Industry/Media Day, Thurs., Jan. 26 OEM announcements, industry commentators, SAE Conference and the Sneak Peek
Thursday, Jan. 26, Industry/Media Day at the Washington Auto Show (WAS) onsite at the W. E. Washington Convention Center. Automaker press conferences were punctuated by a keynote address by the CEO, president and chairman of HARMAN, the connected car technology company, a government keynoter, the Green Car awards and SAEês Government/ Industry Conference. Capping the day was the Sneak Peek Reception where the Auto Show hosted notables from Congress, the administration, the regulatory agencies and industry for a three hour special tour of the displays.
After the Media Breakfast sponsored by WAPA (Washington Automotive Press Association) and IMPA (International Motor Press Association), WAS show producer John OêDonnnell, introduced the keynote speaker, Dinesh Paliwal, chairman and CEO of HARMAN. As the industry makes cars cool for all ages, said OêDonnell, millennials are going to be able to take their technology and put it in the car.
Paliwal took up the theme in his presentation on humanizing the autonomous car. Cars are indeed cool, and theyêre just about to get even cooler, he said. Among the megatrends transforming the car are smart audio, cockpit convergence, cloud connectivity, artificial intelligence, shared mobility and autonomous driving. Autonomous cars, Paliwal said, will take many years to develop fully.
He talked about the building blocks to autonomy, including an intuitive user interface, effective noise cancellation and, of particular importance, strong cybersecurity and data protection.
Without cybersecurity, we canêt have the autonomous experience, Paliwal said.
The expensive infrastructure for autonomous cars will require public-private partnerships. Successful autonomous mobility overall will require partnerships between government, industry associations, academia, automakers and diverse technology players, said Paliwal. And it will be critical to invest in education.
Spending on research and development of autonomous cars is currently $1.5 trillion and is about to double to $3 trillion, Paliwal said. This is the best time to be in the automobile industry. But what he called the revolution full vehicle autonomy is at least a decade away.
Download Bulletin PDF