IIC Journal of Innovation | Page 92

More Horsepower with the Click of a Download 1. ABSTRACT Connected cars, in combination with the rise of electrical propulsion and autonomous driving, is a tectonic shift which will impact the way electrical and electronic systems (E/E) in cars are designed. It will change business models and will be reflected down into the organizational structure of car manufacturers. Imagine the following scenario: You park your car in the garage and go to bed, just to discover in the morning that your car suddenly has 50 more “horses” under the hood; without ever going to a dealership or garage, simply by an over-the-air (OTA) update – basically the same mechanism we recognize from our Smartphones. What sounded like science fiction a few years ago will be reality in almost every new car very soon. Digitization will affect everyone and every industry, especially the automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEM) – as vehicle manufacturers like to call themselves. Apart from Tesla Motors who have pioneered this technology already, all other automotive companies still have to adjust to this customer-centric approach, in which the car is defined through software rather than physical attributes. A prominent example is the Autopilot1 feature which appeared overnight in all Tesla’s Model S cars built after October 2014. For some car owners, a new download while at home sleeping instead of going to a dealer is a very impressive leap forward in customer service, vehicle maintenance, and car owner convenience. Improving a car over time is a challenge for most automotive companies. Now it is not only about giving cars new features and functions via OTA updates, but the same holds true for software bug fixes. Some may ask why Smartphones are not used as the general interface to their car, and in fact some cars feature a Smartphone application (app) to perform certain functions such as switching on the air-conditioning (HVAC) or locking and unlocking the car. One key problem is that the car will still have to work, even when the owner has forgotten the Smartphone at home. Therefore, the main computer with its