You gotta love the way buzzwords and jargon spread like a Californian wildfire around the auto industry. I’d heard ‘the Internet of Things’ mentioned with ever-growing frequency in the months before hearing it in almost every presentation during my fascinating, week-long look at the [buzzwords alert] Connected Car sector in Ontario late last year.
Our interview this week with Rainer Kallenbach, chairman of the executive board of Bosch Software Innovations, reminded me of the term, and use thereof, and provides a good look at how this major auto supplier views the Internet of Things (IoT) and what it needs to do to stay ahead.
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Autonomous driving and cyber security are neither a million miles away nor unconnected with both connected cars and the IoT so let me cue up Magna’s CTO on the subject; another good interview well worth a read this weekend.
Aside from our interviews of top supplier industry players, I’ve been over in Munich this week for BMW’s annual financials press conference which always offers at least one post-event ‘show and tell’ and I’ll have a feature-length article on some clever assembly line worker-aid developments to share with you soon. For now, we have news of the German premium automaker’s new NUMBER ONE>NEXT strategy aimed at setting new standards for connectivity and automated driving, plus plans for M7s, a premium X7 SUV and, as you probably already heard, a new Rolls-Royce premium SUV on a new platform. Plus, to follow up our preview report on the record 2015 results, BMW, at the AGM, announced its 2016 forecasts as well. All going to plan, prepare for more records to fall this year.
Finally having some Europe-suitable products to sell us, Nissan’s Infiniti has been making a bit of noise hereabouts lately, notably launching the British-built Q30 luxury hatchback assembled at Sunderland. So, a good time for us to ask: Will Q30 finally establish Infiniti as a premium success?
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
