2017 Trends in the Automotive Industry

In an industry where trends pour in like cars on the motorway at rush hour, predicting which one will be the next best thing can be a challenge. Some, like the development of electric cars, are an ongoing refinement of existing technologies which will continue to grow strongly due to political and economic support; others are more subtle to detect and can only be observed among early adopters. Be that as it may, 2017 will definitely be an exciting year for the automotive industry and consumers alike.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) has been seeping through our everyday life, and while it has mostly been used for entertaining purposes so far – think Pokémon GO – it is expected that AR solutions for the car industry, from designing to repairs, will impact the whole production process.

At the design stage, AR can enable car designers to preview a model in all its details, from the overall shape down to all the interior features without an actual car. This doesn’t mean that prototypes will become obsolete, but rather that car engineers will be able to rectify flaws before a cent is spent on a prototype, saving car makers a lot of time and money.

AR will also help mechanics to able to visualise and identify problems even before they have touched a tool.

3D printing

The possible applications of 3D printing are, in our humble opinion, amongst the coolest any technology has ever offered, but none is more amazing than the prospect of being able to print organs and save lives.

As far as the car industry is concerned, it could fundamentally change how we think about cars and the entirety of the legislation of vehicle insurance.

For all of us avid car collectors, we know how difficult it can be to source parts when they need replacing on a classic car. But even your everyday car can encounter the same issue as not all car manufacturers continue carrying all the spare parts of any car they have ever produced. So if your vehicle is 15-years-old, you could be in a position where you have to write it off simply because one part is discontinued.

3D printing could spell the end of not being able to source spare parts. While you can find specialists who can make them on demand, the costs are often prohibitive, but they wouldn’t be with 3D printing, as a perfect replica of the original part can be produced directly from a CAD file.

Car manufacturing could be revolutionised too. Imagine that all cars were built around a limited number of designs of chassis, onto which a variety of 3D-printed outer body could be mounted. This means that the same car could have different incarnations throughout its life at a reasonable cost, all that would be necessary would be to print a different body. That would, of course cause a headache to the insurance industry: would the new version of the car be the same car or a different car? Should the premium vary if only the cosmetic elements of a car are changed?

3D printing could also decrease the costs of repairs significantly, by making not only the price of parts cheaper but also that of repairing or replacing the body. In the future, a crash could be, not a disaster, but an opportunity to upgrade your car to something looking more stylish or more suitable to your lifestyle!

Autonomous vehicles will continue to drive the industry

Of course, we could not talk about the future of the car industry without talking about driverless cars and driverless features.

While having fully-autonomous cars on the road isn’t on the table for 2017, Tesla and Google have made remarkable progress in this area and Ford has announced their intentions to mass-produce them by 2021.

Meanwhile, useful driverless technologies like assisted parking are spreading, and other driverless techniques are being trialled such as platooning, where driverless vehicles follow each other at a constant speed to reduce phantom traffic jams – bottlenecks with no apparent cause.

Vehicle cyber security

As the numbers of cars equipped with network-connected technology increases, so does the risk of hacking and the need for robust cyber security.

Modern cars currently use anti-virus and other common software security technologies to identify and quarantine threats, but like with anything that has to do with cyber security, the game is always about catching up rather than preventing.

Machine learning could well change this, as AIs learn independently and will create ways of protecting themselves against new threats without the need for humans to intervene. But then we all know what will happen when Skynet takes over…

Collaborative monetisation

There is no denying that owning a car is expensive. There is the initial purchase but also ongoing costs to keep the car roadworthy and legally allowed to be on the road, there’s insurance, and then all the running costs.

Next year, we will see more strategies to create value from car ownership for companies and individuals alike. To meet the demand of a new demographic, car- and ride- sharing will become a more common occurrence.

This will require significant changes in how companies think about car ownership and an administrative framework able to cope with partial ownership, partial liability and partial responsibility for vehicle servicing.

Car sharing, in turn, will give birth to a new business model and economy. With rides being billed by the minute or mile, or a combination of both, the cost of owning a fleet of vehicles can be amortised differently, resulting in better profitability for businesses.

Predictive analytics

Using statistics and modelling, AIs will be able to analyse breakdown patterns for each car model and identify a likely time in their life when they may indeed break down so that known weaknesses can be monitored and problems prevented.

If you are looking for an experience international car shipping company, contact McCullough on +64 9 303 0075 or request a free quote.