Broken Record
With summer winding down, one theme dominated headlines around the world for the last two months: record heat. Temperatures from California to Greece reached record highs, with hundreds of millions of people locked in a months-long pattern of extreme temperatures with little relief. In Phoenix alone, residents experienced a mind-boggling and dangerous record of 31 consecutive days with high temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In Asia, the Caribbean, and in Europe, countries faced unprecedented stretches of heat with the Italian region of Sardinia hitting nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Coupled with abnormally dry conditions, hugely popular tourist destinations such as Rhodes and Maui faced massive fires killing hundreds of people and causing billions of dollars worth of damage. It is evident that summer is getting hotter and more dangerous. The question is, what can the auto industry do to speed up efforts to change the vehicle mix and help combat climate change? Great progress has been made in the last 15 years in the development and adoption of both EVs and importantly connected car services. EVs have captured a significant minority of global new car sales, increasing from 4% of new car sales in 2020 to 14% in 2022. .Likewise, according to research done by Smartcar, 91% of all vehicles sold in the United States in 2020 were connected to the internet, bringing advanced features to customers and moving the industry closer to the concept of software defined vehicles. These high-tech advancements were intended not only to improve the customer experience, but also to lessen the automotive industry’s impact on climate change. EVs are projected to phase out ICE powered vehicles, eliminating tailpipe emissions, while connected vehicle software will optimize the user experience and efficiency of vehicles. Despite these efforts however, climate change is not slowing down, and a variety of new problems have arisen that significantly impact the benefit afforded by EVs and advanced connected car technologies. These issues range from vehicle wear, to power grid drain, to rare earth material (REM) shortages. An article published last week by The Drive reported that the tires on Rivian’s R1T and R1S models are wearing out in as few as 6,000 miles. Rivians are notably very heavy and have massively powerful electric motors able to propel the three and a half ton vehicles to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. But the incredible power and weight of these EVs have seemingly left the tires fitted to the vehicles outclassed, creating the potential for an enormous increase in rubber waste and ownership expenses. As EVs become larger, heavier, and faster this problem will only increase, fueling the current environmental crisis and apprehension about EV adoption. In the Sun Belt, the dangerously hot summer conditions caused the need for around the clock air conditioning in spaces across most of the affected states, It was reported by Arizona Public Service that July 14th and 15th each set records for the highest consumer power demand in the state’s history. And Arizona’s power supply runs mostly on natural gas, which while better than coal, still contributes to the pollution of the atmosphere. Higher temperatures caused by climate change require more air conditioning, which in turn creates more pollution. EVs are not responsible for this situation, but their increasing need for power may have long term impacts on states still utilizing fossil fuel power generation methods. So increased demand from consumers to cool their homes and charge their EVs fuels a vicious cycle fueling the climate crisis. All of these issues in conjunction with the exponential growth in chip demand for high-tech vehicles has forced the auto industry to face unexpected and sometimes uncomfortable questions about their collective efforts to combat climate change. The news is not all bad however, as the products and services that are having unintended consequences on the climate may also be able to help solve them. Though costly, measures such as bi-directional charging, where EVs contribute excess power back into a home or the grid could be implemented as a way to shed some of the electrical load caused by extreme weather. A less expensive alternative that is available today is interruptible charging, in which vehicle charging can be remotely controlled and suspended while plugged into home chargers during the hours where electricity demand is at its highest. Another option is smart routing which could bring down the environmental cost of ownership and help offset the climate impact of bringing new technology into vehicles. It is inevitable that EVs will continue to gain market share, and software defined vehicles will become the industry standard. With creative and proactive solutions such as those mentioned above, the automotive industry will be able to more successfully contribute to the struggle against climate change, working to safeguard the world for future generations. All of us in the automotive industry can make a big difference.
AMA at Auto Tech: Detroit 2023
Bridging the long gap between CES 2023 and CES 2024, AutoTech Detroit marks a productive halfway point through the year for the automotive industry to showcase their latest advances and outlooks in automotive technology.
