COMPUTER ON WHEELS

THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IS IN THE MIDST OF A FUNDAMENTAL TECH-LED TRANSFORMATION WAVE

- PRERNA LIDHOO AND NIDHI SINGAL

THERE'S A TASK: Go to LinkedIn and type 'autonomous and electric vehicles in the jobs section. Among the top results, you'll find a mix of a auto and tech companies such as NVIDIA, Volvo, Qualcomm, Siemens, Audi, Bosch, etc. In a few years from now, it'll be even more difficult to tell them apart. Even as technology transforms practically every aspect of our lives from payments to entertainment, experts believe that the next decade represents one of the biggest tech disruptions in the automotive industry A.K.A. CASE (connected, autonomous, shared and electric). “CASE is very real and evolving at a much faster pace than anyone would have imagined, especially in India. Globally, the trend was already there. It started with Tesla on the EV side, and connected car technology came from General Motors (GM) globally, but India was lagging behind,” says Rajeev Chaba, President and Managing Director of MG Motor India.

The tango between tech and auto companies is picking up pace. Globally, for example, GM acquired Cruise Automation, a self-driving technology start-up, in 2016, for $1 billion and announced it will be partnering with Lyft to test self-driving taxis. In March 2022, Sony announced a strategic alliance with Honda Motors for the development of high-value battery-electric vehicles that are likely to hit the roads by 2025. And smartphone maker Xiaomi announced its entry into the smart EV business in March 2021.

In India, when MG's Hectorits first car in the country was launched in April 2019, Chaba made it a point to mention that the “internet car" was a result of tech collaborations with Microsoft, Adobe, Unlimit, SAP, Cisco, Gaana, TomTom, Nuance, and others. Tata Motors, the market leader in India for electric vehicles (EVs), uses Microsoft Azure Intelligent Cloud for advanced navigation, predictive maintenance, remote monitoring features, and AI innovation for its connected cars.