By Michael Kunigonis, Vice President and General Manager, Corning Automotive Glass Solutions
Since we launched our Automotive Glass Solutions business at Corning, I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world and talk to many in the automotive industry about four trends creating as much disruption as the assembly line did 100+ years ago.
Commonly refered to as “CASE,” these trends require the industry to deliver cars that are more connected, autonomous, shared and electrified.
Each trend has its own dynamics and there are many views on how these trends will play out. But there is one thing that I’ve heard over and over again – that the “CASE” phenomenon is increasing the importance of an automobiles’ user interface and user experience. So what will this “experience” look like in the future?
Whether owned or shared, progressively cars are serving as “temporary” home, office, and entertainment spaces. With that, whether you are the driver or the passenger, there is an increased expectation of enjoying the same experiences commonly found in our living rooms or offices. The experiential nexus for all this is the car interior.
According to PwC, “interior surfaces are potential real estate for ambitious enhancements of safety or entertainment.”[1] I’ve observed that the new auto interior experience has at least four different dimensions that enable a land grab for this “real estate.”
· Digital – Replication and complementation of the digital experience we are accustomed to getting from our smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
· Visual – Dashboards, center stacks, and even window glazing deliver vibrant, high-definition visual displays of both image and information.
· Sensory – Exposure and stimulus of multiple human sensory elements and inputs determine how we engage with our vehicles.
· Customized – Democratization and invidualization to learn and adapt to our personal wants, likes, style, and patterns
This is why, according to Technavio, the global automotive interiors market is expected to post a CAGR of over 7% during the period 2018-2022[2], and Allied Market Research expects the market to be $236.2 billion by 2022.[3]
