Making the Car ‘Platform Ready’: How Big Tech Is Driving the Platformization of Automobility

Sam Hind; Max Kanderske; F.N. van der Vlist

doi:10.1177/20563051221098697

Making the Car ‘Platform Ready’: How Big Tech Is Driving the Platformization of Automobility

Sam Hind^*, Max Kanderske, F.N. van der Vlist

^*Corresponding author for this work

ICON - Media and Performance Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

“Big Tech” platform companies like Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Amazon are deeply invested in the future of automobility—from developing car-specific interfaces and self-driving technology to establishing business partnerships with automakers. Far from business-as-usual, we explain how Big Tech is reshaping the traditional automotive industry by making the car “platform ready,” as imposed on the web before it. The article considers how this novel transformation of automobility is increasingly significant for critical scholars of social media, platforms, and platformization, as bespoke forms of mediated, datafied, and platformized, sociality emerge. Specifically, we identify six levels upon which this platformization of automobility is unfolding and through which Big Tech is reorganizing the automotive industry according to platform logics concerning programmability, modularity, connectivity, data collection, and developmental partnerships. We do so by analyzing academic and technical literature, industry reports, and initiatives with a stake in platform automobility. Finally, we suggest directions for further research into Big Tech’s stake in the future of automobility, as these new dynamics begin to reshape the automotive industry at large.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-13
Number of pages	13
Journal	Social Media + Society
Volume	8
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221098697
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), project number 262513311 (SFB 1187: “Media of Cooperation”).

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

Keywords

platformization
platform automobility
connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs)
self-driving technology
platform studies
Big Tech
automotive industry

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10.1177/20563051221098697Licence: CC BY

20563051221098697Final published version, 206 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "“Big Tech” platform companies like Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Amazon are deeply invested in the future of automobility—from developing car-specific interfaces and self-driving technology to establishing business partnerships with automakers. Far from business-as-usual, we explain how Big Tech is reshaping the traditional automotive industry by making the car “platform ready,” as imposed on the web before it. The article considers how this novel transformation of automobility is increasingly significant for critical scholars of social media, platforms, and platformization, as bespoke forms of mediated, datafied, and platformized, sociality emerge. Specifically, we identify six levels upon which this platformization of automobility is unfolding and through which Big Tech is reorganizing the automotive industry according to platform logics concerning programmability, modularity, connectivity, data collection, and developmental partnerships. We do so by analyzing academic and technical literature, industry reports, and initiatives with a stake in platform automobility. Finally, we suggest directions for further research into Big Tech{\textquoteright}s stake in the future of automobility, as these new dynamics begin to reshape the automotive industry at large.",

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Making the Car ‘Platform Ready’: How Big Tech Is Driving the Platformization of Automobility

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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