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Prediction

The car becomes a smartphone you can drive

A 2013 future call revisited in Jim Carroll's 2026 Automotive & Transportation Trends Scorecard.

The car becomes a smartphone you can drive
trends-scorecardreceiptautomotive-and-transportationoriginal-year-2013
Publish Date2026-09-18
Updated Date2026-09-18
Outcomehit

The original call

Original year: 2013

2026 assessment

Scorecard verdict: Verdict: Hit

Hit. In 2026 this is simply how cars work. The screen is the car. Software updates arrive over the air overnight. People shop for infotainment, range, and app ecosystems the way they shop for phones, and they trade up far more often than the old ownership cycles ever assumed. The “replaceable as a smartphone” framing was the right instinct about where the customer’s head would go.

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