George Ayres moderates a panel discussion on ATSC 3.0 Data Delivery to Automobiles at NAB, Las Vegas
George Ayres moderates a panel discussion on ATSC 3.0 Data Delivery to Automobiles at NAB, Las Vegas
The Weakest Link
This is part two of a three part series on the development of EVs and their supporting infrastructure in the United States. It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In terms of the transition away from internal combustion engines towards electric vehicles, charging stations are the said “weakest link.” As essential as gas stations used by their ICE counterparts, EV charging stations are a fast developing but greatly lagging piece of the EV adoption puzzle in the United States. According to the White House in February, there are currently about 130,000 charging stations across the country which service three million or so EVs. Five years ago, the number was a little over half of that. While growing steadily for the last 10 years, the need for car charging stations is on the cusp of an explosion. The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) actively encourages and incentivizes the mass adoption of both light EVs and medium/heavy duty commercial EVs, which will require significantly more powerful and larger charging stations. If the US is to expect tens of millions of new light EVs, medium duty EVs, and heavy duty EVs to hit the road by 2030, substantial steps need to be taken to make sure that there are enough charging stations to meet the massive demand. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7033500277189233670&li_theme=light The first step will be to provide funding for companies to build the required number of charging stations to meet this demand. S&P Global, a NYC based financial analytics company, estimates that by 2027, the United States will need 1.2 million level 2 chargers and 109,000 level 3 chargers to meet the EV electricity demands. This is a stark increase from current capabilities, and at an estimated need of a 10 to 1 ratio of EVs to charging stations, it will take quite some time to reach these goals. Fortunately however, the Biden administration just this past week announced that over $2.5 billion in funding will be made available to local, city, and county governments for the express purpose of building more EV charging stations and expanding the availability of chargers to underserved areas. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the White House press release that “extending EV charging infrastructure into traditionally underserved areas will ensure that equitable and widespread EV adoption takes hold,” and will ensure “that charging stations more visible and accessible in our communities addresses the concerns many American drivers have when considering making the switch to electric.” So already, steps are being taken in the right direction to meet infrastructure demands. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8836377427900808895&li_theme=light The second step for EV charging will be to fix the chronic reliability issues that plague the current charging network. According to a J.D. Power study and recently reported by Automotive News, between Q1 2021 and Q3 2022, failed charging attempts rose from 15% to 21%, and in the last year, nearly 2 in 5 charging attempts were unsuccessful. If the average American is expecting to be able to rely upon an EV to get them from point A to point B, a near 40% failure rate to “refuel” their car will not be sustainable. Reasons for these failures can include out of service chargers, vandalism, software problems, and payment processing issues. These errors are partially caused by the volume of traffic received by each station, with some stations having nearly no downtime at all because of availability issues. This creates a vicious cycle in which there are not enough charging stations, so the ones that do exist are strained to the point where they break, therefore causing less charging stations to be available overall, and so on. To fix the overall problem, some of the resources dedicated to building the new charging stations need to be used to shore up the already existing charging infrastructure dotting the US. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=9178542192637438259&li_theme=light The EV charging station situation is not optimal or perfect by any means, but when a revolutionary new technology enters the market, there are always bound to be some bumps along the road towards implementation. Continued investment from private companies and at all levels of government will be required to fix the problems outlined above, but fortunately great funding and emphasis is already being put into this widely acknowledged problem. The goal of the US government is to create a seamless transition to EVs in which charging a car has the same level of convenience as filling a car up at a gas station, and by dedicating a combined total of $7.5 billion to doing so, it shows that the necessary funding and support exist to make it a reality. Stay tuned in two weeks for Part 3 of AMA’s story on the development of EV infrastructure in the United States. Learn more about how the AutoMobility Advisors team can help you and your business seize the amazing opportunities to serve the new mobility market. Click on the link below and get in touch, we’d love to talk with you! #evcharginginfrastructure #evcharging #ev #electricvehicles #futuremobility #newmobility #connectedvehicles #digitaltransformation #AutoMobility Advisors
ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Spectrum Webinar Series – No. 2
Automotive use of a Broadcast/Multicast Wireless Network to enhance 4G and 5G Automotive use of a Broadcast/Multicast Wireless Network to enhance 4G and 5G This webinar invites the automotive industry to take advantage of the next generation of IP based (Internet compatible) broadcast spectrum now being implemented at TV stations across the US and other countries (India, Brazil, Jamaica, and Korea). This spectrum has a multicast (one to many) propagation pattern and is transmitted from tall towers, where each tower typically covers a 100-mile diameter region at a time. Because this spectrum is IP based it can be used as a supplement to enhance the efficiencies of 4 and 5G networks. The goal of this three-part webinar series is to start an honest discussion about the benefits and real-world challenges of using ATSC 3.0 broadcast spectrum as a wireless data network to supplement 4 and 5G network data flow to Connected Vehicles. We worked hard to balance our speakers between broadcast and automotive experts so both perspectives will be well represented. Webinar #1 has been completed and can be viewed on demand. Webinar No. 2: Watch on Demand Top 3 Connected Vehicle Applications a Multicast Wireless (ATSC 3.0) Network can make More Efficient 1) Constant RTK geolocation Satellite delivery of centimeter (cm) accurate geolocation to Connected Vehicles requires error correction, often delivered through a LTE or 5G network which can get costly. The blanket coverage of a Broadcast/Multicast network could be much more efficient but what are the practicalities? 2) OTA software updates Broadcast/Multicast could logically be a more cost-effective way to wirelessly deliver OTA firmware and software updates to CVs. What are the challenges of getting hardware needed to make this work? What are the software challenges after that? 3) Infotainment A Broadcast/Multicast data network has the same propagation characteristics as traditional broadcast TV. A single broadcast tower can have a coverage diameter of 100 miles. How can this help in-car entertainment? Learn more and visit www.atsc3advocate.com #automotive #technology #webinar #infrastructure #telecom #media #ev #connectedvehicles #autotech #automobilityadvisors You can subscribe to the AutoMobility Roadmap for free and continue to follow the dynamic and changing automotive mobility world. If you’d like to engage directly with the team at AutoMobility Advisors, contact us or contact us via Linked In. View and Subscribe to the Automobility Roadmap on LinkedIn here.
The Auto Digital Experience Fight Club
George Ayres Automotive | Leader | Sales | Marketing | Mobility | Connected | Electric | Autonomous | Shared | Revenue | Growth 18 articles Ok, what happens when you put all the competitors in a room and tell them to start swinging while simultaneously placing bets to pick the winners (and of course the losers) too? You guessed it, a fight club where it’s everyone for themselves. Makes a good movie perhaps, but does it make for a good way to digitally transform the automotive user experience? Are owners, drivers, riders, and fleets better off with tools that only work in one setting, or vehicle, and not in another? Do you need to put on a new pair of digital driving shoes each time you jump in a different car? Well, currently we are witnessing a sort of fight club mindset within car software experience development. It may get a little bloody, so hang on. First, some boundary, or “ringside ropes” terminology to clarify this discussion. In the battle for the Digital Experience within Automobiles there are many terms, but all eventually come down to the same thing: How the car works when you’re either inside it, or controlling it remotely when outside of it. We can include ideas like “Software-Defined Vehicle” and the in-vehicle “Operating System,” in this mix. And proprietary names like Apple CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto are part of it too. And Amazon Alexa, as a way to control the experience with your voice, is included. And now we can add new names like “Ultifi,” General Motor’s new “end-to-end software platform” that is “designed to unlock new vehicle experiences and connect customers’ digital lives” as their announcement recently said. All of these things are coming together very rapidly, and the gloves have now been taken off all the participants. They