engineering – Silicon Valley Mobility

SAE The Mobility Frontier – Is the EV industry moving too fast too soon?

Posted on May 22, 2024May 31, 2024 by SiliconValleyMobility

Recently, I had a great discussion with Brian Kozumplik on the state of electric vehicles. Hosted by Monica Nogueira of SAE International, we delved into whether the industry has moved to zero-emission vehicles too fast given that charging problems are common place now and consumers seem to fear charge anxiety more than range anxiety, which was a common phenomenon in the early 2010s when the first EVs hit our roads.

Other questions we discussed were around use cases and if there is something like the “perfect” electric vehicle – whether that may be BEV, HEV, PHEV, FEV, or else.

SAE really seemed to like this line from me: “… mobility, in my view, includes the whole ecosystem – we are not done when the vehicle is ready, we are done when the whole ecosystem is ready. This will require a whole lot of infrastructure and that’s what we need to figure out. Otherwise, the great vehicle remains in the garage and there’s nowhere to go because the infrastructure is not ready…”

You can watch the recording through the link here on the right.

Discussion at SAE International WCX Knowledge Bar – SDV and more

Posted on May 9, 2024 by SiliconValleyMobility

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.

Interview: Two approaches to mobility engineering

Posted on April 11, 2024April 25, 2024 by SiliconValleyMobility

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.

ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Tech Conference

Posted on September 13, 2023September 13, 2023 by SiliconValleyMobility

I look forward to my participation in the ADAS & AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY EXPO, California in Santa Clara on Sep 20-21, 2023.

There’s a lot to see – of course – and I hope you will be able to support me in at least one of my engagements:

Wed, Sep 20, I’ll be chairing the opening session “Strategies, innovations and requirements for the safe deployment of ADAS and autonomous technologies” with talks from experts at CEVT, ZF Group, Torc Robotics, Zenseact, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, Parasoft, Waymo
Thu, Sep 21, I’ll be giving my talk “Communication of automated vehicles with other road users”, which summarizes a report I wrote at SAE International not too long ago.

I hope to see you there…

Advisory Role at RemotiveLabs

Posted on September 8, 2023September 13, 2023 by SiliconValleyMobility

Forbes just published a great article about RemotiveLabs, the startup that I am advising in Sweden, is up to. A few highlights:

Goal is to speed up the automotive development process by staying in the virtual world longer and committing to hardware later
RemotiveLabs is a leader in virtualizing on-board systems and bring the entire communication architecture to the cloud
RemotiveCloud was just launched, an extension of RemotiveBroker, the core of the software development platform
RemotiveCloud provides the environment for a vehicle’s entire software and electronics systems to be created collaboratively
Volvo Cars began working with Remotive three years ago and will make use of RemotiveCloud

I’d say this helps the development process a great deal, especially in context of the software defined vehicle.

For further info, reach out to me or directly to the founders Per Sigurdson and Aleksandar Filipov.

Book event at the Stanford Research Park – April 13, 2023

Posted on March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by SiliconValleyMobility

Mark your calendars – we are having a networking event to discuss my book The Mobility Diaries on April 13, 5pm at Stanford Research Park. This is an in-person event open to the public.

Here’s the program (or visit event page):
5:00 Reception, early guests will get a free book
5:30 “The Mobility Diaries” – A conversation with Dr. Sven Beiker
6:15 Book signing and networking

The Mobility Diaries, published by SAE International, tell my view of how autonomous, connected, electric, and shared vehicles have come about. Now I look forward to a good discussion and am eager to get your take on the matter.

Registration is now open at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-event-with-dr-sven-beiker-tickets-575687134717

See you there!

Click here to register for the event on Apr 13

SAE International Blog about The Mobility Diaries

Posted on February 22, 2023March 14, 2023 by SiliconValleyMobility

Thank you SAE International for blogging about my new book, The Mobility Diaries: https://www.sae.org/blog/meet-the-author-sven-beiker

It summarizes the interview we did not too long ago when I shared how the idea for the book came about, why it is important to me to connect the past – present – future of mobility, and how Detroit and Silicon Valley need one another.

