CES 2023 - is the iCar revealed?

Happy New CES!

There is no doubt: #CES is the place for the automotive future. After recovering from Covid, the Las Vegas Show gathered again the intersection of Automotive, Electronics and Software. Let's have a look together on the key trends and events.

I wish you an inspiring & exciting year 2023! It's great to start this year in the Automotive community of #SWdriven.

Many exciting news... and one more thing

#ChargeLikeATesla: With a delay of more than a decade, Mercedes-Benz AG CEO Ola Kaellenius announced that MB will also built up a charging network on its own, targeting 10.000 charging spots in the core markets. Pilot region is the US market in close cooperation with MN8 Energy and ChargePoint . Compared to the already existing charging grid of Tesla with its more than 40.000 high performance chargers (with 145-250 kW, plus another 20.000 charging points with lower power), this won't deliver the same coverage with Mercedes branded charging spots, but with higher power up to 350kW. As the brand has been focussing completely on "luxury" in the past years, it's an interesting decision that Mercedes is not following the AUDI AG path with a charging hub concept that incorporates lounges and ecosystems. Vehicle-wise, it was not the year of big news from Stuttgart. Apple music is integrated into the infotainment systems, and the Dolby Atmos standard will provide a better 3D/sourround experience. And, of course, the EQXX as efficiency benchmark was omni-present on Las Vegas' streets.

#GettingThingsDone: Volkswagen Group has been much covered in the press a lot in the past years. Not only with bold announcements, but also with high public visibility of internal processes and progress. At CES, Dirk Hilgenberg 's key note promised one main thing for 2023: delivery. The SW organization CARIAD is now fully set up with 10k+ people within Cariad or partner companies, but the timeline is still far behind. To catch up, the existing E³ 1.2 will be expanded and continued longer than originally planned. On the vehicle side, the (still camouflaged) ID.7 as electrical counterpart to the best-selling passat was presented, but without many details or surprises. A larger central tablet is the choice, fully in line with the two display trends: or a huge central tablet, or a pillar-to-pillar display design. But what's on the display? Not much news still from VW on the content and customer experience.

#WarOfTheWorlds: Carlos Tavares from Stellantis was pointing out a delicate topic. Stellantis will cancel all of its lobbying activities in the existing rounds and organizations (such as the European #ACEA for example) and create its own public platform, as Stellantis is very frustrated with the missing success so far - regarding the very different regulation strategies of Europe and #China. A Chinese vehicle with the same features and performance as a European vehicle is said to cost 8-10.000 Euro less, and Chinese brands are pushing hard to gain market share in Europe's home markets. How to avoid #deindustrialization as one drastic consequence is the discourse Stellantis is searching to intensify, also backed by others such as Patrick KOLLER from FORVIA .

One more thing...

But the biggest surprise at this year's CES, which was getting most attention among the visitors, was clearly the visionary show car #DEE, presented by BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse - "DEE" stand for "Digital Emotional Experience". Here are my 5 reasons why. And here's my forecast: When finally Apple's iCar will be revealed, we will see a similar list.

1. It doesn't look like a BMW. No, I'm not talking about the design (which I like a lot!). But I'm talking about how today's designs reflect the (expected) market needs: Putting status, size, power, engineering in the foreground. If you compare the brand new BMW 7 Series or the much criticized XM with DEE, it's a strikingly different approach. It's reduced, sleek, retro.
2. It's thought from the customer's point of view. Remember the #AVTR showcar of Mercedes in 2020? It was a cool car, with reptilian structures on the outside and touch-sensitive interior elements. But after the first "wow", I asked myself: so what - what's in for me? So the AVTR vehicle was like a metaphor to the delicate relation of mankind and nature. The BMW team accomplished something different. They gave answers to the question how the living together of passengers, machines and society could work. It's about use cases and added value.
3. It's about relations, not about technology. First impression: This car has no displays at all. But the car is all interaction with the inside and outside: The front panel shows faces, the side windows greet the customer with his or her avatar, and the windshield is one huge head up display. But unlike most other vehicles (including BMW's theater screen...) the displays are not there to show off. They are smart interaction fields, reacting to the customer's situation and needs. It's about emotionality, and - as one of BMW's crew said - almost about love.
4. It gives answer for an autonomous future. BMW is not aggressive when it's about the roadmap to autonomous driving (L3 and beyond), on the contrary. While others are already on the market with highway pilots, BMW prefers to wait for a better match of technology maturity, risk profile, cost and customer added value (who needs a highway pilot if it turns off at 60 km/h?) But what will we do when we will drive autonomously? And how will it feel? DEE is about this: Providing the customer intimacy, proximity, information or whatever is needed. Giving different interactions to changing customer needs.
5. It's looks like a character in one of Pixar's "Cars" films. And it can do the cholor changing trick with #eInk. My son really loves it ;-)

First impression: The car has no displays. Second impression: The car IS a display.

And the metaverse?

#Fancy: Journee did a great job in creating fantastic digital worlds for BMW. The Berlin company is on the fast track in creating outstanding narratives and platforms.

#DownToEarth: Stellantis opened its metaverse dealership. I immediately got an appointment of 30 minutes and a free sales pitch for a special edition of the electric Fiat 500 "Cinquecento". The experience was still very basic: A real person as in a typical video chat, sitting in a 3D model of a dealership. Some "wow" factors: Both of us could configure the car in realtime, and the sales person could "walk me through" the car literally: Opening doors, putting me into the driver seat and explaining in an interactive manner. A first glance of how a fully 3D experience could look like.

#NotAugmented: Apple's XR lenses are delayed (and anyway not present at CES), Magic Leap showed its new version, much better than the latter one, not too much disruption or convincing business models seen.

New challenges: How to...

Let's finish #SWdriven for today. After the exciting show cars, the R&D organizations at home have another beast to beat: How to translate this fancy stuff into a product which can be developed in cost and time, produced in quality, and fit to the existing platforms. But a lot of things have been already been tried or solved. My colleague Juergen Reers had a talk at CES about our experiences and SW defined Vehicle methodology framework. Please reach out to us to get into touch or receive our whitepaper.

Dennis Röhr Altan Yamak Dr. Gabriel Seiberth Hans Loes Bettina Blum Malte Becker Markus Frey Marc Poppner Benno Stützel Hendrik Dettmering Wolfgang Köcher Gerd Schaefer Jakub Borowczyk Stefan Hattula Julia B. Lucas Heckmann Philip Dorn