How one of the biggest problems in the automotive industry can be solved with software
According to our CEO Osman Dumbuya, good software doesn’t need many heads, but above all, geniuses. Incari is the Berlin-based IT specialist’s second company after selling his first venture. Now he sees things differently and has higher expectations of himself and his vision. What matters to him currently is not the money, but the long-term change that an innovative company can bring to the world. Osman recently explained to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung exactly what kind of change this can be and what characterizes disruptive innovation. Here we summarize the most interesting findings of the article.
“I grew up with a generation where it was clear from the start that if we developed our startup far enough and got enough visibility, it would eventually be sold to an American prospect,” says Osman Dumbuya. And he did just that: in 2006, at the age of 29, he founded his first company with a friend. In 2012, he sold it to the U.S. industry leader for about 50 million euros. Three years later, he launched a new project with his new company Incari, again within the framework of the automotive sector. Behind this company, however, are much broader ambitions: Dumbuya is striving to replace today’s long outdated operating systems, which were planned 40 years ago and realized 30 years ago.
Connecting humans and machines
“We see enormous potential for improving security and performance in quite a few places,” he says. With modernized architecture, operations, and communications it could run faster on today’s computers. Specifically, Incari is working on a European-centric secure operating system that stands as an interface between people and machines. That’s because the company’s specialty is “HMI” or “human-machine interface.” This is also how humans and cars interact. It used to be very simple, consisting of a speedometer, a few levers, and buttons. Nowadays, with more and more added features like voice control and navigation, interactions between vehicles and humans have become much more complex. Read here why we need to become digitally resilient and how a European operating system will help us to do so.
Rethinking outdated innovations
Incari’s developments are currently much more advanced, concrete, and most importantly feasible than they were a few decades ago. But this also puts Dumbuya at the heart of the problem. Many major automakers are currently facing difficulties in their new software factories. After all, before coordination tasks of the various control units and softwares became increasingly demanding, the conventional car manufacturers saw themselves more as integrators of these numerous systems and less as developers of all the special features. German automakers are currently working to develop new, comprehensive, and proprietary operating systems for their vehicles so that future vehicles — electric and even self-driving in some cases — can become mobile living rooms.
Last year, Dumbuya used a prototype from Anton Piëch as a test vehicle as a development platform. Piëch is a descendant of the Porsche dynasty who is currently developing new vehicles under his own name. Incari aims to significantly simplify the work of car manufacturers by providing an innovative development platform. It brings together all the information that is displayed and entered on in-car screens. This means that displays or structures for drivers’ input commands can be changed quickly without developers having to be even remotely familiar with the underlying software.
This is urgently needed because customers expect to be able to integrate their smartphones into their cars. The problem: a car has a much longer lifespan than the average phone and must be able to cope with updates accordingly. Elegant, uncomplicated solutions are needed here, and Incari will provide them. How Incari provides the ideal toolbox to design the cockpits of the future, together with UX designers and developers, you can read here.
The agile-friendly workflow and modular architecture of Incari Studio support the complete UI/UX creation process. Focused on team collaboration, it unifies the work of designers, developers, and suppliers on one platform while providing improved tools for logic coding, 3D animation, technology integration, and a lot more. Subscribe to Incari Studio here.
