What trends are setting the tone for automotive manufacturing today, and what is in store for innovation in the industry? In this article, we will try to analyze these issues, as well as understand how innovations and international cooperation are connected.
Table of Contents
Electric Cars
Even people far from the world of cars have already heard about the brainchild of Elon Musk – the Tesla electric car. Of course, this is far from the only car model that runs on electricity, but its example is indicative because everyone knows about Tesla: it breaks records of mentions and even managed to visit orbit.
However, before purchasing an electric vehicle, you should remember to check its history. You can track vehicle information with its VIN code using special services, such as Faxvin or special mobile applications.
Self-driving Cars
Previously, predictions about cars that drive without a driver were made by a lot of science fiction writers. Today it is a reality. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2035, 25% of cars would be autonomous: 15% of them partially, and 10% completely. Even today unmanned vehicles are already driving around the streets in many cities around the world. You can check this feature in these models:
- Tesla Model S.
- Ford F-150 (And Mustang Mach-E)
- BMW iX
Legal issues have not yet been fully resolved, because there is simply no regulatory and legislative framework regarding cars without a driver in any country in the world – at least in its final form. In addition, advances in the creation of drones directly depend on the cooperation of automakers with technology suppliers and developers of machine learning systems.
Program Control
On-board computers have been present in cars for many years, but only in recent years have auto giants begun to introduce security systems into their models with constant monitoring of the operation of each unit, from the multimedia system to the brakes.
According to Counterpoint Research, by 2022, 90% of vehicles will be able to connect to 4G LTE mobile networks – this will ensure the introduction of telemetry and the ability to continuously transmit data on the status of all nodes online to the manufacturer and make it possible to quickly assist on the road. In any case, for now it’s possible only for the owners of expensive supercars.
State of the Industry
Today’s automaker is becoming more like a system integrator than a manufacturer in the classic sense of the word. Imagine – from one supplier, metal is purchased, from the second – batteries, from the third – rubber tires, from the fourth – an electrician, and the fifth develops software.
Under such conditions, with such a significant number of components and component suppliers, it becomes difficult to talk about innovation in the automotive industry at all – or at least about the rapid growth in this area.
Largely because of this, the development strategies of the automotive industry, adopted in various countries, set as their main goal the localization of production. As far as this is possible, it is not entirely clear now, only one thing is clear – an emphasis on innovation, albeit a slow one, is necessary, otherwise, the automaker has every chance of staying on the sidelines of the race with competitors.
