What’s the hold up? When it comes to autonomy, technology isn’t the issue
Driverless technology is not being led by automotive brands.
Even when they have the expertise and capability.
This isn’t just a case of execution either. The automotive industry’s collective future vision is (at best) disjointed. There’s no question that autonomy is the end game, but how do we get there? Ask that at an automotive show and entire rooms go silent.
With tech companies announcing advancements on a weekly basis, we know the technology’s there. With increasing consumer acceptance (particularly in emerging markets) we know that “drivers” are ready. With governments at all levels investing in infrastructure and drawing up policies, we know that leaders are gearing up for big changes too.
So, when it comes to our friends in the automotive industry, all we can ask is: what’s the hold-up?
Simply put, the automotive industry is one of incremental advancement. In a global landscape of interconnected brands and increasing speed on all fronts, it stands out as a monster of epic proportions. Composed of complex supply chains, endless infrastructure and brands that rely on ownership by drivers, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
A colleague of mine once said, “Dinosaurs were monsters, but they got taken out”. Though I appreciate the sentiment, I’m not convinced that autonomy will be achieved by taking out what’s taken over a century to build.
So, when revolution isn’t feasible, and the milestones that have been surpassed by innovators can’t be implemented for decades, the question is: HOW do we innovate within the monster?
Well, let’s start with the fact that car brands are still production focussed, with the product lifecycle ending when the car is on the dealer floor. While the tech industry is fascinating us with downloadable, upgradable and customisable beta features on the regular, the auto industry’s zero-risk, single purchase mentality sticks out like a sore thumb. Compare the Tesla Model 3 with virtually any of the other major brand’s comparable contributions. One isn’t yet on the market but is already racking up orders, the rest are practically languishing in virtual anonymity. When innovation is rooted in technology – not desire, it’s no wonder they’re not speaking to markets.
So, how do you create the desire?
It’s my belief, that before anything else, automakers must make sure innovation is relentlessly on-brand. That’s how you get buy-in that drives real change. In essence, whatever made people love you in the first place, make sure every innovation is rooted there and make it mean something to them. Satisfy the user's needs for ease of use, personalisation, efficiency and convenience, and demand will make the final push to our new normal – finally answering the industry’s queries about how we get there. The final result: a driverless journey served up in a familiar and authentic experience.
What do you think? Will brand get us there quicker? Or should I have saved this post for 2025?
Aero Model Build Coordinator - Driving Performance and Aero Test Team at Honda Auto Development Center
8 年Better driver education, licensing and therefore awareness would be a good solution. Operating systems get updated all to often, sometimes several times a month. Driver education .....not so much. I advocate better education and testing at the root of the driving problem. Human operation of the machine.
Aero Model Build Coordinator - Driving Performance and Aero Test Team at Honda Auto Development Center
8 年Daniel, to your question "Who is solving the problem of increasing amount of deaths in vehicles because of driver distraction and human error?" The same ones profiting from that driving distraction.
Freelance Senior UX Designer
8 年But we already have a number of autonomous vehicles, the oldest ones are trains, ships and planes. And we also already have the low-tech version of the autonomous car and it is called Uber. When talking about autonomous "cars", I don′t think we are talking about cars anymore, but about public transport. You can′t have fully autonomous vehicles without a closed, heavily secured and advanced infrastructure. Autonomous isn′t really a "feature" of a single car, it is a feature of transport infrastructure. So the real question is how do we get to that next-level highway? Is Mercedes Benz going to invest into that wireless networked highway we need in order to enable autonomus drive? Or is that going to be Germany? Can purchases of cars and market behavior of end-users really influence this kinds of infrastructure investments? Who is solving the problem of increasing amount of deaths in vehicles because of driver distraction and human error?
Senior Design Strategist at Accenture Song Design - Assistant Lecturer at University of Applied Sciences Munich
8 年The concept of selling autonomous cars in the same volumes as conventional ones is not leading anywhere IMO. On globalized scale, we can already contemplate the problems of one-product-per-consumer markets - urban traffic and productlifecycles only being the most obvious ones. I do agree though, that ultra on-brand business cases are the doorway into a future comprised of reasonable means of mobility services. These might not necessarily reflect the core values of existing brands (think of performance and driving dynamics versus technological leeway in sensor tech and computation that might limit these products at first). However this should be considered a chance - i do feel that autonomous drive right now is not pragmatically and feasibly portrayed in industry concepts - because it is only "applied" to existing interpretations of the "car" experience. OEMs will have to step out of their set-in-stone corporate comfort zones, otherwise their customers will die away or become smarter quicker than they might be able to capitalize on them. What i think is necessary in the industry is a very basic re-evalutaion of their mobilityproducts on a sociocultural scale, rather than another point on the already endless spec sheets. And then we can start to create meaningful productvalue with the technological opportunities of autonomous drive that reciprocate in their cultural contexts - be it sharing services, driverless cars or just beautiful kickass driving machines that you buy for the dough you earned during the week.