Generative AI is revolutionizing the way that people interact with their applications. Microsoft is at the forefront of this change by integrating Microsoft Copilot into its products and empowering customers and partners to build their own copilot experiences. Today, copilots have been developed to enhance the productivity of industry functions and roles. These copilots synthesize data from multiple systems, providing information workers with streamlined access to data that can lead to faster, better decision-making and empowers the workforce.  

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The power of mobility copilots 

In the automotive industry, information workers are found across many business functions: research and development, manufacturing, sales, digital experiences, after-sales, and commercial operations. Information workers have different roles and tasks, for example: 

• Requirement engineers: Define functions of the vehicle based on market requirements.
• Software developers: Create new software defined vehicle functions.
• Fleet operators: Operate mobility services and fleet operations for commercial operations using fleet management solutions.
• Repair and maintenance technicians: Provide repair and maintenance services in the workshop. 

A function-based copilot can leverage multiple systems to provide a unified user experience for increasing productivity. To be more effective, the copilot user experience can be optimized for each type of end-user depending on the nature of their tasks and work environments. For example, the copilots run in different types of applications, devices, and uses, such as, end-user programs, desktop computers, mobile applications, or as voice only assistants—requiring different types of user interactions. Application and data integration in automotive can be complex as the ecosystem of software vendors create specialized data and applications that address industry-specific needs, such as functional safety and compliance during development, and right-to-repair regulation for after sale. 

For connecting, ingesting, and analyzing mobility and industrial data, organizations can use Microsoft Azure data analytics and messaging services such as Microsoft Fabric,  Real-Time Intelligence, and Event Grid, to process streaming data from different kinds of devices, from vehicles to robots. Furthermore, Copilot, available across the Microsoft stack in trusted products such as Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams, can promote additional collaboration, and increase productivity. 

The latest mobility partner copilots 

Microsoft Industry Clouds is redefining the way industries operate, with tools and guidance to support partners in the creation of industry copilots. Mobility-specific reference architectures are available to help to plan and build complete solutions. As part of the Microsoft commitment to empowering a global partner ecosystem of industry experts, we work closely with partners to build solutions based on customer pain points. Microsoft recently collaborated with industry partners, Netstar and KPIT, to create copilots that address concrete needs in the automotive industry. These solutions will soon be available in Azure Marketplace:

• Netstar has created a fleet operations copilot that simplifies the work of the fleet manager by interacting with vehicle, driver, and task management subsystems.
• KPIT has created a repair and maintenance copilot that enables repair and maintenance workers to fix vehicles faster, at first visit, thus increasing customer satisfaction. 

Fleet operations copilot from Netstar 

Fleet operators need to focus on operational efficiency to maintain and increase business profits—this means making quick decisions on vehicles, driver allocations, schedules, and tasks to optimize cost. Furthermore, to obtain a comprehensive view of the operation while in the office and on the move, a fleet manager relies on information from multiple systems. 

Netstar has created a copilot that integrates different systems to provide a unified experience that enables fleet managers to extract relevant information quickly and make decisions grounded on data insights in a short amount of time.  

The copilot integrates fleet information and telemetry data from the Real-Time Intelligence component from Fabric using two techniques: 

• A predefined query set that executes common queries on vehicles, trips, and health.
• A Kusto Query Language (KQL) query generation approach that creates dynamic queries on a scoped data set. 

To simplify interaction, Netstar has integrated custom cards that provide location information and maps to visually represent the position of vehicles and trips.

Repair and maintenance copilot from KPIT  

Modern vehicles are complex from the mechatronic and software point of view. This leads to longer repair times, dissatisfied customers, and unnecessarily replaced part warranty cases, known as “no-fault found”, incurring costs for the automotive manufacturer. Customer satisfaction is deeply affected if vehicles cannot be fixed correctly at a fair price, on the first try. Hence, repair and maintenance is critical to the profitability of the automotive OEMs and their relationship with customers. 