used to play nice together, but now it’s getting serious. For decades of course, only the carmakers controlled how the car worked; how you turned the radio on, adjusted the climate control, or how the car collected data. Then they started working with other companies like Verizon and WirelessCar to enable “telematics,” a way to transmit vehicle information to an off-board platform and for the vehicle to receive instructions “over-the-air” or OTA. Then smartphones came along and customers started to complain that if they actually complied with the local highway safety rules, and did not use or talk on their handheld phone while driving, then the car effectively became a black hole for them. They were “off the grid” in terms of data and communication when they were driving. Since nearly everyone now relies on text, email, internet, and voice, to do basically anything, the automakers then needed a way to integrate these phones into the car so they could be used on the move without distraction. So Apple was given access to the vehicle and introduced Carplay, and Google was given access and introduced Android Auto. This was a love/hate relationship for most Auto OEM’s because when they give access, they lose control of the experience. Sometimes they forget of course that customers really LIKE their Apple i-phone experience, and enjoying this in their car as well is a good thing for owner loyalty. Once the door was open and the tech companies had access, they started pushing on it harder. Many Auto OEM’s have now signed up to let them too, and we’ll see if they are taking a punch in the process. At right is a recent listing from Google about the OEM’s that use the Android Automotive O/S. And just this week Apple made a big announcement about the new CarPlay and its ability to “more deeply integrate with a car’s hardware.” Ouch! Here is a view of what they mean. Without leaving the Apple interface you will be able to adjust climate controls, for example, so that you’re not jumping between CarPlay and the vehicle controls, keeping you inside the Apple O/S while you drive. It’s kind of like pushing you up against the ropes and holding you there awhile. From a carmaker point of view, ceding control of the customer experience for actually operating the car must be gut-wrenching. But they have already done it for music and “infotainment” so why not for other functions? But where does Apple stop and the Automaker’s own systems begin? How will GM’s Ultifi, for example, work with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay? What is Ultifi giving up? Who is going to win the fight for control of the experience? It’s a melee today. Below as great chart from my friends at MotorMindz that shows a few good examples of how some Auto OEM’s are betting on winning this fight themselves. Of course for over 100 years automakers have controlled how their cars got built, but once sold, they were done. The only things they needed to worry about was paying for repairs under the warranty. Now they want to control, or at least participate in, how their cars get “operated and updated” by the first, second, and even third owners. Over the “lifetime” of your vehicle, they want to continuously upgade how your car works, help you enjoy improvements in operations and performance (and charge you for this) and generally make a car like a smartphone, with easy to install OTA updates. But what happens when Apple decides they don’t want to make that change to how the climate control gets adjusted, either because they are not ready or because they are not getting paid to do it? Does the Automaker have any recourse to force them? Giving up control has a downside if you are an OEM. Of course, the driver or passenger wants the best experience, so delays in making updates, or incompatibility stemming from a fight for control of the experience, may end up disappointing users, who will remember who’s car worked seamlessly, and who’s didn’t. One of the reasons Apple has been successful across phones, computers, tablets, and even tv’s is
In FOCUS
Will Autonomous Mobility Become Widely Adopted? Recently HALO, an autonomous mobility company launched service in Las Vegas, following a few others with passenger service in this autonomous-friendly state. Companies like Motional, and Argo AI, are rapidly creating the supply if vehicles capable of shuttling you around town without a human driver, making for hopefully a safer, and more private mobility experience. But what about the demand-side of this business? Are people really ready for robo-taxis? Will they put their kids in these cars and have them whisked off to school? Or is this still for the adventurous only? You can subscribe to the AutoMobility Roadmap for free and continue to follow the dynamic and changing automotive mobility world. If you’d like to engage directly with the team at AutoMobility Advisors, contact us or contact us via Linked In. View and Subscribe to the Automobility Roadmap on LinkedIn here.