EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Fabien Roth General Manager - Advanced Infotainment Marketing - Panasonic Automotive and Industrial Systems Europe GmbH IN LEVEL FOUR OR FIVE OF AUTONOMOUS DRIVING, THE CAR IS ABLE TO DRIVE BY ITSELF, AND THIS IS GOING TO OPEN A NEW PARADIGM Fabien Roth is General Manager - Advanced Infotainment Marketing - Panasonic Automotive and Industrial Systems Europe GmbH. We asked him firstly to tell us a little more about his role within the company. I head marketing and product planning activities for infotainment products. The latter part of the title means I get to plotout the future of what the car will be in five, ten or fifteen years. Talking about planning the future, we heard - in the keynote at IFA by the Daimler CEO Dr Dieter Zetsche - about the fact that the car is going to be the “next big thing” when it comes to infotainment. What is changing in fact? There is a big shift from the consumer technologies to the car environment. What you can see is that displays are coming into cars, that they are bigger, they have more resolution, and more purposes. For instance, you now have displays not only for navigation, but also for instrument cluster and what will happen in the future is that those displays will certainly multiply, come in the back seats, but also be an interface for you to steer some of the functions of the car. Why? Because on displays you can have different technologies that are “touch” – like on a tablet – but you can also have capacitive displays, and that means you can steer functions without touching the displays, just by moving your hand. So the first thing is the display revolution, and the second thing is autonomous driving – the fact that the car will be able to take decisions by itself – to drive by itself. What do you personally find to be the most exciting aspect? I think where Panasonic can bring valueadded is because we have experience with consumers and we know how consumers react. And in a car, the big thing is the user interface – how you interact with the car. You used to push buttons; you used to Cars Get Smarter The future of in-car infotainment and autonomous driving turn your head to look at things. Now, the car will be able to inform you about things happening around you, but you will also be able to steer functions without touching things – sometimes just with watching – having cameras watching your eyes – with eye tracking, and the car will be able also to understand your state of mind. The car can detect if you are tense or stressed, and then can act in order to increase security or safety. For instance, if the car sees that you are stressed – or if the car knows there is an accident ahead of you, maybe the car will not accept an incoming phone call. That’s only the first level of intelligence, and that’s what’s going to change the experience you have in the car. What is the future of autonomous driving? In level four or five of autonomous driving, the car is able to drive by itself, and this is going to open a new paradigm, which is the occupation of the driver. Actually, you won’t have a driver anymore, so it will be about what you want to do in a car – what your experience will be. It will probably be centred around entertainment, or around working, and some people would like to relax. This should be a regular occurrence by 2025. But there are some projects and initiatives. For instance, they are working on a motorway between Belgium and Germany that will have captors in the road, and these will be tested in the not too distant future. We will also soon be seeing new safety technologies emerging, such as form recognition and pedestrian recognition. What’s happening with the connected car? The connected car has numerous benefits. There is the safety benefit – to know where you are and what you are doing. But also it can give you access to services, and it enables the car to have a certain level of intelligence, and will enable cars to start to talk to each other. From an infrastructure point of view, it’s as important as the sensors that will be built into the roads when it comes to enabling autonomous driving Panasonic provides electronic components to most of the major car manufacturers. They claim to be the number one display manufacturer for cars and also the number one battery manufacturer. 20
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW © Messe Berlin GmbH Dr Reinhard Zinkann Joint Managing Partner, Miele Chairman of the household appliances divisions, ZVEI MIELE HERALDS BAGLESS CLEANER FIRST IFA: The Most Important Show Dr Reinhard Zinkann, Miele’s Joint Managing Partner, is full of praise for this year’s IFA. IFA has definitely taken over the role as the most important trade show in our business field in the world. We see all important customers worldwide coming to Berlin and we meet them here. It is a very important place. How significant has IFA been for Miele? We are happy with the overall results. Miele has been part of IFA from the introduction of domestic appliances. At IFA, there is a lot of report about innovations, new products and about our industry in general. It is very important to put at least once a year, the focus on domestic appliances. Which new products have been well received on the Miele stand? Our new bagless vacuum cleaner, the Blizzard, which protects the user against the exposure to noise levels which are so typical of this product category, has been well received as has our new ArtLine generation of built-in appliances which dispense with handles and blend in seamlessly with the flush furniture fronts. Other popular products have included the TwoInOne cooktop, where we have augmented our line-up of products with the addition of an induction hob with an integrated extractor; in laundry, our new washer-dryer combination, the WT1, has sent out a strong signal at the IFA - 4kg of laundry washed immaculately and dried in less than three hours, without any manual intervention in-between. Not even detergent has to be dispensed by hand as the WT1 THE APPLIANCE INDUSTRY IS IN GOOD SHAPE AS WE ALL HAVE A LOT TO SAY. features integrated TwinDos automatic dispensing. These have all been accepted extremely well by buyers. Will Miele return to IFA in 2017? There is no doubt that Miele will be back at IFA next year and the industry will be back as well - there is no doubt about that. In your capacity as Chairman of the household appliances divisions at ZVEI, what have other appliance manufacturers said about this year’s IFA? I spoke to a few colleagues from ZVEI who were also very happy and told me that they were delighted with the response to their innovations and with their sales. The appliance industry is in good shape as we all have a lot to say. There are many innovations and there is still a lot of room for growth in all markets worldwide. The leading topic is digitalisation and the connected home, which is an overall industry issue. I believe that you will see a lot more innovations to come every year, even if an oven always stays an oven and a washing machine always stays a washing machine. Products can always get better Dr Markus Miele Joint Managing Partner, Miele At its IFA press conference, Miele introduced its first bagless vacuum cleaner as its most important tradeshow highlight. Speaking to journalists from around the globe, Dr Markus Miele, Miele’s Joint Managing Partner, said: “The Blizzard CX1 is powerful, quiet and offers unsurpassed user convenience. The Blizzard sets new standards above all in terms of hygienic disposal of the contents of the dust container.” Dr Miele said all over the world, people are worried above fine airborne dust. But the billowing cloud released when emptying a bagless vac seems to be of little interest to users. “Similar can be said of the often mediocre suction performance and high noise levels on conventional bagless models,” he noted. “Only at Miele is fine dust retained by a highly effective, additional self-cleaning filter outside the dust container.” Dr Miele said the clean and hygienic disposal of dust from the Blizzard CX1 has been certified by the IBR Laboratories, an American organisation for testing filtration performance www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Friday 16 th September 2016 21
