The recent decision by car manufacturers like General Motors to move away from Apple CarPlay and Android Auto has reignited a familiar debate across the automotive industry. On the surface, this looks like a dispute about user experience, customer expectations, and brand loyalty. After all, drivers have grown used to bringing their digital lives into the car through familiar interfaces, and many manufacturers have relied on those platforms to compensate for the limitations of their own in-vehicle systems. But this is about much more than the cockpit experience. What’s playing out here is a strategic recalibration of data control.
When is the last time any of us bought a car based purely on engine horsepower or the quality of the chassis? Those days are far behind us now. Today’s cars are effectively software-defined platforms that continuously generate, transmit, and consume data – and everything from navigation, driving assistance, energy usage, media consumption, and system diagnostics now plays into the experience. More importantly for manufacturers, they also result in a commercially valuable data set. When this data is intermediated by third-party platforms such as Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, the manufacturer loses direct visibility into how their own product is used, and that loss of visibility has consequences. It limits the ability to improve services, personalize experiences, and develop new digital revenue streams. Perhaps more importantly, it weakens the manufacturer’s position in an ecosystem where long-term value increasingly comes from managing the full data journey rather than simply delivering the physical product. Before, this visibility was outsourced out of necessity. But today, that necessity is disappearing fast. Manufacturers are beginning to reassess how much control they retain over the software platforms that increasingly define their revenue models.
Who’s really at the wheel?
Cars today have more in common with computers than they do with the automobiles of the past, and as they have become increasingly connected, the volume and sensitivity of the data they generate has grown dramatically. According to McKinsey, connected cars will make up 95% of all vehicles on the road by 2030, with each generating roughly 25 gigabytes of data per hour – that’s the equivalent of streaming close to 600 hours of music. A modern car contains thousands of sensors and software systems that monitor not only the performance and safety of the vehicle, but also the behaviour, preferences, and routines of its drivers and passengers. This data sits precariously at the intersection of privacy, product intelligence, and commercial opportunity. For manufacturers, it represents the raw material needed to refine driving assistance systems, optimize energy consumption, deliver predictive maintenance, and introduce new features through software updates. But it’s also likely to form the foundation for entirely new business models, from usage-based insurance and fleet services to in-car commerce and subscription-driven services.
Control over this data does not happen by accident. It depends on who determines how information flows into and out of the vehicle, where it is processed, and which parties are permitted to access it. When third-party apps are inserted between the car and the wider digital ecosystem, they effectively become gatekeepers to insight and monetization. The manufacturer may still build the vehicle, and display their badge proudly on hood, but someone else learns how it is used. That imbalance matters because the ability to generate recurring revenue from intelligent products is increasingly tied to understanding behavior over time, not just at the point of sale. Follow that logic, and retaining control of the data journey becomes essential for competitiveness. Without it, car makers risk being reduced to background hardware suppliers in an industry where the greatest value is created through software, services, and continuous engagement with the customer.
This is also why many manufacturers are not simply abandoning Google’s ecosystem, but redefining how it is used. Smartphone mirroring solutions like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto place a consumer device between the vehicle and its data, limiting what the car maker can see or influence. Embedded operating systems such as Android Automotive are now changing that dynamic. Licensed by manufacturers and integrated directly into the vehicle, they allow car makers to retain access to vehicle data, manage how it is shared, and develop new services. In this model, the operating system becomes part of the product architecture rather than an external overlay, restoring a degree of control over the data journey that phone-based platforms simply can’t provide. The other alternative is for car makers to develop their own operating systems, an endeavor in which Tesla and Rivian are two standout examples. However, development of such systems is costly, and the stakes when it comes to time to market are high.
In some ways, this mirrors an earlier inflection point in the technology industry. In the early days of the smartphone, Apple set the standard with a tightly controlled, proprietary operating system designed for its own hardware. Google followed with Android, a hardware-neutral platform that could be adopted across manufacturers. As a result, Android today has around 70% of the mobile OS market, while Apple makes do with 30%, reflecting just how much a neutral, device-agnostic approach to software can change an entire market.
