photo credit: Eric Anderson
Some people may wonder how all the elements of the Digital Agenda for Europe can be made to work together. What has the car industry got to do with the Digital Agenda, for example?
Well, I’ve taken a great interest in the car industry for more than 30 years, starting as a telecoms and transport minister is The Netherlands in the 1970s and 80s. I’ve seen the changing trends in transport, the different uses of technology, and I’ve been in more than a couple of crisis meetings for the industry (as recently as a year ago). I’ve seen the dangers of subsidy races and under-investment in research. All these my memories and experiences of this industry help me see how it fits with the Digital Agenda.
It’s very clear in my mind then that the future of the European car industry – the last really big manufacturing industry in Europe – rests with intense and substantial research collaboration, and within that ICT innovation.
Crisis aid isn’t a sustainable future for this industry, only great research and innovation is. So when I speak about “Every European Digital,” what I want people involved in the car industry and its supply chain to hear is: “Every vehicle digital.”
Some of it is already happening, and with EU support too I might add. EU funding of work to advance telemetry and GPS and specific projects like eCall are also part of a long-term push to deliver smart mobility and new platforms for innovation, for example. And it has to be said that electric vehicles are where ICT and green cars truly meet. I am personally very passionate about the valuable role that common standards have to play in going digital, and in this case speeding up the delivery of fully electric vehicles.
When it comes to wireless communication to and from vehicles, Europe leads today. This sort of communication is critical to improving both safety and efficiency; but to convert this technical success into global market success, cooperation and standardisation will be required. We are going to need the automotive and ICT communities side-by-side to stay ahead in this race. In other words, we can stay in the lead if we collaborate. Mess it up and we will be left behind.
To sum up: we need more collaborative research. We need it to support the 12 million jobs in the industry and to deliver the sort of connected, smart, safe and clean transport that people want.
More information: my speech to the EUCAR partnership on this topic.
Number of views: 3541
Tags: EUCAR Neelie Kroes, Every Vehicle Digital, Neelie Kroes car industry, Neelie Kroes Digital Agenda
Email This Post
RSS comments feed on this entry