Read more in the blog, or better yet, buy the book!
http://themobilitydiaries.com

The Mobility Diaries – Podcast Interview with the SAE Publishers

Posted on October 12, 2022March 14, 2023 by SiliconValleyMobility

Meet the Author: The Mobility Diaries: Connecting the Milestones of Innovation Leading to ACES

Watch the Sep 2022 interview featuring Shane Bialowas, Angela Kenner, and & Sven Beiker, discussing his new book. In The Mobility Diaries he opens up his personal diary regarding his take on 50 years of mobility innovation and history interwoven with his experiences in the automotive and mobility industries including autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility.

New book coming out – Meet the Author event with SAE Publishers

Posted on September 16, 2022September 20, 2022 by SiliconValleyMobility

So we are getting real: My book “The Mobility Diaries” is now finally coming out. Join us on September 21 for a “Meet the Author” online session hosted by SAE International, my publisher.

Here’s a bit more about the book:
Sven Beiker is specializing in future trends for the automotive and mobility industries including autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility. In “The Mobility Diaries: Connecting the Milestones of Innovation Leading to ACES”, he opens up his personal diary regarding his take on 50 years of mobility innovation and history interwoven with his experiences from 1978 to 2018.

From the Foreword by Reilly Brennan: “Understanding how transportation itself evolved requires a unique prism. The core components of vehicles today have stories and engineering journeys worth their own telling, and that is what is so exciting about the way we can learn about them in this text. Dr. Beiker’s curriculum vitae, from BMW to Stanford University to McKinsey, are a compendium of experiences that created this unique historical and biographical book.”

“Sven and I are kindred spirits in the mobility world. His view on the evolution of mobility and technology illustrates why Detroit and Silicon Valley need one another.” Carla Bailo, Former President and CEO, Center for Automotive Research

The book can be purchased at SAE International right away and soon everywhere where you can buy books.

Click here to register for the webcast on Sep 2 1

Smart Sensors – Interview with Sensors Converge

Posted on September 1, 2022September 1, 2022 by SiliconValleyMobility

This was already in June but it still makes for a good discussion of smart sensors: my interview at the Sensors Converge 2022.

People are putting more and more intelligence into sensors – which we call smart sensors. Traditionally, sensors used to be a device to measure exactly one thing. But now much more intelligence is going into it and it’s going to become more and more miniaturized, which is pretty incredible. They are talking about what used to be a system on a chip (SOC) is now a system in a sensor…

The Software Defined Car | Silicon Valley Engineering Notes (SVEN) 12/2021

Posted on December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 by SiliconValleyMobility

The perfection of hardware, software, and smartness

Some often-made statements say that mechanical hardware engineering does not matter much anymore in automobiles as those will be defined by software. But is it really as simple as that?

Well, I don’t want to rescue a dinosaur, but to put things right, it requires an integration of soft- AND hardware to figure out future mobility with autonomous, electric, and smart vehicles. Software arguably is at the beginning of a chain of commands to control a vehicle, but ultimately things get in motion through hardware.

This is reflected in the activity related to in-wheel motors or corner modules that keep an automobiles hardware basic but smart. One needs to be aware that tires, weight distribution, suspension, aerodynamics matter a lot and determine where and how a vehicle is moving.

Therefore, mechanical hardware might not get more and more sophisticated but will still matter a lot and needs to be accounted for to make sure software controls work out as intended.

Let me know what you think, I’d be happy to discuss further…

Say hello to the Silicon Valley Engineering Notes – SVEN!

Posted on September 22, 2021October 16, 2021 by SiliconValleyMobility

This is my new series in which I’d like to bring the new and the old together to drive ACES forward. I start off by laying out the foundations for how AV development, AI, etc. need to work together with traditional automotive engineering. I am sure we can all learn something here…

Everybody knows by now that the future of mobility is going to be autonomous, connected, electric, and shared: “ACES”. It is just taking longer than most expected and often we find challenges in between the new and the old. This new series will discuss, among other things, critical aspects at the intersection of autonomous technology and automotive engineering.

The insights will help to understand how a vehicle moves based on steering, braking, accelerator, which is the essential foundation for whatever software, AI, platform one wants to envision on top of it. This knowledge helps software engineers to develop their algorithms as much as it helps decisionmakers to gain an overall system’s perspective.