Automotive Roadshows To The End of Stupidity

On September 15 I participated in a discussion and presentation platform about Connected Mobility. The event was sponsored by the ZEIT newspaper as the first roadshow of 3 in total. I strongly recommend catching the next one in Shanghai, or the last one @SXSW in Austin, Texas. Industry stakeholders have acknowledged that the way we design mobility services and software is radically transforming. Over the next decade, the differentiating source of supply and value in the automotive industry will not be car parts or engines.

If we expect smarter cars then instead, what is going to deliver that change? Will it be a network of software developers, or the better tools for them that enable some sort of superior productivity?

One of the speakers I listened to, a futurist Lars Thomsen, was predicting that our society will understand and use future technologies and processes in a better, more efficient, secure and comfortable way. He called the time between 2016–2021 as the “end of stupidity”. People who want to succeed in this transfer have to be part of future visions and future core competences.

During the same event a discussion was held between the ZEIT moderator and Thilo Koslowski from Porsche Digital GmbH about future predictions of the automobile and Porsche in general. Mr. Koslowski noted that in his opinion the…