Increasing customer demand for connectivity and digitization, stricter regulations, and shortening technical lifecycles are blurring the lines between the automotive and the digital world. The digital age is spawning fundamental changes, and the entire automotive value chain is expected to change rapidly, rather than continually. iMcKinsey predicts a diversification toward mobility and related data-driven services to increase the automotive revenue pool by $1.5 trillion by 2030.
In this two-part article, we draw upon our understanding of the automobile industry coupled with research involving startup partners and subject matter experts within and outside Wipro. The first part presents two key trends and opportunities that can provide a solid foundation for system integrators, automotive OEMs and startups to rev up the pace of innovation and gauge their plans for future implementations.
1. Autonomous Vehicles
The commonly accepted definition of autonomous cars is “the capability of a car to be driven partly or fully by itself, with limited or no human intervention”.
Today, Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS) covers features such as automatic braking, collision avoidance systems and emergency braking. As technologies mature, ADAS will become a default part of the autonomous driving package. Current technology developments already facilitate Level 2 autonomy with varying levels of individual assist on nearly all vehicles as of 2018. By 2025, it is predicted that all the necessary technical conditions for level 4/5 autonomy will be well established.
Implications & Opportunities
“Based on our experience of running a fleet of L3/L4 vehicles for OEM programmes using our AI-based software, we believe that automotive hardware platforms have a long way to go to deliver the neural network performance needed for volume production. We urgently need innovative hardware solutions to enable tomorrow’s L4/L5 vehicles with the crucial aspects of autonomous driving technology – perception, prediction and action.”
David Kiss, CTO at AImotive, one of Wipro’s startup partners
2. Mobility Services
Automotive OEMs have already started making a transition from a standalone hardware provider to a hardware + software + and experiences provider. The end-goal is the diversification toward on-demand mobility services such as e-hailing. Notable examples are Ford’s bike sharing service GoBike and GM’s car sharing service Maven. With technology advancing the development of mobility platforms, monetizing customer data can not only generate new sales leads, but also improve the overall efficiency of vehicle use.
Implications and Opportunities
Did you know?
An average car has around 50 separate computers controlling the ABS anti-locking brakes, the air bags, the air conditioning and even the locksiv. And all of this without considering modern-day entertainment systems or GPS. On average, today’s car processes around 25GB of data per hourv.
Data shows us that 80-90 % of vehicles in the US are parked for most of the day. Autonomous ride sharing will reduce car buying. Customers will prefer to forgo the upfront capital expenditure of owning a vehicle. Further, we see potential annual savings of USD 3,000 – 5,000 per family on personal transportation, including hyperloop, stronger mass public transport systems, autonomous cars and mobility services.
- Chetan Garga, MD and Country Head, AllState Insurance
No better time than now
Automotive OEMs are expanding their core “build-and-sell” business to turn mobility-as-a-service into a mass market. Startups, on the other hand, are teaming up with the entire value-chain - from vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers to municipalities and federal states - to bring in the large-scale innovation required for autonomous mobility services.
In part 2 of this series, we extend our current viewpoints to cover connectivity and electrified vehicles, concluding with our perspectives on how the four trends together can bring about the right balance between hardware, software, and the emerging auto ecosystem.
References
[iii] https://www.nhtsa.gov/
[iv] http://www.physics.org/facts/apollo-really.asp
[v] https://www.mckinsey.de/files/mck_connected_car_ report.pdf
Aravind Gopinath
Aravind is part of the Open Innovation theme at the CTO office at Wipro. He has a decade of experience in the IT industry, leading technology initiatives across Financial Services, Business Intelligence and Information Security. In his current role, he seeks to empower Wipro in extending its corporate offerings and meeting operational efficiencies by leveraging the technology landscape of the startup ecosystem. He has a Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering Degree from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and an MBA from SMU, Singapore.