ANN ARBOR ? Technological innovation is the most important factor in the future of the world economy and the connected vehicle will be one of the chief beneficiaries.
That was the consensus of opinion Feb. 12 when the Michigan Israel Business Bridge convened its February meeting at Ann Arbor SPARK to hear a three-speaker panel discuss connected vehicle technology.
Panelists included Udi Naamani CEO, FusePpoint Solution and Past Director of the Connected Vehicle Proving Center at the University of Michigan, Mark Zacos, President and founder of DG Technologies, and Luke Bonner, Vice President of Business Development, Ann Arbor SPARK.
The meeting was kicked off with a brief introduction to MIBB, characterized by MIBB President Josh Bloom, as a joint Michigan/Israel Chamber of Commerce, devoted to finding and promoting joint business development opportunities in the two regions.
Seizing on the evening’s theme of Connected and Autonomous Driving vehicle, Naamani briefly about a world in which technological innovation is the most important factor in the future of world economy. He also singled out the automobile as a particularly resource-intensive mode of transportation, with just 1 percent of the energy value of a gallon of gasoline converted to move a vehicle down the road. Udi also spoke of connected vehicles, and the tremendous potential they hold through their “connectedness” to each other and the connected environment around them for energy savings and resource conservation.
Naamani followed with an introduction of FusePoint, his start-up company, which is devoted to enabling operating data created by automobiles to be used by aftermarket service operations to interpret the overall health and service needs of connected vehicles on the road today and in the future. A proof-of-concept test in already underway with a small group of service centers in the Ann Arbor area, and a much larger pilot operation is in the planning and funding stages. FusePoint’s vision is of long-term customer loyalty, created in part by using vehicle connectivity to reach independent vehicle service centers and automate service scheduling and vehicle diagnosis.
Mark Zacos, whose company, DG Technologies, is participating in the FusePoint pilot, spoke next about their advanced vehicle service technologies. DG Technologies produces a line of vehicle diagnostic code interpretation and conversion tools, widely used by technicians to diagnose vehicle problems in service settings. DG Technologies also provides many kinds of test equipment to enable calibration many types of vehicle technical service equipment.
Bonner took the microphone last and gave a thought provoking overview of the connected emerging connected vehicle ecosystem. Leading off with an examination of recent headlines about the future for connected vehicle technology, and the very real likelihood of autonomous driving vehicles on the streets in six to ten years.
Bonner quickly moved to a discussion the leading role that UM Transportation Research Institute continues to play in the connected vehicle space, and the supporting role that Ann Arbor Spark has played in bringing development expertise, sourcing funding, and helping to launch technology startups in the southeast Michigan region. Bonner went on to provide a short introduction to plans for an autonomous driving R&D facility that UM is creating on the former Pfizer Pharmaceuticals campus, and a larger autonomous driving simulation center being built at the former GM Hydramatic site at Willow Run in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He emphasized the economic impact created by concentrating research and development of advanced vehicle technology in the Ann Arbor corridor and southeast Michigan, and went on to identify the existing investments by many Tier 1 and OEMs currently in the Washtenaw-Oakland County corridor.
In late January, Governor Rick Snyder announced Michigan’s investment in supporting connected vehicle research and development, engineering, and manufacturing technology.
Further reading on the strategy for maintaining continued leadership in connected vehicle technology in Ann Arbor and southeast Michigan can be found in the Ann Arbor SPARK publication, Ahead By a Century, published in 2013.
Jeremy recently left Compuware Corp., where he was a marketing technologist and project manager in the Mobile Solutions Group. In the past year, Eckhous has been conducting research and developing strategies to support connected vehicle solutions, mHealth, and M2M solutions. Mr. Eckhous blogs regularly on enterprise mobile management, emerging technologies in the mHealth space, and emerging technologies like Raspberry PI and Ambient Intelligence. He is currently content chief at Mobile Comply, a mobile training and strategy company in Pontiac, Michigan.
