We now live in the most interesting and by far the most dynamic period ever since the automobile was invented. The industrial revolution, the Internet era, the digital world all collide with the most beloved not living member of our families, the automobile.

We, the automotive engineers, now have the task to shape the future of the automotive industry for the next 100 years. Among us, it has to be a new Ford, a new Daimler, or a new Diesel that will patent for the future and will lead the development of the most iconic industry of them all.

This industry is not going to have two speeds; it will have only one speed, throttle pedal to the floor, into an era where classical propulsion systems will be transformed into hybrids and where pure electric vehicles will accelerate to the pole position of the sales charts, where autonomous vehicles will generate 0 fatalities on the roads, and traffic jams will be a thing of the past, where vehicles will com municate with each other and have the power to decide the most appropriate route scenario depended on the most intimate driver-/user-specific and individual needs, where the same automobile will behave in the most responsive and safe manner for a beginner driver and with an software update will be able to perform similar to a race vehicle, just by adding extra costs to your monthly rental charging portfolio.

This is just a glimpse of what the future of the automotive industry will look like; our advantage is that we live the future as we speak. 10 years ago electromobility was a thing of the future. Now there is not a car manufacturer in the world that does not have in its portfolio a hybrid or a pure electric vehicle, car to car communi cation, and car to infrastructure communication. Do we believe that is a thing of the future? No, it is happening right now, under our own eyes – autonomous driving vehicles have accumulated in the real world driving more than 6,5 million kilo meters. In 1995 the cost of electronics and software was 16% form vehicle total value, in 2010 was 25% and based on the latest numbers delivered by the industry to specialized press, nowadays the value of electronics and software cost is 40%. Want more? The biggest car-sharing company in the world doesn’t own any vehicles.