Software-Defined Vehicles greatly facilitate the vehicle’s electrification, optimization and personalization, as well as the attainment of higher levels of driving automation. More broadly, these vehicles change how the industry designs, makes, sells, and services vehicles, and in the process enable a new customer experience.
During the automotive industry’s current boom phase OEMs are announcing big, multi-year investments in new vehicle platforms that combine electrification with increasing driving automation. Because under new mobility data and loyalty will become central forms of value, OEMs must also consider deploying the loyalty-enhancing data-driven services these platforms enable. The services they introduce and the business models they use to monetize them will determine whether they become like Apple, AT&T or Foxconn in the customer relationships they develop.
Several megatrends will necessitate the transformation of urban mobility from one that is centered around the privately owned vehicle to one that is offered as a service, combines multiple modalities, and promotes sharing. The pandemic forced many of us to work from home and have goods delivered there, in the process causing us to rethink our mobility needs and practices in the context of urban travel. Work-related mobility deserves important consideration because about 30% of daily urban trips pre-pandemic were related to commuting. Many of the practices that will emerge from this rethinking will have their roots to the changes we made during the pandemic and could lead to a new normal for urban mobility.
June proved an extremely important month to the ongoing transformation of urban transportation.
The changes we have seen over the past 10 years in urban consumer transportation preferences with the ascend of on-demand mobility services should have convinced OEM executive teams that significant transformations of their business are necessary. For some OEMs transformations will imply producing vehicles that are based on sophisticated technologies, such as self-driving cars. For others it wil imply the adoption of new business models. OEMs will start offering vehicle subscriptions and mobility services directly to consumers as a result of their transformation.
