Mobile computers on wheels that can't crash

Carmakers are bracing themselves for the transformation as well. "We (traditional carmakers) may be a little slow, but we are not stupid," said Andy Palmer, former CEO of Aston Martin and former COO of Nissan.

Volkswagen Group established its software division last year, and the German carmaker expects the software developed in-house will account for 60 percent of all the software it needs.

To that end, it has doubled the investment plan to 27 billion euros ($33 billion) by the middle of the decade, said Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess.

"In the coming years, it will be crucial to also reach a leading position in car software in order to meet people's needs for individual, sustainable and fully connected mobility in the future," said Diess.

Autonomous driving, the much-hyped selling point of new entrants, is another field that traditional carmakers are investing in heavily.

Earlier this year, Japan's Toyota invested $400 million in autonomous driving startup Pony.ai, which is rolling out its robotaxi fleet in China and the United States. Toyota is an investor in Uber's self-driving technology.

Another Japanese carmaker Honda has long partnered with GM in its autonomous driving unit Cruise, which started to test fully driverless vehicles back in late 2020.

Analysts and executives said the biggest barrier to new entrants are the safety standards in the car industry that are much stricter than in the consumer electronics industry.

"Prototypes are easy, production is hard," said Tesla founder Elon Musk in a tweet in May, in response to a user tweet seeking his comment on the new players including Xiaomi.

Tesla's first model, the Roadster, came out in 2008. But even today, inconsistent product quality is something customers complain most about.

As vehicles are becoming mobile computers, product consistency, which is something that traditional carmakers excel at, will be as crucial as－if not more than－it was in the past 100 plus years.

"The zero defect concept is very difficult for electronics companies to comprehend," Yancey Hai, chairman of electric car powertrain maker Delta Electronics. "It is OK to crash this computer－you can reboot it. For cars, no way."