The Future of Automotive: Software-Defined Vehicles and Mobility

In this episode of Build What's Next: Digital Product Perspectives, host Blair Holt delves into the rapidly changing automotive industry with two expert guests: Josh Batie, Vice President of Autonomous Vehicles at Toyota Motors North America, and Evangelos Simoudis, founder and managing director of Synapse Partners.

The discussion covers a wide range of topics, including:
• The concept and potential of software-defined vehicles
• The impact of autonomous driving technology on customer experience
• Changing business models in the automotive industry
• The evolution from car ownership to mobility as a service
• The role of data in shaping the future of transportation
• Challenges in implementing new technologies in the automotive industry
• The future of car dealerships and retail models
• Regional differences in customer preferences and regulations
• The intersection of vehicles with smart infrastructure

Josh Batie brings insights from Toyota's perspective, discussing their approach to autonomous vehicles and the challenges of implementing new technologies in a traditional automotive company. Evangelos Simoudis offers a broader industry perspective, drawing from his experience as an investor and author in the automotive technology space.

Together, they paint a picture of an industry transitioning from traditional car manufacturing to providing comprehensive mobility solutions. They emphasize the importance of customer experience, data utilization, and adapting to regional differences in the evolving automotive landscape.

Episode Resources:
• Evangelos Simoudis' book: "The Flagship Experience: How Artificial Intelligence and Software-Defined Vehicles Will Revolutionize the Automotive Customer Experience"
• Toyota Motors North America website: https://www.toyota.com/usa/
• Synapse Partners website: https://synapsepartners.co/
• Method Website: https://www.method.com

Episode Highlights:
• [00:02:44] Definition and potential of software-defined vehicles
• [00:09:02] Impact of autonomous driving on customer experience
• [00:15:17] Challenges in automotive product development cycles
• [00:20:51] The future of car dealerships and retail models
• [00:26:00] The importance of customer education for new vehicle technologies
• [00:30:20] Regional differences in automotive preferences and regulations
• [00:35:42] The concept of vehicle journey vs. customer journey
• [00:41:17] Data privacy concerns and transparency in the automotive industry

Quotes:
• "The biggest capabilities that [software-defined vehicles] can update their functionality over the air and the first one that we saw having that capability are the Tesla vehicles, But now several others do." - Evangelos Simoudis
• "If I lived in Orange County and I worked, say, in L A. And I drove an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back every day, and I could get in my car, plug it in an address, open up my laptop, turn on my phone, watch my Netflix. I could have an hour and a half back each way, three hours a day, five days a week. If you do the math, that's a month of your life back." - Josh Batie
• "The reason I said earlier that today the definition of software-defined vehicle is a bit muddled is because the incumbent automotive industry has to transition to the clean definition. The clean definition is when we start having the so-called zonal architectures and central computer architectures very much like we have in a data center." - Evangelos Simoudis
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