03
August
2017
|
07:13
America/New_York

Leading the drive to digitization

The auto industry is driving rapidly toward digitization, not just inside vehicles but also in the way cars and key cockpit features are designed and manufactured. Visteon’s Tim Yerdon provided insights on this digital transformation to an audience of more than 500 industry executives at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan, on Aug. 2.

Yerdon, head of global marketing and communications, said Visteon is well-positioned in the battle for “digital supremacy” in the vehicle cockpit, particularly with regard to instrument clusters and displays, segments in which Visteon is a top-two global player. He noted that all-digital is the fastest-growing segment of instrument clusters, and all-digital clusters are quickly expanding from luxury to mass market vehicles..

Within infotainment, display audio with CarPlay and Android Auto is the fastest-growing segment. In the embedded infotainment segment, Visteon is a leading innovator with its Phoenix™ platform that allows third-party developers to create and test apps with a software development kit (SDK), that can be published to an app store and downloaded over-the-air to the vehicle, after validation by Visteon or the automaker.

Visteon is also applying digitization in its highly automated manufacturing plants globally, Yerdon noted, producing 21,000 unique electronics components and delivering 1 million products per week to 1,000 customer locations.

Yerdon spoke on the topic, “The Car of Tomorrow” at the annual event. Many speakers at the conference described the potential of new enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Yerdon emphasized that the winners in the vast automotive ecosystem will be those companies that can harness and apply these enabling technologies in ways that satisfy the needs of consumers – while also meeting the rigorous quality and reliability requirements of the auto industry.