I had a great interaction with attendees at the recent SAE International WCX conference when I discussed my forthcoming report “Two Approaches to Mobility Engineering”.

In that, I compare traditional OEMs and new mobility players regarding their respective strengths, weaknesses, and of course ways to collaborate. Some of the highlights from the discussion that SAE captured:
> Newer players are better at simplifying complexity, such as Tesla’s ability to build vehicles with fewer parts. Older automakers are better at managing complexity, such as integrating disparate systems,
> Newer companies are constrained by financial resources and a shortage of available talent. Traditional companies are constrained by existing staff and “this is the way we’ve always done it” thinking and inflexible facilities.
> Newer companies are good at innovation in the name of customer centricity. Incumbents are very good at creating and maintaining processes.

In all of that, we certainly dive quite a bit into software-defined vehicle (SDV) and who might have what it takes to win.

Read the full coverage under the link on the right and let me know what you think.

There’s a good coverage of the interview I gave SAE International in anticipation of my talk at WCX in Detroit on April 16, 2024. We discuss how traditional and new automotive companies are different but also beginning to learn from one another.

In that interview I also point out that established automakers are exceedingly practiced at R&D, design, engineering, manufacturing and distribution, a process that is sometimes overlooked, dismissed, ignored by newcomers.

And I also explain that newcomers are diving headfirst into the digital world, and with software, they can innovate much more quickly because coding something new goes much faster than building new hardware.

Read the article under the link on the right and let me know what you think.