Software is redefining automotive, but do car buyers care?

Many car companies are becoming 'software-defined', but that won't necessarily resonate with their customers When is a car company not a car company? There are a couple of paths into this way of thinking. One – and this is among my least favourite topics, but I suppose we must delve into it – is the idea that car makers are gradually becoming software companies that just happen to also make cars. Eek. Volvo’s Jim Rowan, several weeks ago uninvited from being Volvo’s Jim Rowan, spoke positively about this trend in March. He talked of ‘cloud architecture’ and ‘full-stack software’ and, I know, I know, I should actually understand what those things mean and what the implications of them are, but even though I’m skinny and bald and my spectacles are thin-rimmed, I’m just not tech bro enough to get my head around it all. Software is essential: I do understand that much. And I get that if a car can talk to other cars and a base some distance away, if it can send and receive reports on incidents and accidents, that will make for safer and easier journeys. But as a driver/owner/user, I don’t need to know and honestly don’t care how any of this is happening. Then there are the user-facing parts of software, which I do care about and which some important people clearly believe are going to be deciding factors in what defines their company’s characteristics and what separates it from a competitor. I think the user interface and user experience are really important, but I also don’t buy into the theory that software will define a car company. I used to put this down to the fact that I’m increasingly an old man yelling at clouds, but the more I hear from younger drivers, the more I think they feel the same way. There’s only so much software you can use in a car. I just don’t believe people are going to fall in love with a car brand because it has the best software. It’s not like shopping for furniture or the choicest ingredients to make a great dinner. There I’ll pick my favourite things. I don’t, though, have a favourite shopping website, which is what car software most reminds me of: it’s not a thing in itself but a conduit to get to a thing. I just want the easiest conduit, the least bad version, something that works every time and is deliberately designed to be unannoying. For me, this is the optimum that user-facing car software can be. I’m not convinced it’s enough reason alone to buy a car, although I am 100% sure that it’s enough reason to not buy one. Does that amount to the same thing? Which brings me to part two of how not to be a car company: for want of a less cringey phrase, be a lifestyle company. In the past month, I’ve driven new cars from, and spoken to the bosses of, Rolls-Royce and Morgan. They’re different companies in that one makes uber-luxury limos and the other makes driver-focused sports cars, but in so many ways they’re the same. They sell you a beautiful object and also an experience, and while both make cars, a buyer isn’t necessarily contemplating a new vehicle as an alternative place to put their money. Anything from an old Land Rover to a house extension or a boat or a small island is a rival to what these companies make. From time to time, I think about buying an old Caterham. Competing for my money is not what one would consider a direct Caterham rival but an Indian motorcycle or a new greenhouse. Rolls-Royce, Morgan, Caterham: these are luxury companies as much as car companies, and that’s a formula that does work. It requires no reinvention and no trying to convince buyers that they should want something they’ve never wanted before. And as and when new tech or new interfaces are needed, companies and buyers want them to be as stable and unintrusive as is possible. Of these two car-making-but-not-car-company approaches, I know which I find more compelling and whose cars I would ultimately rather spend more time in. It’s the ones that let me feel and enjoy the tangible, dynamic parts of vehicle technology and otherwise leave me alone.

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