FRANKFURT, Germany — A sense of impending disruption hangs over all the shiny new cars at this year’s edition of the Frankfurt International Motor Show.
The potential impact of automated driving and of extensively connected cars has pushed aside electric and low-emission vehicles as the major theme in just the two years since the show was last held.
New technologies could lead to everything from real-time navigating around a slippery stretch of road, to eliminating the need for a home garage by having cars drive themselves to people who summon them through a mobile app.
The big question among automakers is whether they will be the ones to provide new technologies – and profit from them – or will major tech companies like Google and Apple take a slice of the industry. For now, the two sides are balancing cooperation against competition as they gauge what the future holds.
General Motors CEO Mary Barr expects “we will see more change in the industry in the next five to 10 years than we have in the last 50.”
Dieter Zetsche, the head of Daimler AG, described the car and technology companies as being “frenemies.”
He said Daimler would welcome competition, which he called “the energy source for our economy.” What is important, he said, was for Daimler to keep control of customers’ data, to not sell it to third parties, and to obey customer wishes on how it is used. That was his company’s rationale for joining with Audi and BMW to buy Nokia’s HERE mapping service: “To be sure we define the fate of the data being gathered.”
If Apple or Google start making cars – something neither has said they intend to do – “then we are competitors.”
Consultancy McKinsey found expectations of rapid change were widespread in the industry. In a survey of 91 industry executives for a report released Wednesday, it found 90 percent “believe that their organization’s business model will change or broaden because of connectivity and autonomous driving.”
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