A repair and maintenance technician uses multiple systems to fix a car. These systems range from specialized tools for vehicle diagnostics to digital repair and maintenance manuals, repair procedures, and schematics. Additionally, they need to track all labor and cost times. 

To address these challenges, KPIT has created Trace2Fix, a repair and maintenance copilot that interacts with the following elements: 

• Vehicle diagnostics tooling to communicate with the car and read vehicle health, measurements, actuator control, and software lifecycle management.
• AI-powered reasoning engine to diagnose issues by analyzing symptoms, evidence, and fault codes to identify the most probable root cause. The copilot then directs technicians through optimal test steps, providing access to relevant repair procedures and schematics.
• Sample connections to the dealer management system and customer relationships management that leverages Dynamics 365 to handle appointments, scheduling, customer information, and inventory management. 

KPIT addressed interaction with the technician using both voice-only interfaces to facilitate hands free operations as well as custom cards to quickly display relevant repair information on different device types. With this solution, a repair and maintenance technician can access multiple systems to have information at their fingertips, leverage the Trace2Fix’s dynamic root-cause analysis and reasoning engine, and perform all necessary business actions to perform their tasks quicker. 

Tools for building your own copilot 

There are several options for creating industry specific copilots to address a variety of function and role-based needs.

For pro-code developers, copilots can also be created as services that leverage Semantic Kernel and connect to data sources and systems that are relevant for the customer scenario. The copilots are deployed as services in the cloud and integrated into front-end solutions. 

This high-level diagram shows a common approach for the creation of a function-based copilot backend: 

• API Management provides managed access to the copilot API, simplifying integration with multiple device front ends (such as mobile apps, desktop applications, augmented reality, and more.)
• Usage statistics to improve the operation of copilots are stored in Fabric. They are used to improve the response of the copilots based on feedback from the users.
• Memory along with user and vehicle profiles are stored using Azure Cosmos DB.
• Plugins implement the required data and capabilities for copilot—such as integration of vehicle telematics data using Fabric with Real-Time Intelligence, retrieval-augmented generation using AI search for vehicle documentation, and integration of business data from the dataverse.

For businesses looking to get started building copilots right away, Microsoft Copilot Studio offers an accelerated approach to creating copilots with minimal development expertise. Businesses can create function-based copilots to meet specific user needs. Organizations can also leverage the Copilot Studio Gallery, which offers industry-specific copilot templates that incorporate tailored business logic and custom prompts, streamlining operations and decision-making processes.    

Learn more about how you can create your own copilots using Microsoft Copilot Studio. 

Explore mobility solutions

• Discover how Microsoft is powering the future of mobility. 
• Learn more about the featured partners: Netstar and KPIT.   

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Not surprisingly, AI, and in particular generative AI, was at the core of nearly every single conversation as one of the biggest and most disruptive transformative forces to impact the industry in recent memory. The question heard often was how to turn that excitement into action and tangible business outcomes. Microsoft had the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the broad adoption and application of AI, and how our focus is bringing our capabilities to the industry in a way that solves deep business problems and creates new opportunities.

Generative AI will impact the entire mobility value chain—from customer experiences both inside and outside the vehicle, research and development (R&D) and design, core operations, and workforce skilling and empowerment.

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Making an impact with AI

During CES 2024, our customers and partners shared with us their incredibly exciting AI journeys. We talked about where they are today and where they want to be in the next 12 months. While we see companies at various stages of AI maturity, they all have one thing in common—they are all looking for cost-effective ways to harness the power of AI to drive value faster in their own businesses.

As I reflected on our conversations, five key areas came to mind where AI can make the biggest impact for mobility companies:

1. AI is enabling the next generation of digital cockpits

Spoken language remains the most suitable way to interact with a vehicle—to keep hands on the wheel and the eyes on the road. Generative AI enriches conversational experiences. Think “ChatGPT in the car.” Moreover, with a growing ecosystem of third-party integrations into Microsoft Copilot, bringing the driver’s digital life into the vehicle becomes easier than ever before.