The new status quo
What is unfolding in the automotive sector is not unique. The connected car is simply one of the most visible examples of a much broader shift affecting any industry that combines physical products with software, connectivity, and ongoing digital services. Industrial machinery, medical devices, energy infrastructure, consumer electronics, and even systems for smart buildings are following the same trajectory. Once a product becomes intelligent and connected, its value no longer ends at the moment of purchase. It continues to evolve through updates, services, and insights derived from real-world usage. In every case, the organization that controls the data journey gains a structural advantage in shaping how that product develops and how it generates long-term revenue.
This creates a clear dividing line between companies that treat connectivity as a feature and those that treat it as a strategic asset. When data flows are outsourced by default or accident – as is the case with the mirroring solutions – the manufacturer is effectively forfeiting the ability to build a direct understanding of its customers. It’s akin to a retail business outsourcing their CRM suite and yielding all the data it collects to third parties, effectively leaving them blind beyond the point of sale – unable to follow up with offers, unable to track customer behavior, and unable to target them with relevant deals or upselling opportunities.
Software is only the beginning
While some manufacturers continue to pursue tightly integrated, proprietary stacks built exclusively for their own vehicles, others are turning to hardware-neutral platforms designed to scale across brands and vehicle types. There have been some interesting developments in this area, such as NVIDIA’s autonomous driving platform, which points toward a future where shared, high-performance software ecosystems become the foundation for advanced driver assistance and autonomy. Much like the evolution of smartphone operating systems and the race between Android and Apple, platforms that can be adopted broadly across the industry are likely to gain momentum over time, shaping not only how vehicles drive themselves, but how data is collected, processed, and monetized at scale.
However, owning the operating system or designing an interface is only one part of controlling the data journey. Even the most sophisticated software stack depends on how data moves between the vehicle, cloud platforms, partners, and regional systems. Latency, reliability, security, and regulatory compliance are all shaped by the underlying connectivity architecture. If data is forced to traverse inefficient paths, pass through unnecessary intermediaries, or rely on public Internet routing by default, control quickly evaporates. That’s also when performance suffers, security risks increase, and the ability to enforce consistent data governance across different regions begins to weaken.
This is where Interconnection as a Service shines. Direct, private, and intelligently managed interconnection allows manufacturers and platform operators to define how data flows across clouds, regions, and partners. It enables them to decide where data is processed, who can access it, and under what conditions. For instance, safety-critical telemetry and driver assistance data can be kept within tightly controlled regional environments to meet latency and regulatory requirements, while less time-sensitive analytics or training workloads are routed to centralized cloud platforms. Similarly, access to vehicle data can be restricted so that insurers, mobility partners, or third-party service providers only receive the specific datasets required for their function, rather than broad, unrestricted visibility into the vehicle or driver. In other words, Interconnection as a Service supports real-time services, over-the-air updates, and safety-critical applications while preserving ownership of the underlying data. It also ensures that companies building intelligent products are not dependent on someone else’s infrastructure decisions when it comes to performance, compliance, or future scalability.
Choosing a destination
In-car platforms are a striking example of a much larger shift in how value is now created in the digital economy. As products become intelligent, connected, and continuously updated, the ability to control the data journey is now inseparable from the ability to control revenue, customer relationships, and long-term differentiation. Car manufacturers are already beginning to look beyond interfaces and operating systems to the full architecture that governs how data moves from vehicle to cloud and across partners. But that same logic applies to any company building intelligent products at scale. Those that treat data control and interconnection as strategic foundations will retain the flexibility to innovate and monetize on their own terms. Those that don’t risk giving up that control to platforms and ecosystems that will think nothing of capitalizing on an industry’s hard-won data.
By Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX
