SCALING AI IN THE CLOUD: THE DISRUPTION OF “CLOUDIFICATION” IN CONNECTED AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Abstract

This paper examines the case of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)—cars integrating “smart” digital components—to explore how “cloudification” has emerged as a key infrastructural transformation in the industrialization of AI. CAVs illustrate the “industrialization” of AI as it moves beyond specialized applications to acquire infrastructural characteristics across multiple industries. The paper builds upon insights from three fields: platform studies, science and technology studies (STS), and innovation studies. We conducted a large-scale analysis of patents related to CAVs, using both topic modelling and a large language model to inductively identify and explore patterns in a vast material. The mixed-methods analysis of patent documents enables us to understand both the strategies and imaginaries of cloudification in CAV technology and innovation discourse. The paper offers evidence of the cloudification of the automotive sector across two levels. First, on a high-level, we offer a mapping of this evolving ecosystem, identifying key connections between industry players, emerging cloud-based innovations, and the research hubs driving these developments. Second, on a granular level, the patents reveal distinct cloud business strategies among leading CAV firms, for example in how the cloud is enacted in practice. Ultimately, the paper contributes an in-depth analysis of the cloudification of CAVs, which exemplifies the broader industrialization of AI—an expansion of computational infrastructures that extends beyond traditional technology sectors to transform mobility and global economies.