Safety is rightfully defined as the number one priority for all regulators who make decisions about vehicle systems like driving assist or autonomous driving on European roads and it’s fair to assume all people involved try their best to accomplish it.
The promise of autonomous vehicles that drive humans safely and reliably in every condition and place in the world is an inspiration for humankind, and if realized will open the door to unprecedented productivity gains and not-seen-before profits.
After my article “There Will Be Blood” was published here on CleanTechnica, Peter Mertens, the former Head of R&D at Audi and former Board Member of Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Jaguar Land Rover, and now Board Member of Faurecia, Recogni and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Valens, reached out to me and asked if I am interested in an interview with him.
The CEOs of Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia announced today at a press event that they were launching a partnership for a, quoting Ola Källenius, “groundbreaking, software-defined, high-performance computer architecture for driving assistance and autonomous drive.”
Every nation of this world will do its best to protect its industry for the good of the country’s economy and its people. Politicians are elected to make sure industries and jobs are doing well, to stabilize income, and to reduce risk. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this protection. Unfortunately, politics can, by trying its very best to support its industry, destroy it without even realizing what’s happening. This has happened before, and there is a large risk that it’s happening today in the largest automotive producing countries, like Germany, Japan, and the USA.
The German auto industry has been through quite a scandal surrounding dieselgate. But that’s not stopping some from clinging to diesel. The Verge reports, “Germany is divided about the future of its most important industry: while some automakers pursue electric vehicles, a noisy group of diesel-energy enthusiasts are expressing their frustration through protests. These have gone on every weekend so far this year.”
As a German engineer, I am today more concerned than ever about the ability of our auto industry to survive and prosper.
It’s no secret that legacy automakers are making the transition to electric vehicles only reluctantly, in response to regulatory pressure from governments and to competitive pressure from Tesla. Contrary to what many seem to believe, Big Auto’s reluctance to embrace EVs is not merely the usual corporate fear of the future, nor is it the result of any oil industry-fueled conspiracy (as far as we know). It’s a simple matter of money — there are good reasons to believe that electrification will take a major bite out of industry profits, as BMW and Daimler execs recently acknowledged.
