CarPlay and the Automaker's Moat
While CarPlay provides a strictly additive experience for drivers, the software fundamentally threatens the economic moats of traditional automakers.
By Ben Thompson
Sparked by CarPlay Is Additive · discussion
In a recent piece, Casey Liss made the definitive consumer-centric case for Apple's automotive software, neatly titled CarPlay Is Additive. The argument is straightforward and, from the perspective of the driver, immensely compelling. As Liss argues, Apple's software preserves all of your vehicle's underlying capabilities—you can still adjust the climate or turn on the wipers—while overlaying a familiar, lightning-fast interface on top of what would otherwise be a sluggish, built-in navigation screen. It is, from the consumer's vantage point, strictly additive.
When you get into a vehicle, you want your podcasts, your maps, and your messages to seamlessly transfer from the computer in your pocket to the screen on the dashboard. This is not a fringe preference; as MacRumors noted, an overwhelming 98% of new cars in the US support CarPlay.
To be clear, Liss is exactly right about the user experience. Apple has built a superior, familiar interface that consumers actively demand, and from the driver’s seat, it genuinely is strictly additive. The business of bending metal, though, operates under vastly different economic realities than the experience of driving.
Before diagnosing the automakers' resistance, I should own up to my initial miss on this topic. My early coverage of