On Wednesday, June 10, at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. GMT, @eWEEKNews will host its monthly #eWEEKChat. The topic will be “Key Trends in Connected Transportation.” It will be moderated by Chris Preimesberger, who serves as eWEEK’s editor of features and analysis.
Some quick facts:
Topic: “Key Trends in Connected Transportation”
Date/time: June 10, 2015 @11a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. GMT
Hosted by: @eWEEKNews
Moderator: Chris Preimesberger: @editingwhiz
Tweetchat handle: Use #eWEEKChat to follow/participate or use the widget below
Chatroom real-time links: We have two: http://tweetchat.com/room/eweekchat or http://www.tchat.io/rooms/eweekchat. Both work very well.
Key Trends in Connected Transportation
There’s a pretty good reason why Ford, Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, GM, Volkswagen and several other vehicle makers have established “innovation” centers in Silicon Valley: That’s where the IT talent is, and the competition to attract the best software developers in connected transportation is at a very high level right now.
Carmakers—all except Tesla—are headquartered in other parts of the world but are now as much concerned with the IT of a vehicle as they are with the engine, transmission, brakes, fuel mileage or styling of any of their products. As each model year version is released, more and more software-defined features come included, and this trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said at the January opening of his company’s Silicon Valley center in Palo Alto, “Innovation for us is very meaningful because it’s in our DNA, in the legacy of Henry Ford. Innovation is why a lot of us joined the company in the first place.
“We want to be viewed as part of the ecosystem in Silicon Valley. The Research and Innovation Center is another proof point of what we’re doing, and in a year we will be one of the largest, dedicated automotive research teams here in the valley.”
During our eWEEKchat on June 10, we’ll talk about this innovation, what is now available in new cars and what will be on the way. Google is seven years into its driverless car initiative, and other companies, such as Apple are said to be working on similar projects. Look at the innovation Tesla has brought to the table in the last decade.
I challenge you to offer an opinion, observation or professional perspective during our 1-hour eWEEKchat discussion June 10.
Questions we will ask:
Q1: Will it ever become illegal to drive your own car in the future?
Q2: Will we see extensive use of driverless vehicles in the next 10 years?
Q3: What IT-related features are you using now in your car that you didn’t have just a few years ago?
Q4: What new features would you like to see included in vehicles of the future?
Q5: Are we in danger of having too much IT in cars? What drawbacks could happen?
Plan to join us for an hour on June 10.