The smartphone has evolved into the most personal piece of technology that we now all carry: it's no longer just a phone, but a highly connected computer that's running our lives. With the ascent of the smartphone, we've all become more tech savvy, tech dependant and tech focused.

For a car manufacturer, that presents a challenge, according to Ned Curic, Stellantic chief technology officer. And Curic knows all about fast moving technology having been VP of Alexa Automotive at Amazon most recently, but also having the likes of Toyota and Microsoft on his CV.

We asked Curic on the Pocket-lint Podcast about how a car manufacture could keep up when technology was moving so fast outside the car.

"It hasn't been easy for car manufacturers," said Curic, "In fact it's been super, super hard to do that and no car manufacturer has done a good job in the past decade to … keep up with all these rapid changes."

"But we do have plans with out next generation digital cabin to change the game on that and execute a plan to move that digital experience to the cloud."

Just as we've been seeing a ramp up in the capabilities of our technology over the past decade, we've also seen the huge power of the cloud.

It has enabled experiences that 20 years ago would have seemed unfathomable without huge local storage for all that information and huge power for all that processing, but it has enabled virtualised experiences, where the cloud computer is doing all the work and the connected device views the benefit.

"We can change these experiences that people experience in a cabin in a more rapid fashion, do it in the cloud and then mirror that inside the vehicle," says Curic, saying that there will be quarterly and in some cases weekly updates to keep in-car experiences fresh.

With Stellantis being a huge group - Jeep, Fiat, Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Vauxhall, Dodge, and more - not all the experiences that these brands offer will be the same, but they will all run on the same digital platform.

"One thing that … we are doing right now is this radical simplification on the electronics and hardware platform, and then on the software stack as well," says Curic, "and what we build in terms of digital cabin software will be identical for all our brands - what is going to be different is the content and application services for different brands."

Underpinning the experience is connectivity - both for car systems and for in-car experiences for customers - with greater connectivity being something that enhanced mobile connection speeds car bring.

That's something that Qualcomm knows all about, with Stellantis partnering with Qualcomm to power much of the change. That gives a car manufacturer a simpler approach to what Qualcomm calls the "digital chassis".

"Choosing multiple hardware providers or partners, you would have to stitch a lot of pieces together. With Qualcomm, we feel that would be one solid partner, we can achieve a lot more," says Curic.

So while you might think that your car is pretty well connected right now, there's a lot more to come over the next years and from what Stellantis is saying, cars of the future should be better placed to keep pace with changing technology.

You can hear the rest of the interview - covering autonomous vehicles, machine learning and other technologies - on the Pocket-lint Podcast.