Could you please explain your role and experience in the automotive industry?
I am a Field Marketing Manager for the Automotive Business in EMEA for NI. I am doing Field Marketing for 12 years now and have been focusing on various industries and applications that our customers address, when it comes to Testing and Validation of their products. Being based in Germany, I always had a lot of interaction with the Automotive Industry, in the beginning mainly focused on production test of ECUs. With NIs focus on ADAS & autonomous driving, as well as in EV Testing (Battery Validation and Production Test for Cell/Module/Pack as well as Inverter Validation and Production Test and much more) I have a stronger focus on the topics that are very front and center in the automotive industry right now.
How would you say that the automotive industry has developed over the past five years?
Customer buying cars from the OEMs demand better performance of their cars, they have a higher expectation not only in terms of safety and the connected features that their new cars have, but also in terms of environmental sustainability, how are cars moved – Electric vs. Gas – but also where do the materials come from and how where they sourced. Combine this with the supply chain shortages, the shifting work force dynamics, and current geopolitical conflicts – OEMs and Supplier need to make sure they can optimize wherever they can – faster throughput, better cost efficiency, Time to Market as well as faster and better insights.
The industry is being more digitalized and connected. What do you think is required to keep up with this development?
To keep up with this potential, you must understand the full potential that you have in the digitalization that is happening right now. OEMs and Supplier create vast amounts of data during all the tests that they on their products – from Validation all the way to Production Test. This data mostly lies around unused. There is a huge potential taking all this test data, applying the right analytics to draw insights and conclusions that help you optimize your product over its complete lifecycle.
What are the latest trends in the ADAS development?
To ensure safe and reliable vehicles reach the market, the industry needs to account for the almost infinite number of drive scenarios the vehicle may encounter. Whether for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or fully autonomous vehicles (AVs), extensive testing throughout each phase of the product development cycle needs to occur. That requires tools and methodologies that are equipped to meet a variety of customer needs. NI and Foretellix will deliver new integrated solutions to solve those problems by combining Foretellix’s platform which delivers scenario generation, metrics and analysis on the millions of driving scenarios across all testing platforms with NI’s solutions for hardware and software in the loos and ADAS data recording.
Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the next big game changer in the automotive industry?
One of the things I personally am looking forward the most is V2H/V2G (Vehicle to Home/Grid). I might be biased here as I am owning an EV, I drive an ID.3, and have my own solar power on my roof. This will not only make EVs as a technology more interesting to customers, but it will also help us address challenges we are facing today in terms of energy independence and on the road towards achieving our climate goals.