As Apple and Google continue to compete for smartphone and tablet sales, most analysts expect the two to eventually start battling heavily over auto sales.
"I think the two tech behemoths, Apple and Google, are moving quickly into position. There is a major battle starting to brew over who will take control," said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at MIT AgeLab and the associate director of the New England University Transportation Center, according to NBC News.
Even though just 10 percent of vehicles have built-in connectivity today, that number is expected to increase to 90 percent by 2020, according to a study conducted by Machina Research.
Tech companies, like Apple and Google, don't just want to put new apps in a vehicle's dashboard however. They want to change the way people drive altogether by personalizing vehicles like never before.
Companies will likely use an occupant's personal info to make their drive time a lot more customized, said Gary Silberg, an analyst at KPMG.
"If you think about the personalization of cars in the future, in 20 years or less, the car will be able to tell if you own it or not, it will know your traits and attributes and will do things that will help make you a better, smarter, more productive person," Silberg said, according to NBC News.
"The car will be this intelligent computer that provides you mobility," he added.
New software will allow vehicles to do a number of things like make music recommendations for your ride depending on your mood or even sync with your calendar and monitor traffic so occupants make their next appointment on time, according to Silberg.
Since software will be such an important factor when it comes to future cars, Apple and Google are already making deals with automakers to push their operating systems into current vehicles.
Apple announced its CarPlay service back in March, which brings the interface of a user's iPhone to a vehicle's infotainment center.
Occupants can control messages, calls from their phone, or music just by using their voice or built-in display. It can also predict where a user probably wants to go based on addresses from your text messages, calendars, contacts, and even your email.
In June, Google announced its own system called Android Auto.
Both auto platforms will be available for certain vehicles before the end of 2014.
Technology in vehicles is already becoming a key factor for car buyers when trying to decide which car they should purchase next.
"The interface is now the reason a car is selling or not selling. It's not about things like horsepower anymore," Reimer said.
User-interface will become a bigger deal when self-driving cars start to hit the streets. Most tech companies view autonomous cars as a solution to a number of key issues like traffic, accidents, and parking. Self-driving technology would make all of those issues a lot easier.
Google is leading the way amongst its tech rivals when it comes to autonomous driving, and is putting the pressure on other companies to catch-up.
"Google is the big elephant in the room," said said Thilo Kosowski, a vice president and automotive analyst at Gartner, according to NBC News. "It was really a wake-up call for the auto industry when it unveiled its self-driving car capabilities."
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