Every story tagged Connected Vehicles, curated for CIOs and IT leaders — ranked by source credibility, engagement, and freshness.
5 stories · open in the command center
Cloud-based vehicle connected services—including remote access, OTA updates, and telematics—are becoming obsolete as cellular networks sunset older technologies and automakers discontinue backend support, potentially rendering millions of vehicles unable to access features customers paid for and rely on for safety and convenience. This service lifecycle challenge creates technology debt for automakers, customer dissatisfaction, and raises questions about IT infrastructure sustainability and the long-term viability of cloud-dependent vehicle features. IT leaders should recognize that automotive cloud services lack the longevity guarantees of traditional enterprise systems, presenting business model risks and customer retention challenges as these connected services degrade.
Volkswagen has implemented client assertion authentication requirements that have broken third-party integrations like Home Assistant's VW CarNet connector, while the official mobile app remains functional—indicating a deliberate API restriction strategy by the automaker. This represents a broader trend of vendors tightening API access controls, which creates operational risk for IT organizations managing smart home and IoT environments that rely on third-party integrations. Technology leaders should expect similar authentication barriers from enterprise vendors and need to develop strategies for vendor-sanctioned integrations versus community-maintained connectors.
Connected vehicles now generate massive data volumes (25GB/hour by 2030) across complex, multi-party ecosystems involving cloud platforms, third-party apps, and mobile networks, creating significant security blind spots where data traverses unpredictable pathways with limited visibility and control. Data portability regulations and universal connectivity are forcing a fundamental rethink of connectivity architecture, but most industry focus remains on data monetization rather than securing the fragmented data flows that span multiple providers and geographic boundaries. CIOs must shift from traditional endpoint-focused security models to architecting end-to-end visibility and control across the entire connected vehicle ecosystem, as each integration point introduces new attack vectors that traditional defenses cannot adequately address.
General Motors faces a $12.75M settlement with California regulators for selling hundreds of thousands of drivers' personal and behavioral data to data brokers without proper consent, highlighting critical privacy and regulatory risks in data monetization practices. The agreement requires GM to cease data sales to consumer reporting agencies for five years and delete retained driver data, signaling intensifying enforcement around data minimization and consent—a precedent that will likely impact how all technology-driven organizations handle customer data. CIOs must urgently audit their own data collection, retention, and monetization practices to assess regulatory exposure and implement privacy-by-design frameworks before similar enforcement actions target their organizations.
Rivian is offering customers the ability to disable all vehicle connectivity, reflecting growing consumer demand for data privacy control and creating a strategic tension between connected vehicle features and user autonomy. This capability has significant implications for IT organizations managing connected vehicle ecosystems, as it demonstrates the need for architectures that can gracefully degrade functionality while maintaining core safety systems, and signals that privacy-by-design will increasingly influence customer purchasing decisions and competitive positioning. Technology leaders should anticipate similar privacy-control features becoming table-stakes across the automotive industry, requiring investment in modular service architectures, transparent data governance, and customer-facing privacy management tools.