The automotive industry is undergoing a transformation unlike anything it has faced before.

Electric vehicles get most of the attention, but that’s not the real story. The real shift is the rise of the software-defined vehicle.

As Donald Chesnut, former Chief Experience Officer at General Motors, puts it: the chassis may increasingly become standard. The software will be the differentiator.

That changes everything.

Cars are no longer static products. They’re evolving platforms. Features are updated over time. Safety, autonomy, and personalisation are increasingly subscription-based. The relationship between manufacturer and customer no longer ends at the point of sale.

And that creates a fundamental challenge.

Automotive has historically been design-led, but not consistently customer-led. While the exterior of vehicles receives enormous attention, much of the end-to-end experience has been treated as secondary. Buying, onboarding, servicing, using, updating, and resolving problems are all part of a complex lifecycle that now matters more than ever.

Mobile is a perfect example.

What was once an optional companion has become a core part of the product. Charging, remote features, updates, location, autonomy, and safety services all depend on it. Mobile is no longer an add-on. It’s an extension of the vehicle.

This shift forces a new way of working.

Designers, engineers, and data teams can no longer operate in silos. Experience isn’t defined by individual features. It’s defined by how everything comes together, across digital and physical touchpoints.

Chesnut describes pairing experience teams directly with chief engineers, not to debate features, but to evaluate real journeys. Road trips. Breakdowns. First-time ownership. The unhappy paths as much as the happy ones.

Because this is where loyalty is built.

One striking insight from the conversation is that customers whose problems are resolved well are more loyal than those who never experienced a problem at all. Experience recovery is not a cost. It’s a growth lever.

That’s where the idea of customer-centred growth comes in.

When experience improvements are framed purely as satisfaction or NPS, they struggle to gain traction at board level. When they are connected directly to profit, retention, and growth, the conversation changes. What was once a push becomes a pull.

This is the future of experience leadership.

Not experience as a layer. Not design as decoration. But experience as a measurable driver of growth, enabled by data, software, and small, multidisciplinary teams who can move quickly from idea to proof to impact.

Automotive just happens to be where this transformation is most visible. But the lesson applies everywhere.

For more and the inspiration behind this article watch our podcast with Donald Chesnut, former CXO of General Motors.

Watch the full interview on spotify >>>>https://open.spotify.com/episode/5MjZIjHyDDrQU2Muam86sZ?si=CIfhJsi0SGmBjxLHrSUvBw