The Curious CASE of Automotive Reinvention
“We can’t change the wind, but we can set the sails differently.” — Aristotle
Humans have known for years that overconsumption of depletable resources such as fossil fuels and persistent toxic emissions into the atmosphere are driving climate change. So, we did something remarkable.
We sat down and pondered on how we can eliminate these processes or at least abate their ill-effects. This is when we diverged towards the path of sustainable living.
Today, world leaders claim that the Sustainability Revolution is poised to be the third most significant social and economic reform in human history — following the Neolithic and Industrial Revolutions.
The ripple effect of the Sustainability Revolution is conspicuous in the automotive industry too.
CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric) is the current buzzword in the industry, resonating across automotive stakeholder conversations and trade show venues.
Vehicles are rapidly evolving from simply a ‘mode of transportation’ to ‘advanced digital experience platforms’. In the rush to woo customers and ensure loyalty, auto manufacturers have embraced sustainable technologies that provide seamless driving experiences to users.
And the adoption of CASE models leads the way for this change.
Connected and secure future
Modern vehicles are increasingly fortified with electronics and software components. This is the era of Vehicle to Everything (V2X) connectivity — where the vehicle can communicate bidirectionally with connected systems on the outside.
Now imagine yourself in a high-end connected car. The technology within the vehicle can enhance your driving experience by streaming informative podcasts, playing your favourite music from your phone playlist, providing you weather and real-time traffic updates, assisting you to navigate to your destination, and more.
A connected car is similar to a computer on the internet, with exposed interfaces like braking system, steering system, In-Vehicle Infotainment, etc.
So, are you safe in your connected car?
Of course, you are! Cybersecurity standards have been established in the industry to protect connected vehicles and make cybersecurity compliance a part of the automotive hardware and software development life cycles.
Connected vehicle technology can aid in reducing environmental impact and carbon footprint. For example, automotive predictive maintenance solutions keep track of the vehicle’s health and alerts the owner of impending issues. This helps them to take precautions even before the issue occurs.
In the long term, this helps in minimizing damages to the vehicle and reduces consumption of new vehicle parts.
Connected vehicle tech also provides real-time navigation assistance to find the most optimum route for a journey and warns of potential hazards due to weather conditions. This aids the driver in steering clear of traffic bottlenecks and helps in improving overall fuel efficiency.
That’s not all; today, driver monitoring apps are integrated with the electronics in connected vehicles. These apps help in detecting driver distraction and sends alerts to ensure that the driver stays focused on the road. Driver monitoring apps are crucial in preventing accidents and ensuring road safety.
Autonomous vehicles: Are we there yet?
We are already seeing partial automation in modern vehicles. In partial automation, the vehicle can steer or accelerate independently, but the driver must be engaged at all times.
Let’s consider the example of the latest models of Tesla with their Autopilot system that provide advanced safety and convenience features.
Tesla’s Autopilot enables the vehicle to accelerate, brake and steer automatically within the same lane. The navigate feature on Autopilot can also suggest lane changes or automatically steer the vehicle towards exits. All this is made possible through advanced sensors and powerful onboard processors.
Sensors include cameras covering 360 degrees of visibility and significant range. Powerful vision processing modules based on machine learning (deep neural network) are also embedded in the vehicle electronics to translate sensor data into actionable insights.
So, how will autonomous vehicle (AV) contribute towards sustainable mobility?
Imagine a scenario where transport authorities proactively adopt AVs in fleets to compete with existing public transport and shared mobility services.
This setup will be a promising alternative to individual ownership of vehicles. Since the vehicles are driverless, people with health-related mobility concerns can access key services easily. AV fleets would operate seamlessly and also present lower operational costs to the service provider, due to absence of drivers.
Most of the autonomous cars being test driven today are electric vehicles. Hence, AV adoption in fleets leads to better air quality and improved energy efficiency.
One of the biggest advantages of driverless vehicles is that they help in improving road safety, as there will be fewer accidents from human errors or driver fatigue.
Shared mobility for a shared planet
Shared mobility has opened doors to an offbeat mobility revolution. The modern consumer’s inclination towards a “NO-ownership” lifestyle and growing preference for Pay-per-use mobility service models have led to the popularity of shared mobility.
The bouquet of benefits offered by this form of transportation includes lowered CO2 emissions and free-up of public areas as there is decreased demand for parking spaces.
Above all, shared mobility has shown us that personal cars need not only be cherished as tokens of luxury; instead, we are now increasingly valuing them for their primary function, i.e., as a mode of transportation from point A to B.
Electric vehicles charting electrifying growth
Over the last 10–15 years, the unabated rise in pollution and the desire to reduce dependency on imported fuel has urged governments around the world to endorse vehicles powered by electric motors.
In Europe, countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, and Iceland are leaders in EV adoption. China has also been at the forefront in promoting EVs by offering incentives to EV buyers and automotive OEMs alike.
So, why are electric vehicles better for the environment?
Here are the top 3 reasons:
- To start with, the tailpipe emission in EVs is actually zero! This is in stark contrast to internal combustion engine vehicles that produce a large amount of harmful carbon emissions.
- There is word going around that EV battery manufacturing is harmful to the environment. This was the case when batteries were manufactured irresponsibly. However, this has begun to change in recent years. EV manufacturers are actively setting guidelines so that battery suppliers use only renewable energy sources during production.
- Some electric charging stations are powered by fossil fuels like coal. In spite of this, they still produce lower emissions overall.
Although EV technology has improved phenomenally over the last few years, consumers in several countries are not fully on-board with this concept. This is primarily due to concerns regarding charging infrastructure, charging time and driving range.
The advent of new EV battery technology and charging solutions counter these perceptions and are helping to instil more confidence in electromobility.
Governments in countries like UK, Norway, Hungary, China, India and Canada are providing green number plates for electric cars to spread awareness on green driving.
As an electric vehicle owner, you can proudly display your green “badge of honour” on the roads. This differentiation is beneficial for government authorities as well. It helps the authorities to understand the extent of EV usage in specific areas and come up with new policies or incentives to promote EV adoption.
Final Thoughts
Cars are becoming far more defined by their embedded electronics, than anything else. And recent mobility trends such as car sharing and urban planning (to incorporate EV charging stations) have introduced a new paradigm of sustainable travel.
However, there is a long way to go before these revolutionary mobility models become mainstream due to their affordability and consumer advocacy across geographies.
