Further disruption in the automotive sphere

The automotive sphere is ripe for further disruption. This 100-plus-year-old industry has seen its fair share of ups and downs, but no challenge is as great as the offerings of electrification of vehicles.

Electric Vehicles (EV) is the motoring industries hottest trend right now. Established manufacturers are being usurped by new and bold technologies from startups and tech firms who are now able to enter the lucrative automotive industry. The public transport sector and freight industries have embraced EV technology to offer environmentally-friendly and carbon-zero vehicles, and this trend is reaching far into the personal automotive market too.

From city cars to grand luxury sedans and sports cars, EV is here to stay for the foreseeable future. As battery technology improves, so do the performance of these EV offerings. Where batteries are increasing their capacity to extend the driveable range of EVs, manufacturers are also developing smarter ways to extract huge amounts of power from these motors for eye-watering performance.

Leading the charge is America’s Tesla with vehicles that have forever changed the way production and technology interface in vehicles. The majority of their vehicle are able to drive more than 400 km between charges, but the most incredible aspect of the Tesla story is that they developed an electric charging infrastructure alongside their vehicles so that owners will feel more secure in their decision to own and operate an EV.

Changing from older mindsets and perceptions, the established automotive giants are embracing this step too and have collaborated among themselves to develop EV infrastructure, co-develop EV vehicles and share technology in a bid to make this market disruption one that is sustainable for all.

Ride-hailing services continue to grow in prominence in life and the likes of Uber are here to stay. Apart from making it easier to find a taxi and making their fees more transparent, ride-hailing service are empowering many hundreds of thousands of drivers and car owners to generate an income with their vehicles by joining these firms as service providers.

Cars have also become obsesses with Internet of Things (IoT). Most vehicles now offered connected services for media streaming and driver systems driven around cellular technology and WiFi. There’s no need to simply listen to your favourite song when your passengers can watch the music video, or TV series or movie while on the go. This makes for interesting in-vehicle entertainment solutions and is driving forward the incorporation of large LED display screens on cars’ dashboards, in headrests of vehicles for passengers, and in digital instrument display systems.

Navigation systems in cars have developed to the point where HUD (Heads-Up Display) units can show Augmented Reality (AR) turn-by-turn directions to create safer driving practices.

Another hot buzzword in the automotive sphere in 2020 is “self-driving” technology. Once more, Tesla has pioneered this technology through systems in their car in which drivers can sit back and relax while the car does the driving all on its own. Other motor manufacturers have leaped to create similar systems and these are fast-developing technologies. The benefits of this is that cars will become safer, road accidents will decrease and driving will become a time of relaxation. For freight transport, this has already begun to revolutionise their industry as delivery trucks are driver-less.