We believe that this will spark the next generation of in-vehicle experiences. Our approach is to build an open ecosystem of best-in-class products and technologies, enabled by the Microsoft Cloud and leading AI capabilities. Just as important is the understanding that automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) want to build differentiated experiences and don’t want to be disintermediated from their customers. Our approach aims to provide OEMs with:

• Ownership of the total brand experience.
• A deeper relationship with the end customer.
• Flexibility to adopt technology stack for their own needs.
• Protection of end-user data and privacy.

Supporting this growth, notable partnerships were announced during the lead up to and at CES 2024, amplifying how partners are leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and ChatGPT to provide OEMs and their customers with next generation in-car experiences.

TomTom announced their partnership with Microsoft and demonstrated their “digital cockpit” concept at CES 2024 to provide a more natural, conversational way to interact with vehicle features and information sources both inside and outside of the vehicle in a way that is safe and efficient. This solution will allow an OEM to provide a differentiated and unique cockpit experience that also preserves their own brand identity. This “in-cockpit” experience represents significant focus and growth across the ecosystem.

A new collaboration with Cerence focuses on the future of connected mobility. Cerence announced an in-car assistant that leverages ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI Service to support OEMs to implement next generation experiences into new vehicles as well as provide the ability to retroactively upgrade existing customer-owned vehicles—extending customer value through access to more frequent feature updates and generating new revenue opportunities for OEMs.

Current customer stories include an in-vehicle productivity integration with Microsoft Teams from Lynk & Co, creating a seamless, hands-free way to stay productive on the go, and the AI-powered digital companion Mercedes-Benz developed using ChatGPT. This solution has dramatically improved the responsiveness and accuracy of the in-car voice assistant by providing more meaningful answers to queries and enabling context driven communications that are beyond simple vehicle or navigation type questions. In a true execution of innovation “at the speed of AI,” Mercedes-Benz was able to envision, develop, test, and deploy this solution in just 12 weeks.

2. AI is creating more value-driven customer experiences

The desired goal for mobility companies including automotive, transportation, and logistics providers is driving increased customer loyalty, growth, and retention. When we talk about the shift from physical to digital, a focus on improving customer experience is a key outcome.

This software-powered expansion creates new revenue-generating opportunities like subscription models, new apps and features, and an improved service experience. Companies are creating new service offerings and even revamping the way customers shop, select, order, and experience the delivery of new products and services.

With the ability to share information across data ecosystems, it is possible to have a multi-modal, frictionless travel experience whether that is in a car, public transportation, or airline, for example. The developments of AI along with a software-driven focus provide longer-term value for the customer and revenue benefits for the organization.

An additional customer experienced focused announcement made during the week of CES 2024 included KPIT, with their creation of a new solution that also employs Azure OpenAI Service for root-cause diagnostics to improve time to first fix and reduce “no-trouble-found” warranty claims enabling improved customer satisfaction and retention for dealerships.

3. AI is accelerating product innovation

Successfully developing and launching a vehicle has become increasingly complex. At the same time, the competitive landscape has changed dramatically as new entrants outside of traditional OEMs that are already “software native” become more prevalent. As a result, we see our customers looking to apply AI to accelerate time-to-market and increase R&D productivity.

A growing development is the desire for OEMs to shift from hardware to software with software defined vehicles (SDV). This represents a significant change to how a vehicle is developed, enhanced, and maintained, and opportunities exist to support open collaboration across the industry to help advance the maturity of SDV.  

Supporting this development area, Microsoft is a contributor to the open-source collaboration of OEMs, suppliers, and technology providers in the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle working group with contributors from across the value chain enabling non-differentiating advancement of SDV for the industry.    

SDV toolchain was featured at CES 2024 with the announcement by AVL, a leading mobility technology company using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot to create new opportunities for OEMs to utilize cloud native capabilities that aid vehicle software development. This new capability can significantly reduce development time for software defined vehicles, improving innovation and time to market. 

