Nothing cultivates a megatrend like a disruptive technology…
Disruptive technology can cause long established industries to reconsider the way they operate – either by evolving and adapting, or by giving up and stepping aside to let new players take over.
Nearly 130 years ago, a disruptive technology came along, one that came to define modern life. Its potential impact may not have been instantly appreciated, and the question of how to manufacture sufficient units of this technology was one that was not answered for another 20 years.
From industry press to mainstream media via consumer tech publications and an increasing number of motor show announcements, you’d be forgiven for assuming your next car will be a lightweight, electrically-powered, pay-as-you-go driverless car developed by a tech giant
Nonetheless, when Bertha Benz made the first ever long-distance drive in her husband’s new Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3, she must have known that they were onto a winner.
And when Henry Ford finally gave in to pressure from his production engineers to introduce moving production lines, and discovered he could produce his Model T at a rate of – at its peak – one every 24 seconds, he too must have been sure that great things would follow.
In all the years since, the automotive industry has evolved and adapted, with the mother of invention appearing in various guises, including regulatory and commercial. However, in those 130 or so years, Mother Necessity has failed to appear in the guise of a truly disruptive force…until now.
From industry press to mainstream media via consumer tech publications and an increasing number of motor show announcements, you’d be forgiven for assuming your next car will be a lightweight, electrically-powered, pay-as-you-go driverless car developed by a tech giant. You’re never more than a page turn or a mouse click away from a story about Silicon Valley leaving the traditional automotive industry stranded by the road-side. Numerous disruptive forces are gathering, and it’s a crucial time for the automotive industry’s status quo.
Now it’s time for the makers of the ultimate mobile device, the smartphone on wheels, to face up to the disruption
Broadly similar views were presented by keynote speakers at Automotive Megatrends USA. Both see the consumer as the driving force at the heart of the automotive industry of the future. Embrace mobility and exploit the ecosystem, said IBM’s Kal Gyimesi, while Rohit Kedia of Infosys urged the industry to deliver performance and ensure continuous product development.
‘Old’ technologies are now powerful enough to be disruptive, and when they combine forces they pose a genuine threat. It’s happened in other industries, pointed out Kedia – citing various examples that ranged from Amazon and Netflix to Kodak – and the time is ripe, he said, for it to happen to the automotive industry.
Now it’s time for the makers of the ultimate mobile device, the smartphone on wheels, to face up to those disruptive technologies. To borrow a few words from a true megatrend-embracing film of the 1980s, “Where we’re going, we won’t need…”* – well, what will we or won’t we need? Now is the time for the traditional automotive industry to evolve and adapt, or step aside.
*Doc Brown to Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985)
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Martin Kahl is Editor, Automotive World
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