Flying Cars, Touch In Virtual Reality, Welcome To Future Of Connected Cars!

Virtual & Augmented reality are the merging trends adopted by startups in the automobility industry

Text: Thenmozhi Shanmugam    Images: Various Sources

November was packed with a number of Entrepreneurship events across the world and I had an opportunity to spend three weeks in the US. I’m still one of those people who travel for conferences and network across the world to learn what’s happening in different ecosystems and markets. Last three weeks of trip was power packed and overwhelmingly insightful, I’m trying to jot a few key trends and learning’s in this article. My first stop was the Hollywood city of Los Angeles, amidst the Smart Connected Cars, Virtual Reality Games and Augmented Reality concept cars in Downtown LA. Key theme revolved around Connected cars, Internet of Everything, Collaborative, high-end segment using AR/VR for navigation, entertainment. The entire automobile industry from Daimler to BMW to Jaquar to the iconic new Tesla, legendary brands of who is who of auto industry were marking presence.

Conference was packed with Startups & Companies of all sizes launching in the automobility industry using the merging trends Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) for improving high-end navigation, bringing Artificial Intelligence in to improve already customized and luxury segment of Smart Cars. LA Auto show was evident that an entire industry was light years ahead of other conventional industry in manufacturing space who are not only proactively adapting, but there was a unparalleled enthusiasism& eagerness to embrace the new technology trends in the automotive space. Legendary makers of 100 years like BMW, Mercedes Benz, are tinkering the new tech and investing billions to take transportation to the next level.

VR is poised to pump up brands engage customized metrics to suit their customers needs, getting more collaborative data from customer usage, adding a human touch component in virtual reality of connected car segment paving awave of democratization of time and space was mind blowing. The economics of connected cars segment summed up in 4 themes as, a smart car connected on IoT, a self-driving car can drive itself to repair, use virutal cryptocurrency of Bitcon to refill gas, knows your meeting schedules, picks up kids and does weekend grocery trip depending on your schedule. How’z that for future coming to your car steps.

I was convinced Future of mobility is already here, when I heard Flying cars from the inventor Deszo Molnar @ dezsom! Flying cars are no more science fiction, its gotten real and tested in airspace testing centers in LA. Dezso highlighted rules for getting a flying car on air is easier than rules for a car. LA still has all the testing centers of legacy testing centers for aircrafts still intact in place, hence LA has a potential to become the automotive hub of flying cars in future. In most conferences I had attended, women’s panel participation were minimal, when I met Kimberely cooper of Prologue, I pinched myself and bowed a little. For all the talks about not having enough women in tech, here she was in the most top Sci-fi movie series ever, Kimberley’s produced and kicked ass five years earlier even before everyone else didn’t get what AI was all about. Kimbereley’s firm produced the Artificial head display for Ironman series, being a die hard fan of Ironman series, that moment was best as it could get meeting the producer of the film. Kimberley was sure from a different league of women leading the tech space in AI, VR & AR bringing ideas to life on screen. Startup Podium, Techweek becomes incomplete without the emerging startups in the space, top three caught my attention were,

Emerge.io, Touch in Virtual Reality

Founder Sly lee, Makein LA cohort was a panel speaker and I quote, ” Human Touch is magical, hands-on Interaction becomes key part of learning, we touch, experience & learn. If its not your hand, its not in your brain. VR will unlock that experiential learning and bring back the magic of first touch element in VR space to visualize in better dimensions and how we perceive the world. Argus, Automotive Cyber security Startup working with the major OEMs, Tier 1s, aftermarket connectivity providers, fleet managers and dealerships to protect connected cars and commercial vehicles from hacking. Led by cyber security and automotive experts, Argus integrates innovative computer networking and security methods with a deep understanding of automotive best practices. Argus protects private and commercial vehicles, fleets, connectivity platforms and dealerships from hacking with advanced cyber security solutions and services.

EverCharge, Making electric charging easy in apartments and residential complexes, combining Al algorithms, optimizing power management principles and making it easy for residential community building to own and operate their own electric vehicle charging stations. Founded by a bunch of Berkeley graduates and already in their first million of revenues was leading indicator of growing startup. Key takeaways for me for the conference was, when the industry as a whole is embracing new trends, and looking to engage, startups should ride the wave making the right connection, proving their product/ technology, when the odds are stacked up in your favor, you make a wind fall and kill it. Startups showcase were proving their market space, carving their niche in space they are operating, building revenues in pipeline and then looking to get funded. Startups are building up their stack up, preparing for a high ride even before thinking about approaching an investor for funding their capital requirement. These are startups who I would bet my money when they don’t need to be taking the dollars, that’s the best case scenario for you to opt to look to invest in category defying startups.