It is almost three years since Harman International became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. The pair used the most recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to reveal a variety of novel connected car solutions that support their joint mission to become the leader in connectivity and autonomous driving: connecting the lives of people, whether at home, on the go, or together in the car. Continuing our series of interviews at CES, we sat down with Mike Peters, executive vice president and president, Connected Car, Harman to learn more about the company's connected experiences showcase.
Could you tell us the headline message that you would like to put out here at the CES?
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It's all about the end-user experience. Why? Because we are convinced that the end-user is driving the value. It's actually what the end-user is interested in and our B2B customer will be interested in as well. The world is changing, so we need to focus on experiences because this is what the end-user is able and willing to pay for, and this will scale, using technology, not just for the sake of technology, it's just an enabler. I am German and we love technology. But you cannot sell technology. You can sell experiences, and this needs a re-thinking of the industry as well. What I've seen as feedback so far is that the OEMs are willing and understand that this is the key.
I am 25 years in this industry now, and 20 years or 10 years ago the OEM designed and defined what needs to be delivered. Harman has a good track record of system integration and delivering exactly what the OEM wants with our technology, with our culture, with our speed. The world is changing, because the OEM doesn't know anymore, it's asking us now, 'Hey, what do I need five years' from now? What are the right ingredients and the recipes for my success?' The only answer I can have is, 'Focus on the end-user and then you will be successful.' This changed the whole game, even from a process point of view.
I worked for BMW and we love to innovate, we love to put another feature, another function in there, and many people didn't care about that. So, this is changing right now, and that's why concepts like Vision Next, like experience-driven bundling models, are even more interesting. Even if an OEM states, 'Oh no, I am not willing to buy the complete system,' but that is not the point, focusing on the end-user, and this is what I mean, we need to shape our muscles for that. Thinking about the end-user will be the success factor in the future, and that's the headline you are asking for.
While giving instructions in our cars is nothing new, putting questions to the likes of Alexa and Cortana while on the road is. Is this the way things are going? i.e. having more conversations with our cars?
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By GlobalDataSpeech, and especially Cortana, Alexa, AI-enabled it's more than speech, it's a natural, intuitive way to handle complex processes. Speech in a car is, therefore, an intuitive thing. If you think about a complex menu or user interface, speech has the capability to jump right into the function whereas with other modalities you need to have a menu structure and handle multiple steps in order to reach the function you are looking for.
Harman has invested in a number of collaborations and acquisitions in the past few years. Can we expect to see more?
Yes. We are ready to open our system to third party business models as well. No one is interested to link to your system if we cannot have a win/win situation. We now have a triangle between the third party partners – Harman who is enabling this structure and the OEM who is actually benefiting from new functions and innovations. The ecosystem 'Ignite Android' enables that in a flexible manner. This should be beneficial for all those involved.
A while ago, IT in cars was seen as more of an enabler but nowadays viewed as a core element, linking the home and personal devices. What opportunities and challenges does this present Harman?
I actually would rephrase this. A car is more than just a mobility enabler. If you do it in the right way a car could be a marketplace, an enabler for new ways of doing business with your user. If you always think, 'Okay, we are well connected in our work, we are well connected in our spare time, in our home, are we really well connected in the car?' I think there is room for improvement.
I will give you an example. I often fly to Detroit, typically arriving late in the day. On arrival at the airport, I head to the Hertz car rental station. I just unlock the car and drive away. The problem is that I usually arrive tired and my smartphone is not connected to the car. I don't know the car and it doesn't know me. This is really a pain point for me. As a user, I would be ready to pay more to have this experience, i.e. as I am stepping in the car, it's warmed up, it smells like I would like to have it, has the right applications and ecosystem that I am used to. It's really painful to even connect my phone to the car. As a customer, I am ready to pay for this additional experience and value. That's why we are pushing for this.
Can you provide some examples of how you see Artificial Intelligence improving UX in the car?
Yes, so artificial intelligence is the key enabler to have more intuitive and user-friendly interaction. Let's take an example. If you go to a hotel and you are there many times, the concierge who knows you over multiple months and years would serve you much better than a concierge who just joined the company. So, knowing about you and knowing your behaviour and trying to even anticipate your wishes, artificial intelligence is exactly doing that.
If you know your customer – the user – and the data behind it then you can better serve the customer and create a better experience. Look how nice it is if you walk into a restaurant and this guy knows you and knows exactly what you like, what you don't like, which table you like. Hey, come on, this is an experience, and you are ready to spend more money on that, you come back. Artificial intelligence creates this experience in an automated way. That is why it's more than just interacting. It's a user experience. And if the user is happy then they will return.
Mike Peters is executive vice president and president of the Connected Car division at Harman, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Mike oversees the over $3 billion unit, which develops integrated systems encompassing embedded infotainment, telematics, in-car user interfaces and user experience, and technologies supporting safety and autonomous driving, among others. Mike oversees an organization of 8,000 employees, including top technology experts and engineers throughout the world. Mike reports to President and Chief Executive Officer Dinesh Paliwal and is a member of the executive committee.
Mike's career spans over 20 years of experience in engineering and automotive research and development, sales, purchasing and quality assurance functions for OEM, tier-one suppliers and technology companies. Most recently, Mike served as Executive Vice President Global Accounts, where he was responsible for managing Harman's business relationships, strategic planning, account P&L management and customer growth for all significant automotive customers across Connected Car, Car Audio and Connected Services. Mike previously worked with Harman from 2002 to 2007 as vice president of the customer business unit, where he was responsible for managing the core business units of Audi and Volkswagen.
Prior to returning to Harman as executive vice president of global accounts in April 2017, Mike served in a variety of senior management roles at BMW Group in engineering, purchasing and supplier network for electrics, electronics, mechatronics, and driver assistance systems. Prior to that, Mike served as vice president of global sales and portfolio at Continental Automotive, overseeing sophisticated engineering projects.
Mike holds a Dr.-Ing. in digital signal processing from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. Mike also attended Michigan State University and has a degree in communication technology from the Technical School of Mittweida (TH) in Germany.
