Harman, a Samsung Electronics-owned unit, used the 2020 CES to reveal a network of cloud-based applications and services to provide a tailor-made connected vehicle experience. To learn more, we caught up with David Slump, President Connected Service Division, Harman.
Last year at CES, the message from Harman was 'forget RPM, think EPM' (Experience Per Mile). We understand that Harman has taken that EPM further and developed technology bundles. Could you tell us the headline message that you would like to put out here at the CES?
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Yes, you're absolutely right, the move from what we call the RPM to EPM (experience per mile) is the focus. We started last year, and we've taken it to the next level. We really want to focus on the consumer insights and design-led, and let technology solve the issues that consumers face within their mobility. I think for me one of the inspirations was in our consumer business. A decade ago, people would go to the Best Buy or MediaMarkt and they would get an AVR, and every year there would be more features and you would see them side by side, but you were only using probably 20 per cent of the features in it. Then finally simpler solutions, wireless solutions came out, and nobody would think to buy an AVR today.
That parallelism is a lot like a car. Five years ago, you would come to CES and it was all about more technology in the car [but] not one discussion around consumer benefit or use case. So, that's the whole premise and goal behind EPM, and the bundles that we are demonstrating this week on different use cases where we bring all of Harman's collective technologies to bear.
Looking around the CES this week, it seems like almost everything is now connected to everything else including the cars. What is your vision of the connected car?
I think you're spot on, so more things connected, 5G will be an enabler for that but, as you said, what's the benefit of being connected? That's where the cloud and hyper-personalisation and applications really make your journey either entertaining or productive or social, but in a very driver-centric safe way, and that's what we are excited by in that marketplace.
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By GlobalDataWhat opportunities do virtual personal assistants (VPA) open up for Harman?
Huge. I think voice is the most natural safe way to interact with your car instead of pushing buttons and reaching and looking at screens. But the car brings a unique voice experience because no OEM wants to be relying on one VPA, so we have to be able to integrate. You might be an Alexa fan, your wife might be a Google fan, and you get in the car and you have different phones, so the whole interoperability of voice in the car is the problem we have tried to solve.
We are hearing a lot about how the accessibility of connected technologies like 5G, IoT, Augmented Reality, OTA and AI is increasing rapidly. What is Harman doing to make these digital experience seamless?
I think by seamless, the best use case you're probably thinking of is you're talking to Alexa in the home and you're talking about a journey and a destination, and you get in the car and you want a seamless hand-off. That's one enabler of the cloud because with APIs [Application Programming Interface] in different clouds you can hang things on. We are demonstrating here for the sales force in the car; it is a great example of seamless connectivity.
Security within the connected car continues to cause debate. How is Harman addressing this security risk? So I'm thinking along the lines of the Harman Shield. Cloud monitoring. Real-time updates with the latest security recommendations.
Correct. I think you have to just back up and start with designing in security. What you don't see is all the work that goes into architecting the system, how the chips are selected, how the supply chain is set up and the software architecture of the car itself. We have a whole software security team that is just focused on design and quality, that's the first step. But the minute a car rolls that stuff is basically out of date, so the network intrusion detection you see in Shield and over-the-air update, that allows, once the detection is done, what patches need to be done, how does OTA update those patches, so that there is a continuous evolving thing, just like virus detection on your laptop.
We understand that Harman has been partnering with NXP since 2017. Could you give us an idea what this partnership has produced so far?
I used to run our supply chain, so I know NXP very well. One of the biggest areas of what you see here is in tuners. Harman's tuner technology in cars and how particularly in Europe with DAB we can handle that is very unique, and that's because of our partnership and innovation where it maps with NXP. That's one example where we just don't treat them as a supplier, we look at each other's roadmaps and we really design in the best solutions.
Are you scouting for start-ups at this event? If so, in what areas?
That's a great question. At the end of the event I'll get a scouting report from the team that's out scouting. I used to run M&A for the company, so scouting should be purposeful – where are our gaps in our portfolio? I think IP in the ADAS stack is one that I'm interested in, for example. A simple analogy would be in traditional infotainment, the bill of material to bill of licence ratio is like 90/10, and the licences were like Dolby and some other things. In ADAS it's 50/50, there are so many software stacks, so if I can insource that and find technology that interests me, that would be an example.
What's that X-factor that you look for in a start up?
Two things: you need technology and a team. It's both, because if you have the technology and the team and lack of cultural fit, it's not worth the deal. So you've got have both.
What's next for Harman on the connected services front?
You actually opened up with it when you said, 'You just finished with the Vision Next demo.' The Vision Next is really the enabler because that's going to transform today the OEMs thinking all car plus cloud; with Vision Next, it's all cloud plus car, then client. So, Vision Next is really the next thing for services.
David Slump is President, Connected Services at Harman, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. David is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations and financial performance of Harman's Connected Services division, the software and services business focused on automotive, enterprise and digital transformation. David is a member of the Senior Leadership Committee (SLC).
David currently sits on the Engineering College Industrial Advisory Council of his alma mater, Iowa State University. He previously served as the integration leader during the build out of Harman's Connected Services division. From 2013 to 2015, David was co-president of automotive services, in addition to his role as head of global procurement. From 2011 to 2013, David served as executive vice president of corporate development, leading the team responsible for strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and global procurement across Harman. Upon joining the company in 2009, he served as president of the Consumer division.
David is a veteran of 25 years in a variety of senior leadership positions in business development and turnaround, portfolio management, and P&L responsibilities with companies including Toshiba Corporation's subsidiary Landis+Gyr, General Electric (NYSE:GE), ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB) and Exelon Corporation's (NYSE:EXC) subsidiary Commonwealth Edison. David holds an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Iowa State University.
