As we approach the end of the year, I’m reflecting on what has been quite an astonishing time for Sense Media.
Although there are obviously 3 months still to go, our year is very focussed on the Brussels events in September, the climax of our business year.
This year it was even more of a critical week, since not only did we have our first ‘proper’ AutoSens in Brussels since 2019, we also had the back-to-back launch of InCabin, the inaugural edition of our brand-new offering.
I can honestly say it couldn’t have gone better! I really mean that. We exceeded our expectations at every turn. Including how much it would take out of us!! The team have been totally amazing, pulling together when it mattered most, and pushing on through plenty of challenges. They are all superstars, and it’s reflected back via all the hyper-positive feedback we’ve had from the whole community.
So, with an absolutely massive THANK YOU to everyone who has touched InCabin or AutoSens Brussels this year, I’ll share these takeaways from our week onsite at the ever-impressive AutoWorld…
AutoSens
- Level 3 is back
Only 2-3 years ago we were hearing that OEMs would skip this challenge and move straight to delivering Level 4 and 5 vehicles. But L3 is back on the product roadmap, despite the many technical and HMI challenges, driven by commercial and regulatory pressures and opportunities. - ADAS needs to be connected to DMS/OMS for fully effective safety
We don’t have the software or hardware technology or protocols to tie those two together at the moment, so it’s an interesting area to watch for innovation and strategy. - Scaling isn’t easy
The L3 roll outs from Mercedes-Benz, Honda and others are very limited in size. We know Waymo, Cruise and other pilot projects have vehicles cleaned and calibrated daily. Building vehicles with high levels of autonomy, at series scale, with the required quality and consistency is still an unsolved task, and required significant further study and understanding so we can build mitigation into the design and maintenance of future vehicles.
InCabin
- The bounce-back is real
We have been overwhelmed by over 350 registrations this week, the whole community has been so eager to meet with their peers and discuss the future of what really is an embryonic technical field. - Phoenix is the right spot
Building on our previous researched, we’ve met so many more companies with operations in Phoenix and we can’t wait for the first InCabin there next March. - The in-cabin supply chain needs to talk more
Our inaugural conference really brought back memories of the first AutoSens back in 2016. There’s a huge amount to learn about how technologies can mesh together to delivery robust systems. We believe we can facilitate this discussion, just like we have via AutoSens, and help accelerate technology development and deployments.
It’s amazing to look back at how far the technology has come since 2016 when we launched AutoSens. Many problems still haven’t been solved, however, and that keeps us all in work as we seek to make further improvements to road and vehicle safety.
I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how ADAS and in-cabin applications evolve, merge, differentiate, and communicate. Next year will give us 4 great opportunities to dig into these technical topics in more detail than ever, and I’m already looking forward to what I’ll be able to report by September 2023.
One final thought, we are proud of what we’re built over these last 7 years, and it’s not limited to events. Here’s a little reel we made to illustrate what ‘by engineers, for engineers’ really means to us, and for you.
