SELF-DRIVING CARS INTRODUCED AT PARIS MOTOR SHOW
Read Time:1 Minute, 45 Second
Electric vehicles are the stars of this year’s Paris Motor Show, with premium brands like Mercedes and Audi finally jumping into the fray, but the promise of self-driving cars is also on display with dozens of start-ups on hand.
“Each of these new cars requires 100 million lines of code: That’s five to six times more than in a Boeing,” Luc Chatel, head of the French auto industry association, told executives on Monday.
Expectedly, auto industry executives gathering at the show will be rubbing shoulders with dozens of tech experts eager to tackle what many consider the ultimate connected device.
The enthusiasm for the electrified revolution is partly out of necessity, as regulators and local officials try to cut down on the smog chocking many large cities.
In Europe, carmakers are racing to comply with tough EU limits on CO2 emissions that take effect by 2021, and the introduction of tougher emission testing standards in the wake of the “dieselgate” cheating scandal.
After investing billions of dollars in new batteries despite a still-uncertain payoff, companies are also betting that electric cars will help their bottom lines.
More reliable and with fewer moving parts than combustion engines, electric motors require far fewer workers to install and service.
But industry chiefs know they won’t be able to develop the full potential of an electrified, always-connected future on their own.
Google, Nokia and French IT specialist Atos are among the tech groups sending staff to the Paris show with pledges to help automakers navigate their industry’s seismic shift.
“Obviously every company would love to do everything by themselves,” Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, said in a keynote address Monday.
“There is an explosion around the services of mobility, where carmakers are going to play a role, in partnership with others,” he added, predicting that “we’re going to see in the Motor Show less and less car companies.”
Ghosn expects his group to sell 14 million cars by the end of 2022, of which 10 percent will be all-electric.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0