escape plan” exploded during the pandemic, with 34% of Americans reporting that “my car is more an important to me than before COVID.” This new auto-reliance is much higher with newer car owners: 54% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials say their vehicle is more important to them now than before COVID, while 48% of parents with kids say their car is now more important (compared to 27% of those without children).
This data comes from a study by CARAVAN and DTS, asking Americans how they feel about their cars now. The finding that I found most fascinating is the vision of our car as a Third Space - a place increasingly as important and singular as our workplace or our home.
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