“If I had to boil it down to a couple phrases that people might understand, I would say number one is zero emissions, which points to electrification of the vehicle. And two is the quantum increase in computing power and sophistication of electronics in the vehicles,” Detroit News columnist and associate business editor Daniel Howes tells Kirk Heinze on Greening of the Great Lakes in describing the evolving definition of mobility as it relates to the automotive industry.
“It’s very important for people who live in the bread basket of the United States in the heart of the Detroit auto industry to understand that their experience that they see in their everyday lives is not what is driving the mobility craze in the industry.
“What’s really driving the mobility craze is large developing countries and/or blocks of countries – think China, think Western Europe – that are setting very aggressive regulatory standards that essentially are forcing the auto industry, and, as well, the high-tech industries, to come to terms with how they’re going to move people in the future.”
Howes says it’s important to realize that this movement is not an either/or proposition and that the transition to more of us using autonomous and driverless vehicles will be a long term process.
And he says almost all of the profits and revenue generated by the auto companies continue to come from the traditional side of the business that build the cars and trucks that that we drive. That’s not likely to change quickly.
“But the global auto industry represents about $2.5 trillion of annual revenue around the world. Estimates by Ford Motor Company are that the mobility space or what is called the transportation services business could be a $10 trillion annual business around the world.
“As a result, you can see why the auto companies around the world and the tech companies are rushing into this space. They need growth, and they see the growth potential in this space.”
Howes tells Heinze about his recent visit to Pittsburgh to experience the research and testing of self-driving vehicles underway there, and he discusses Michigan’s American Center for Mobility.
And he believes that this transition will continue “irrespective of who is in the White House.”
Greening of the Great Lakes airs inside MSU Today Sunday afternoons at 4:00 on AM 870.