The breakout session “Automotive, mobility and the future of energy” at the Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit 2017 in Sonoma was hosted by Tom Whitehouse, contributing editor at Global Corporate Venturing, and Kaloyan Andonov, reporter and analyst at GCV Analytics.
The session sparked considerable interest among summit delegates and its audience included over 120 of them. The session, in turn, featured six speakers – three representing corporate venture capital investors and another three from notable startups in the mobility and transport sector.
Ian Simmons, vice-president of business development and research and development (R&D) for Magna International, highlighted many of the emerging technological megatrends in the mobility and autotech field: projected increases of up to 106 million vehicles produced annually by 2023 and over 2 billion vehicles in operation by 2040.
In an ever more connected and virtual world, disruptive emerging technologies are having an impact on various vehicle systems, making it practically impossible for an automotive supplier like Magna to stay current and innovate internally in everything. As an example, Simmons mentioned the growing interest among corporations from the automotive sector in medical devices monitoring drivers’ alertness and general well-being.
In a similar vein, Tony Canestra, director of corporate ventures at Denso International America, attributed the desire of manufacturers to seek venture investments in Silicon Valley to their inability to tackle some significant problems in the newly digitalised world. In particular, he underscored cybersecurity issues in connected and autonomous vehicles of the future. Such vehicles will need to be absolutely “unhackable” to guarantee consumers’ safety and security. Automotive corporations normally lack previous expertise in this sector.
Jonathan Tudor, venture director at BP, emphasised the important role corporate investors have to play in the field. He pointed out that by being one of the world’s largest commodity traders, BP has much to offer to emerging innovative enterprises in terms of expertise, internal resources as well as a data source. Tudor also stated that important insights often emerge through sharing data in which interesting patterns form up.
Josh Switkes, President and CEO of US-based Peloton Technologies, acquainted the audience with Peloton’s truck telematics technology. The company develops a system enabling trucks to connect and drive safely together, known as ‘platooning’, thus increasing fuel efficiency and cost savings for truck fleets. It has raised multiple rounds featuring a host of corporate investors including Denso, Magna, BP, Castrol InnoVentures, defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Nokia Growth Partners (the venturing unit of communication technology producer Nokia), Intel Capital (the investment division of semiconductor manufacturer Intel), logistics services provider UPS and Volvo Group Venture Capital, the venturing arm of the eponymous automobile producer.
Another featured startup speaker was Tim Reeser, co-founder and CEO of US-based Hybrid Lightning. The company develops a mechanism which enables the capturing, storage and utilisation of braking energy to accelerate vehicles. Its technology is offered as a retrofitted solution for existing vehicles as well as enhancement for new vehicles, facilitating fuel cost savings and cleaner air. The company has been backed by BP and Castrol InnoVentures.
Dinakar Munagala, CEO of US-based ThinCI, focused his talk on the rise of machine learning and visual processing technologies over a wide range of applications across sectors and fields – from media and consumer electronics through drones and smart cities to autonomous vehicles. Real-world autonomous and semi-autonomous driving systems increasingly need to support a wide variety of algorithms and sensor data, said Munagala. ThinCI’s Viscen (visual computing engine) is a hardware solution for the computer processing of visual and sensor data. The company has been backed by both Magna and Denso.
