When it comes to chips, automakers are all-in. That is, the silicon variety and not those with which you can gamble away a fortune, something auto companies are loathe to do. Traditionally, the risks auto manufacturers undertake are carefully calculated and always rooted in the world of profit and market share. As they look to the future, their chips are increasingly riding on ‘green’ and ‘connectivity.’
Key to this is Silicon Valley, which for decades has been synonymous with the high tech world of consumer electronics, encompassing everything from computers and cellphones to software and apps. Today this storied list has expanded in important and unexpected ways to include technology that’s at the heart of the auto industry’s future. It’s here that auto manufacturers have forged strategic alliances with Silicon Valley icons like Google and Apple, plus noted tech companies like NVIDIA and an array of Silicon Valley start-ups that promise to bring new and exciting functionality to our vehicles.
Striking alliances with tech companies is an important direction for an industry that has been entrenched in its own world for well over a century. It’s so important, in fact, that many auto manufacturers have gone beyond just alliances, establishing dedicated research and development centers in Silicon Valley to tap the undeniable expertise here. We have seen surprising moves in recent times, like Toyota’s short-lived alliance with Tesla to develop the excellent, though quite expensive, battery electric RAV4 crossover a few years back. Sometimes things work out, sometimes not. But ventures like this are important to the journey as a future unfolds that will certainly find advanced electronics playing a major role in the cars we drive, or perhaps, to cars that drive themselves.
This is happening already with an increasingly sophisticated array of on-board electronics incorporated into new car models. As you might expect, much of this is showing up in higher-end vehicles first as technology costs are absorbed into the price of aspirational vehicles already expected to command a higher point of entry. As technology costs decrease, advanced systems like these tend to move down-market to more affordable vehicles. We’re already seeing this happening in real time.
In addition to the on-board systems we tend to take for granted today – such as navigation, back-up display, satellite radio, and Bluetooth cellphone integration – there’s a new generation of sought-after features that use a vehicle’s integrated cameras and sensors to perform wondrous tasks. Adaptive cruise control that automatically maintains a safe distance from the car ahead is one of these.
Beyond that is the latest generation of such systems with a stop-and-go function capable of automating the boring task of driving in urban gridlock. Lane minder systems that warn if you stray outside your lane are being enhanced with automated features that nudge you back where you belong. Automated parking is yet another popular feature in electronics-rich models. This is just the start as technologies like pedestrian avoidance systems make their way into new models, plus technology that automatically brakes or slows your car at intersections if another vehicle comes into your path.
All this is coming together to make our vehicles more fuel efficient, convenient, and safer as we drive toward a more connected future. Strap in because big changes are ahead.
Ford aims to have one of the largest automotive research teams in Silicon Valley with the establishment of its Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto, California. The center’s focus is to accelerate development of technologies and experiments in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience, and big data…in other words, the touchstones that may well define the future of personal transportation. As part of its activities, Ford has formed a research alliance with Stanford and will be delivering a Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle to university engineers for next-phase testing.
The new center expands the automaker’s global network of research and innovation centers that include its center in Dearborn, Michigan that focuses on advanced electronics, human-machine interface, materials science, big data, and analytics; plus its Aachen, Germany-based facility that focuses on next-generation powertrain research, driver-assist technologies, and active safety systems.
What does Silicon Valley, California have in common with Leipzig, Germany? They are both home to the most innovative, technically advanced, and possibly the most significant cars of the 21st century. The Tesla Model S and the BMW i3 are the cars that have defied experts who said they couldn't be built. While the key innovations for each of these cars are different, the innovative spirit is the same.
With the Model S, Tesla created a breakout electric car out of mostly existing technology. What Tesla did better than other new entrant was put it together, what Silicon Valley calls ‘systems integration,’ into a remarkable package. With obsessive attention to detail and high standards for performance and styling, Elon Musk has emerged as the Steve Jobs of the auto industry and proven countless naysayers wrong.
With the i3, BMW created an affordable car out of an innovative material, carbon fiber, or technically speaking, ‘carbon fiber reinforced plastic.’ BMW has found a way to apply its manufacturing know-how to bring what was once an exotic material for supercars and fighter jets to an everyday car. Driven to not make just a ‘me too’ electric car, Ulrich Kranz, the father of the i3, has created a breakthrough car that, like the Model S, is receiving enthusiastic reviews from auto critics for its performance.
In the 20th century, the automobile shaped the world. In the 21st century, the world will shape the automobile. Today’s cars are a major source of urban air pollution, global warming emissions, and oil dependency.
Fortunately, there are those in the auto industry – like Mr. Musk and Dr. Kranz – who understand it doesn’t have to be this way. Technology innovation combined with visionary leadership can reinvent the automobile. Tesla’s Model S and BMW’s i3 prove that being more in balance with today’s global realities does not mean sacrificing what makes the auto industry great.
