Volvo planning to turn its cars into iPhone on wheels, says CEO Rowan

All the stuff that you can do in your smartphone will be almost inherently native within the vehicle, Rowan said

Automakers used to compete over who had the latest-and-greatest hardware on offer: the highest-horsepower engine, the comfiest seats, the silkiest-sounding speakers.

As manufacturers try to turn their vehicles into rolling smartphone-like devices, the race will revolve around the next big things in chips that upgrade infotainment and vision systems, as well as the car’s general controls.

“That is really the big change that’s happening in the industry,” Jim Rowan, a former top executive at BlackBerry and Dyson who started as CEO of Volvo Car last week, said Tuesday.

Rowan, 56, saw the upheaval up close, from the perspective of a major player on