Several times the automotive world has gone through cycles of technological renewal. Progress, first in mechanics and later in electronics, has transformed our private means of transport, giving access to components that were once unimaginable. Think, in particular, of the satellite navigator: introduced in the most expensive cars, today the car manufacturers that do not offer it as standard can be considered démodé.
Progress is advancing, but in this era it is very difficult to seriously democratize the automotive offer. While 60 years ago the economic boom gave great technological ideas at the same time as the presence of the popular car, today the ‘loop’ seems much longer to go through in order to have safe cars at low prices, ecologically more advanced and qualitatively superior. Valerio Berruti writes in Repubblica as follows: “In every single car there are normally 1,500 control units, which however with the semiconductor crisis are no longer available in the necessary quantity. So, “no chips, no cars”: another setback for a sector that this time even seems to be a victim of its own evolution. How will it come out? And above all when and at what price? It is worth thinking about it better. Technology seduces and makes you fly but the wallet immediately brings us back to the ground“.
The period is really special. The market crisis is putting the profits of the car manufacturers in a tight spot. Which, in the meantime, have to invest a lot, especially in electronics, to keep up. It is no longer possible to exploit the goose that lays the golden egg of the internal combustion engine without addressing the limits on emissions. Many try to force their hand with technology, which often turns out to be an end in itself, more than useful in reducing road accidents, a plague that has never been resolved. Thus, according to what was seen at CES in Las Vegas 2022, large panoramic screens for cinematic viewing on the rear seats and the color-changing bodywork (BMW) arrive; multitudes of touch screens to enhance the multimedia experience (Chrysler / Stellantis); 3D holographic digital assistants (Togg). What you might need, rather, is a battery capable of giving 1000 kilometers of autonomy at a low cost: it would be a technological revolution, even useful for once. Here, then, is the crossroads for the houses, because they have to choose whether to continue to ‘show themselves’ with dreamy hi-tech trinkets, or to devote themselves more to the cars to actually sell, considering that without incentives the electric ones remain inaccessible to many.
“When the automotive industry, robotics and the metaverse meet, Metamobility is born. Word of Hyundai, which presented solutions for the «Mobility of Things», such as the modular Plug & Drive (PnD) platform, which makes normally inanimate objects mobile, from small artifacts to modules for transporting people. Conceptually similar is Citroën’s Skate Concept: a platform with omnidirectional wheels for the automated transport of things and people. Because in the future, it seems, everything will be mobile“, We read in the Corriere della Sera. The shape would no longer have much importance, if everything became mobility: and after all, with autonomous driving, even that of the steering wheel will be an outdated concept. A scenario really far in time: but how many of the manufacturers who deal with it today will still be present if today’s sales continue to decline?
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