The next generation of cars benefit from innovation in wireless, analytics, apps, services, and telecom networks - to name a few. This agenda introduces technologies and companies converging on the connected car segment. Add the MatchMaker Meeting Service to open a dialogue, privately and in person, with members, speakers, and attendees in curated, pre-arranged meetings.
Silicon Valley, California, April 16 2021/Meeting Recap/ The Autotech Council addressed the topic of the Connected Car once again this April. We wanted to check in on the vast progress in the sector, and see what new solutions have been implemented, and what innovations were being offered today.
As always, we kicked off our meeting with a broad view of the topic from an analyst, enjoyed a panel discussion, and then closed with a number of Rapid Fire presentations from innovators and startups presenting on topics including MQTT, OTA, Blockchain, V2X, V2i, Wireless Communication, V2X Security, Telematics, and in-car commerce.
The connected car is in the spotlight this decade. With millions of connected vehicles on our roads already. We've got decades of Commercial Vehicle telematics, and a long history of OnStar from GM in the United States. But what are today's specific trends, and associated products, services, and societal benefits? Well, part of it hinges on new 5G networks, availability of new spectrum, progress in Smart Cities, Edge cloud computing, and AI which, today, can combine and enable a real-time, fully connected or even autonomous car. We will see an explosion of V2V accident avoidance, better flowing traffic, better utilized vehicle resources, telematics, self-driving, and infotainment all leveraging these new levels of connectivity.
Our meeting kicked off with Taylor Leone, Connected Car Specialist at SBD Automotive. Taylor led us through some interesting slides. One take-away is that by connecting the car, we are also merging it with many new sectors (devices, content, telecoms), and in so doing, are also opening up the automotive sector to dozens of new competitors. Many of these new entrants would act as partner, filling in a particular role in the value chain, but others like Apple, could potentially vertically attack the whole value-chain and become a consumer-facing car brand. But for the most part, the upshot is that all the new convergence means a host of new partnerships to build the whole product & UX.
Our Panel's topic was "Connected to What?", asking the question of what the vehicles are connecting with, and why. The panel had representatives from three parts of the new continuum: the car sensor side from LeddarTech, the middleware/Cloud side from Microsoft, and the infrastructure side from Cavnue.
Interestingly, there should be a bi-directional flow of data from the vehicle to a central data lake, and from there to other vehicles and infrastructure, and also a flow from infrastructure to a central data lake to all the vehicles. Pierre took us full circle (as well as startup Derq) by showing how his LIDAR sensors designed for vehicles could be fitted high up at intersections to scan the intersection for objects & people, and let Connected Cars "see" around corners.
We then had a great eight innovation pitches in the connected car space, followed by a case study of a successful Autotech Council alumni Sheeva.AI, who discussed their partnership with Autotech Council Member Hagiwara. From the pair, we learned about better LBS options for vehicles, and also car-based commerce solutions that can make payments easy for vehicle operators, and also enhance security of those transactions.
As usual, we ended the meeting into our "Soft close" where we let attendees "open mic" and ask further questions, and just discuss the topics at hand. Thanks to all who shared and participated to make this meeting a success!
As always, members can review the presentations from today in the Member Library.