As car makers cede control of their auto-operating systems to Apple and Google, the limited choice in the duopoly of smartphone OSes may soon extend to cars
In the future, your choice of smartphone ecosystem—Android or iPhone—could determine which make and model of car you choose Tweets: @plowair , @polemictmm , @mims , @dsilverman , @mims , and @mims Tweets: Eric S-z / @plowair : @mims As a Polestar owner I have had a preview of what is to come. It's pretty awesome. But, the bugs can be interesting. Early on, a failed update left me without any audio (even turn signals) and no a/c until the dealer could disconnect the backup 12V battery for a reset/re-flash. Polemic Paine / @polemictmm : I seriously think there will be a backlash with a reverse trend to retrostyle basic cars. Minimal tech. Ones you can fix yourself without enslavement to manufacturer. Can easily be brand attached to artisan cool. Apparently you are even advised now not to change your own tyre. https://twitter.com/... Christopher Mims / @mims : This is a great point. Imagine Tesla-style vehicles from mainstream automakers that are actually compatible with the 1 billion iPhones already out there. https://twitter.com/... Dwight Silverman / @dsilverman : Car shopping in the future might involve a tough choice: the Google model or the Apple one? https://www.wsj.com/... by @mims via @WSJ @mims : Automakers don't want to become like smartphone makers of yore — mere vessels for Android, while Apple takes the profits. So they're “building their own operating systems”. Except if you dig into it, many of those are... just customized versions of Android Automotive. 🤔 8/ Christopher Mims / @mims : You can't turn safety-critical systems in a car into an extension of your iPhone (or any other smartphone) without running significant code on the computers inside the vehicle itself. next gen CarPlay may not be an embedded “CarOS” — yet — but it's certainly headed there 7/ https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This story closes a loop that opened years ago, when automakers were slow to adopt CarPlay and Android Auto at all. Since then Apple has been building toward the cabin from two directions: its own autonomous electric car project and a next-generation CarPlay that Aston Martin and Porsche have since previewed as an interface spanning every display in upcoming models.
The WSJ's point is that the middle option — automakers running their own independent software — is largely evaporating, because many in-house systems are already customized builds of Android Automotive. The Polestar owner accounts cited in the piece show both the promise and the fragility: a failed update left one car without audio, turn signals, or A/C until a dealer reset the 12V battery.
First-order effects
- Automakers hand over the cockpit software layer to Apple or Google, so a buyer's iPhone-versus-Android choice starts shaping which make and model they shop for — the WSJ's core scenario.
- Polestar-style software dependence becomes a service burden: dealers and OTA pipelines become the failure point for basics like audio and climate when updates go wrong.
Second-order effects
- GM has already chosen the counter-move, planning to drop CarPlay and Android Auto in future EVs in favor of a Google-built system it controls, explicitly to capture more data and feed subscription launches — evidence that ceding the OS means ceding the customer relationship too.
- Aston Martin and Porsche are betting the other way, co-developing bespoke interfaces for next-generation CarPlay that integrate with all vehicle displays, turning deep platform integration into a premium selling point rather than a loss of control.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the car industry splits into camps that mirror smartphones: platforms (Apple, Google), loyal integrators (Aston Martin, Porsche), and defectors trying to keep the data layer in-house (GM) — with whoever owns the OS owning the subscription and data economics of the vehicle.
- Regulators and safety scrutiny become likely follow-ons once a botched update can disable turn signals, the same way app-store gatekeeping drew policy attention on phones; the corpus doesn't yet show that happening, but the exposure is structural.
The trend: The smartphone OS duopoly is extending into vehicles as software-defined cars shift value from the drivetrain to the operating layer.