Trends & Opportunities: In-Vehicle Connectivity and Infotainment

Sasken hosted its first Automotive Customer Advisory Council Meeting this November. The event was planned and executed, based on Sasken’s aim to build a strong networking platform, discuss related market and technology trends and learn from each other’s vast experience. The council was represented by various leading organizations in the automotive ecosystem.

The Automotive Customer Advisory Council (CAC) Meeting aims to connect people in the industry and share ideas and experiences on how all stakeholders can capitalize and grow in the present and future scenarios. Sasken plans to host Automotive CAC Meets periodically to foster mutual learning which we believe will create value and opportunities to
all in the ecosystem.

Event Theme:  Trends & Opportunities: In-Vehicle Connectivity and Infotainment

The fast paced growth of the automotive industry, coupled with changing in-car consumer needs, is leading to the emergence of new trends. This in turn, presents opportunities in various capacities, for the entire ecosystem.

The following Panelists were present during the event:

• Dr. V Sumantran Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland Ltd.
  
• Mr. Vijay Ratnaparkhe MD, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd.
  Mr. Vinay Shenoy MD, Infineon India
  
• Mr. Ashok Chandak Sr. Director- Global Sales & Marketing, NXP India
  
• Mr. Jayendra Parikh, Executive Director – Advanced Engineering, Ashok Leyland Ltd.

Keynote speakers gave their insights into the industry, trends and opportunities. It was followed by a Panel Discussion where related challenges and opportunities were discussed in depth followed by a Question & Answer session open to the audience.

Read on to find out some key points of discussion…

As the auto industry today is growing at very fast pace, we see that it is embracing a very large value chain, both upstream and downstream.  Today, every one out of six jobs touches the automotive industry in some way.

Here are some of the key trends, opportunities and challenges that emerged out of the discussions during the Automotive Customer Advisory Council Meeting.

TRENDS

• A phenomenal explosion of electronic content, leading to increasing complexity, is taking place today. Previously, the value of electronics in any high end vehicle would range from 12% to 15% of the entire cost of the car. This figure has now risen to a whopping 30% to 35% with an average of 66 processors on board
• OEMs are now actively pursuing efficiency through electronic systems, as opposed to mechanical systems that were used earlier. The key advantage is the rise in efficiency by activation of systems ‘on demand’
• A visible increase in the nature of infotainment systems:
  
  • Information o Diagnostic
    
  • Prognostics o Navigation
    
  • Entertainment
    
  • o Control & Service
• Car goes to the Internet: Internet aided applications such as real time traffic updates, streaming media, weather updates are now the norm in most high-end cars. Cars will act as nodes in internet, supplying valuable information about its surrounding conditions
• The commoditization of electronics: Sophisticated software is increasingly becoming the differentiator. Costs are being lowered; and this is enabled to a large extent by the use of refined software

OPPORTUNITIES

• Non automotive entities can now tap into the rapidly growing market: Providing software  has evolved into an integral part of the automotive space. This goes to say that non-automotive entities have exciting opportunities to enter the automotive ecosystem
• The Car as a platform: The car becoming a platform, similar to trends in the consumer electronics industry, opens up markets and opportunities for various applications
• Change in demographics and therefore opportunities in the low cost segments: The Asia Pacific is a major automotive market today – which means, costs are also being altered / lowered to suit the consumers in specific geographies and demographics, a direct translation to opportunities in the low cost segment

CHALLENGES

• Increase in warranty costs: With the growing complexity in electronics, OEMs are now facing more warranty issues which sometimes tarnish their reputation
• Cost myth: OEMs have realized that the only way to reduce costs is by improving the technology. This requires new players who can demolish old ideas of the relationship between value and price
• Increasing incongruence of product lifecycles between the automotive and consumer electronics indurtries: Automotive OEMs are now forced to adopt and keep pace with the rapidly growing consumer electronics which operate in a different time scale
• Security: When cars are opened up as platforms and accept applications from external sources, it poses a noticeable threat. This threat can be dealt with, by partitioning the ‘platform’ into one segment which cannot be tampered with, while opening up the other for external feeds

If your organization would like to take part in out next Automotive Customer Advisory Council Meet, please contact

Nimish Cherian
+91 80 3981 3321 nimish.cherian@sasken.com