Smart Cars May Be The Next Big Thing. So Who’s Going To Be The Next Android/IOS?
Tesla stocks are rocketing into space and just with the mention of Apple making their own cars has created a stir in the market. Smart cars may be the next big thing. But then who’s going to create the next operaing system for these cars?
The advent of the smartphone back in the early 2000s created a huge change in the market that we once knew. Entire ecosystems started to arise as companies that created apps started to receive huge investments as well as handle a sea of customers. With this change, a paradigm shift occured where the once dominant Microsoft started to lose power as Google and Apple started to gain leverage with the widespread use of Android and IOS. Although Windows have managed to climb up the ladder these past few years, it is clear that it has lost its once dominant position it had back in the 90s.
Now smartphones seem to be reaching the end of its line as innovation frequency has continuously dropped. Naturally there has been debate about what the ‘next big thing’ may be. Some have speculated it will be a new form of glasses while others say smartwatches will become the next new norm. However, in the past few months it seems the market is also very excited about cars. Smart cars may be even more anticipated than we once knew and if properly implemented, it may become the true ‘next big thing’.
The question arises what kind of new ecosystems may arise with the advent of smart cars. One area to consider is the operating system. We can see Tesla utilizes Linux to implement a new type of OS with a huge screen in the car that acts like a control tower. You can control practically your entire car with this screen and not only can you play games on it, but you can even watched videos and content. You can bet if Apple creates its own cars, it will create its own OS system just as it created an independent OS for its smartphones and ipads.
Okay, so Tesla and Apple might be 2 major players in the smart car business. Who else might enter the market?
You can bet Google is high on alert to enter this market with the success of Android under their belt. Google’s parent company Alphabet has a subsidiary company called ‘Waymo’ which operates an autonomous driving taxi service. Although its services haven’t become main stream yet, it has some of the greatest minds in the world hard at work, studying efficient ways to create self-driving cars. Waymo may continue to create an effective operating system for smart cars and start selling thisi OS similar to Android.
2. Uber/Lyft
When smart cars become truly smart, as in nearly completely autonomous, you can bet car-sharing companies such as Uber or Lyft will start managing a fleet of self-driving cars. As they manage this fleet, they may develop their own unique operating system for their fleet of cars and if properly developed, such a system may be sold to other car companies. AWS has a very similar birth story; it was first created as a system specifically for Amazon but seeing its potential, Amazon started sellling their native cloud system to other companies. Look at AWS now.
Although I only talked about operating systems in this blog, there’s so much more to think about relating to smart cars. With a strong, capable OS, smart cars might become what smartphones have become after regular cellphones; a completely new, evolved product. Car apps may start to gain leverage and various new players might start flooding into this new market. As someone who loves technology, its exciting to see how such events will unravel.
