Get ready for light speed…
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Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name, logo and “cutting through complexity” are registered
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In last year’s
groundbreaking paper
Me, My Car, My
Life, we described
a convergence
of consumer
and automotive
technologies and
the rise of mobility
services. Together with
the development of
autonomous vehicles,
they are revolutionizing
the industry and the
way we live our lives.
This year, we want
to examine how the
automotive industry
must innovate in
response to these
transformations.
In the last 100 years, the auto industry
has been at the forefront of innovation,
building a powerful base of knowledge
along the way. From the Model T
to mass production to automatic
transmissions and beyond, the car
has evolved into an amazing blend
of road machine and sophisticated
computer. Add to that a dazzling array
of the latest technologies—sensors,
cameras, radar, lidar, and sophisticated
chipsets. It’s clear we have witnessed
profound change.
And yet, despite all this astonishing
innovation, we believe the next
decade will produce as much change
as the previous century. In less than
five years, cognitive computing
has advanced from a novelty to a
commercialized means for solving
problems. In 2014, bioengineers
developed a circuit modeled on the
human brain: 16 “neurocore” chips
that simulate a million neurons
and billions of synapses, able to
process information 9,000 times
faster than a PC and with 40,000
times the energy efficiency. In April,
IBM declared that we have begun
“a golden era” that will lead to the
development of a practical quantum
computer. Combined with near-record
levels of capital investment in start-
ups, the picture becomes clear: we
are entering a time of accelerated
innovation, at a pace unprecedented in
modern history.
For companies to thrive in this new
environment, they must solve what
we call “the clockspeed dilemma.”
What is the clockspeed dilemma?
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity
makes the point simply enough.
Einstein taught us that time is relative.
It sure is in the auto industry.
Car companies obey a pace—a
clockspeed—required of capital-
intensive powertrain plants, stamping
plants, and assembly lines, to ensure
cars work at Six Sigma quality every
time and all the time, from -40 to
130 degrees Fahrenheit. Now they
must also embrace a far faster
clockspeed—actually, multiple faster
clockspeeds. The faster clockspeeds
are the result of new players entering
the ecosystem, from technology
giants to start-ups. Some of the new
competitors operate at a much larger
economy of scale. All of them fuel
customer demands for cars to be
repeatedly new, exciting, and sexy
while still holding to the standards of
Six Sigma quality. Thus the clockspeed
dilemma: the need to serve two
different paces at once.
Imagination
is more
important than
knowledge.
— Albert
Einstein
A message from Gary Silberg
Source: Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions
and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97
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© 2015 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International
Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name, logo and “cutting through complexity” are registered
trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International. NDPPS 404853