Digital engineering enables automotive OEMs to connect data across the product lifecycle to transform the way they design, build, and deliver products. The opportunity for AI exists across autonomous development, SDVs as mentioned above, knowledge discovery, and generative design. We believe AI has the potential to do for product development what the Internet of Things (IoT) has done for production in the manufacturing space.

Software development is at the forefront of this. According to a report by McKinsey, software and electronics related to digital engineering will account for 50% of total car costs by 2030, compared to 35% in 2020. More importantly, software-related features and services will generate about 30% of total automotive revenue by 2030, up from less than 10% in 2020.¹ This means that automotive companies need to shift their focus from what was primarily manufacturing, selling, and servicing vehicles to providing value-added software solutions that enhance the mobility experience of their customers. AI and digital engineering are enabling this, allowing products to be delivered to market in less time.

An example highlighted at CES 2024 was the announcement with Cognata, where AI is used to aid the virtualization of automated driver assistance (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) sensors in a simulated environment. The efficiencies gained will aid OEMs with their validation and integration processes to bring new automated driving features to market faster.

As companies use the power of AI and digital engineering to differentiate, we believe our core value is in enabling the transition with our customers, by building the “platform for platform creators” with our trusted and secure cloud-enabled services such as Azure, AI and Microsoft Copilot, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and our partner ecosystem.

In my next blog, I will dive deeper into this topic and share my thoughts about ways companies can accelerate R&D with generative AI.

4. AI is enabling deep insights into operational performance

To better serve your customers and develop innovative products and solutions, you need to have a tuned operation and supply chain. Manufacturing has made incredible advancements in efficiency with information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and IoT technology enabling automation, data insights, and analytics. Now with AI, not only is this data leveraged to aid decision-making but it can also be harnessed to drive innovation in solution development, aiding operations and frontline workers in areas such as anomaly detection, problem-solving, and real-time collaboration as our customers ZF and Siemens illustrate.

5. AI is also improving productivity in the back office

In the culture of “do more with less,” Microsoft has long provided the ability for individuals and organizations to achieve more. Tools and open-source environments like GitHub spark creative, problem-solving application development. Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams offer streamlined collaboration and productivity for back-office environments, and Dynamics 365 enriches sales, marketing, and frontline worker data integration that empowers companies to lead their digital transformation.

AI is already helping people and teams be more creative in their work—improving personal productivity and reducing the routine, repetitive elements across functions. We are betting big on AI copilots which use generative AI to empower people and augment their capabilities and ingenuity, while keeping them in control of the final decision-making process and outcomes. This means the workforce can focus more on value-driven projects, freeing up time—and money—to invest in skilling and innovation realization.

Enabling innovation—Mobility reference architectures

Our customers are looking to Microsoft to help them accelerate the adoption of AI and the development of advanced mobility solutions. They also seek to do this in a way that enables control of their brand identity and experiences with their customers.

At CES 2023, Microsoft launched three mobility reference architectures. At CES 2024, we released an additional four. Together, these seven reference architectures help our partner ecosystem leverage the Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions to support their customers across research and development, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, marketing, sales, and aftersales. You can learn more about these reference architectures and supporting ecosystem on our mobility documentation page.

A look ahead

We leave CES 2024 excited about the immediate future that AI and other developments supporting the automotive, travel, transportation, and logistics industries will bring. We extend our appreciation to our customers and partners who supported us at CES 2024 and are embracing the paradigm shift that is creating tremendous opportunities across the mobility ecosystem. I look forward to diving deeper into discussion on these and other important mobility topics in my upcoming blogs.

• Explore announcements at CES 2024 from Microsoft.
• Learn how you can accelerate the future of mobility.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest from the Microsoft Industry Blog.

¹ McKinsey & Company, Outlook on the automotive software and electronics market through 2030, January 2023.

