b"Interview: | Engineer InnovationInterview The 2019 Reality Check: Autonomous DrivingEven though electric vehicles arepersonalization that people wantworking single parent who needs to taking off, truly autonomous vehiclestoday, and last but not least, there is aget the children to soccer practice or still need to be manufactured. Wefourth, sustainability, which overall isballet class. spoke to two industry insiders aboutsomething that is challenging. the progress being made and theS: What is the next step for challenges thatThe OEMs have translated these trendsautonomous vehicles?lie ahead. into something called the CASEVan den Oetelaar: It is not about what subjects: connected, automated,we know and what we can do, it is If 2018 was the year of big dreams (andshared and electrified. They are tryingabout understanding what are the in certain cases, some back-tracking),to gather information around theseelements that we dont know and 2019 looks to be the year of the realityfour themes, and set up an ecosystemunderstanding the risk associated with check. Yes, we have the technology toto make this big change a success. it. This is something that we are trying make electric vehicles (EVs) work andto help our customer base with. From a yes we have the collective esprit (toS: What about electric vehicles? Ittechnical perspective, this is the core borrow from the French) to go downseems they are becoming a reality. of the equation today.the path of self-driving vehicles. WhatVan den Oetelaar: Electrification is we dont have is all the nitty-grittyclearly an element that the OEMs areS: Who is driving this? Are the technical details, and the enormousconquering. If we are able to get thetraditional OEMs taking the lead?social and infrastructural implicationsright natural resources together as wellVan den Oetelaar: Vehicle ironed out.as our connection to the energy grid,manufacturers are one part of the new we are going to be able to moveecosystem, but we are seeing new So roll up your sleeves, according toforward. The next step after that isindustries pop up and hook into this industry experts, Joe Barkai, authoranything related to autonomousnew ecosystem. This is going to be an and Chairman SAE Connected Cars;driving. integral part of it. A good example is and our colleague Jan van den we stilltelematics. A second example is cloud have a ways to go when it comes toS: How close are we to the goal ofinfrastructureanything having to do autonomous vehicles.autonomous driving?with the Internet of Things (IoT). Joe Barkai: First of all, it's a S: What are the trends affectingprogression. I always like to say, It's notS: Are we as a society ready for automotive original equipmenta revolution, it's an evolution. Manyautonomous vehicles? manufacturers (OEMs) at thepeople in the industry are not lookingVan den Oetelaar: If we start to moment? at this in the right way. Right now,develop vehicles that are automated Jan van den Oetelaar: What we see isautonomous vehicle features, asand electrified and we start to operate that the OEMs are strapped with ansophisticated as they, are heralded asthem under different circumstances, enormous game-changer today. Therecool features. That is really notthe big questions that come up are: are a number of big mega trends.important because theres too littleWhat is the effect on the occupant? Anything to do with digitalization isbusiness or societal value in that. I seeWhat are people perceiving inside?number one. Second is anythinga tremendous value in cars thatAnd what are people perceiving related to urbanization, which is a bigprovide services for people withoutside? Do bikers and pedestrians challenge. Then we have thedisabilities, for the elderly, or for afeel reassured? 21"