Are you a BMW fan? Well, who are we kidding
over here? Everyone is a BMW fan and the reason is its dauntingly flawless
design, throw in some cool engine along with innovative technology and there
you have it; the perfect mix known as BMW. What is more fascinating about the
BMW is the awesome ads that the automobile company comes up with. Don’t believe
us? Wait till you check out the video at the end of this post that will
demonstrate how amazing the M4 is as it tears around a track on an aircraft
carrier.
Although the video may not be real –
the officials from BMW have not confirmed that yet – but it sure is quite
amazing and thrilling. You can actually Feel the need for speed rising within
oneself while the ad is playing. The track resembles the Gymkhana series of DC
owner Ken Block and you can witness the 430Hp M4 speeding on the Ultimate
Racetrack that is afloat at the sea.
Cundari, the BMW agency in Canada was
contacted for comment, however, the Chief Creative officer by the name of
Andrew Simon quite skillfully averted the question and responded in the
following words; ‘We know there is debate and we encourage that. One thing that
is for sure is that the M4’s dynamic performance on the Ultimate Racetrack is
thrilling viewers all around the world and for that we’re thrilled’. Well
played Andrew Simon, well played!
You’ll find quite a heated debate going on
about the validity of the video, but like we said, let’s focus more on how
awesome the concept is and how amazingly the car has been designed. M4 has been
designed to trade places with M3 Coupe and M3 Convertible models and supports a
3liter twin turbo engine. The transmission is 7-speed M-DCT that allows M4 to
reach 60Mph in 3.9 seconds while weighing less than 1,500 kg.
Google’s self driving car effort is a threat
to the auto industry. The company is the clear leader in autonomous vehicle
technology and several years ahead of all other auto makers, including Daimler
and Volvo. By presenting an all-electric prototype of a fully autonomous
two-seater in May, Google has also made clear that it is serious to become a
player in individual mobility and intent on reaping the rewards of its
investment in this project (which so far has likely cost a few hundred million
Dollars – not an enormous amount by the standards of the auto industry for
developing a new car model).
What are the implications for the auto
industry? They have much more experience in all aspects of mobility and are
also working on autonomous vehicles. Could Google really be a signficant
threat?
The standard answer to this question has been
denial: Last year the main argument was something like: They may be able to
build great software but they don’t know how to design a car. Now that they
have designed a steer-by-wire two-seater with redundant layout of all
safety-critical components and skillfully navigated the regulations – including
limiting the speed to 25mph – , the argument is updated: They may be able to
build a slow-moving two seater, but they can’t build a real car. And even if
they could, they could not produce it in any meaningful volume.
As they overcome each objection, denial
becomes harder, and additional time is lost. The argument that Google would not
be able ramp up production is misguided. Google has no intention to challenge
the auto makers on their playing field. It will change the game by providing
autonomous mobility services rather than selling cars. Each Google autonomous
car will then reduce the demand for privately owned cars by a factor of 5 to
10. This will have an impact on auto makers. It will affect their strategies,
stock prices and make production capacity much easier to acquire.
Instead of denial, auto makers need to understand
the magnitude of the threat. Self-driving cars will be a disruptive force; they
will change the business model of the auto industry and bring hard times to
most auto makers because demand for passenger cars will fall significantly.
From a global perspective this is a good thing because resources will be used
much more efficiently, alternative propellants can be used much more readily
within autonomous mobility services and the strain on the environment (both
pollution and land-use) will fall.
But it will be hard for the auto industry to
adapt to these changes. Cars have been produced for more than a century. The
requisite knowledge is widely available. The same does not apply to a key
ingredient for self-driving cars: Teaching a machine to perceive its environment.
Perception is the core problem which determines the success of a self-driving
car.
As a consequence, auto manufacturers who want
to beat Google to a fully autonomous car, will need to carefully consider the
additional opportunities which advanced perception could bring and determine
how to integrate these opportunities into their strategy. Instead of narrowing
the perception task to specific driving scenarios, auto makers should consider
whether they could leverage their perception activities in additional ways.
Machine perception is the core competence for
succeeding with autonomous cars. Auto makers need to give this capability top
priority if they want to recover the ground already lost to Google.
