While big company politics play a role, IMO the main driver is that all of these companies have shifted their activities.
It used to be the case that these companies would build stuff (this doesn’t only apply to cars), and charged for that stuff, and thus had an incentive to have their well guarded IP. This era is long gone.
The manufacturing business has become a race to the bottom because this IP is no longer considered profitable. There’s a mantra in MBA parlance “externalize cost centers, internalize profit centers”. For the manufacturing sector this meant keeping the sales business, while externalizing engineering. This has gone to the point that even the subcontractors have undergone that process (that’s why there’s a “tiered” model). Nowadays most of the time Engineering is 4 subcontractors down. This also means that most manufacturers are buying from the same tech providers, and are sharing most of the IP (and their costs).
The only reason this makes sense is that car companies don’t sell cars anymore, their real business is loaning, because it turns out that manufacturing big things is an amazingly good way of generating free cashflows. Look at the earnings report of any carmaker (or GE for that matter), more than half of their earnings come from finance.
It used to be the case that these companies would build stuff (this doesn’t only apply to cars), and charged for that stuff, and thus had an incentive to have their well guarded IP. This era is long gone.
The manufacturing business has become a race to the bottom because this IP is no longer considered profitable. There’s a mantra in MBA parlance “externalize cost centers, internalize profit centers”. For the manufacturing sector this meant keeping the sales business, while externalizing engineering. This has gone to the point that even the subcontractors have undergone that process (that’s why there’s a “tiered” model). Nowadays most of the time Engineering is 4 subcontractors down. This also means that most manufacturers are buying from the same tech providers, and are sharing most of the IP (and their costs).
The only reason this makes sense is that car companies don’t sell cars anymore, their real business is loaning, because it turns out that manufacturing big things is an amazingly good way of generating free cashflows. Look at the earnings report of any carmaker (or GE for that matter), more than half of their earnings come from finance.