General Motors spent billions developing a new software experience for Chevy and GMC pickups. They redesigned their entire organizational structure. They hired engineers. They held meetings about meetings. They created cross-functional teams to synergize the digital transformation of the truck-buying experience.
The trucks still haul dirt.
This comes as vehicles are becoming more digital, which is corporate speak for your F-150 now needs a software update to unlock the passenger door. GM looked at Tesla's tablet-on-wheels approach and thought, yeah, let's do that but worse. The customer who buys a $60,000 pickup to pull a boat doesn't want a touchscreen. He wants three knobs and a place to put his coffee. GM gave him seventeen menus and a subscription service.
The organizational redesign is the best part. GM restructured because software exists now. They moved people around. They created new divisions. They probably hired a Chief Digital Officer who wears sneakers with a suit. None of this makes the truck faster or cheaper or more reliable. It makes the quarterly earnings call sound like GM read a TechCrunch article.
Retail traders will buy the dip on this news. They'll see "new software experience" and think innovation. They'll imagine GM becoming the next Apple. They'll max out their Robinhood margin on leap calls. Six months from now they'll be in a Reddit thread asking why their portfolio is down 47% while their brother-in-law's Silverado still can't pair his f*cking phone.
The real customer experience is a guy in Ohio waiting three weeks for a dealer to figure out why his backup camera shows nothing but static.
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