The post Learning from CES 2024: 5 ways AI is reshaping the future of mobility appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

To support businesses in meeting these goals, Microsoft announced three mobility reference architectures at CES 2023. In 2024, we are adding four new reference architectures to our industry portfolio. These new resources help our partner ecosystem support their customers in driving the future of mobility across research and development, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, marketing, sales, and aftersales.

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Microsoft reference architectures for mobility

• Software defined vehicle toolchain ^new
• Mobility Copilot ^new
• Azure Innovation Accelerator ^new
• Autonomous vehicle operations
• Connected fleets
• Unified view of the customer ^new
• Digital selling

Microsoft reference architectures are designed to provide structure and guidance for project managers, enterprise architects, and IT managers to deliver agile business outcomes. Solutions utilizing the mobility industry reference architectures are available through qualified partners and Microsoft industry solutions.

Software defined vehicle toolchain reference architecture

The software defined vehicle (SDV) toolchain reference architecture enables a modern cloud-native software development toolchain leveraging strong developer tooling services with additional functionality specific to automotive. The reference architecture covers continuous development, testing, and delivery of high-quality software.

This plug-and-play approach provides the following benefits:

• Reduces the time to onboard new developers and increases code quality using generative AI.
• Accelerates development, testing, and validation of automotive software by shifting left—testing earlier and more often in the development process to improve software quality and development speed.
• Reduces reliance on in-vehicle silicon with highly configurable and flexible virtual electronic control unit (ECU) and virtualized hardware in the loop (HiL) environments on Microsoft Azure.
• Supports compatibility with edge and in-vehicle silicon by offering equivalent compute on Azure.
• Supports the validation process by having a common infrastructure for deploying software artifacts from verification through software-in-the-loop (SiL) to test fleets and collecting “interesting data” to drive changes to the software.

The SDV reference architecture includes the following elements:

• Development tooling using proven Microsoft tools to increase developer productivity and collaboration such as GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Dev Box, and Visual Studio Code. These tools are extensible with automotive-specific functionality from partners.
• The SDV development, validation, and integration reference architecture provides orchestration services that allow you to manage deployment environments and target configurations to accelerate your testing and verification on virtual ECU and virtual HiL solutions in the cloud.
• Azure services provide foundational capabilities, such as deployment environments, compute virtualization, and data storage. Microsoft Fabric provides data and analytics services.
• Azure networking provides connectivity to on-premises, HiL validation environments.
• The Azure and GitHub marketplaces simplify integration of partner offerings for tooling and virtual images.

Mobility Copilot reference architecture

The Mobility Copilot reference architecture enables various use cases across the value chain to increase productivity, unleash creativity, and drive innovation with AI. The architecture supports scenarios in research and development, production, marketing and sales, in-vehicle services, and after-sales or repair with cutting edge architecture built on the latest AI models with diverse UX paradigms for optimal customer and employee journeys.

• Copilots for engineering requirements: AI-based assistant to empower engineers to optimize vehicle performance and design from aerodynamics and fuel efficiency to safety and aesthetics.
• Copilots for production quality and efficiency: AI-based assistant that increases production efficiency by analyzing quality data from development, customer experience, production, and other sources to detect quality issues.
• Virtual customer assistant: Conversational engagement for marketing, sales, and customer service channels to answer product-or-concern-related questions, qualify leads, drive sales, and increase efficiency through automation.
• Onboard AI assistant: In-vehicle voice assistants to improve natural language understanding and expand the range of driver and operation interaction.
• Copilots for vehicle diagnostics and repair: AI assistant for automotive repair workshops to improve vehicle diagnostics, streamline maintenance tasks, and offer real-time insights to mechanics.

Mobility Copilots enable the following unique value propositions:

• Best-in-class AI models: Multi-modal enterprise-grade models within Azure based on Azure OpenAI Service, for example GPT 3.5 Turbo, GPT-4, and DALL-E technology.
• One-base architecture: The versatile base architecture addresses a wide-array of use-cases for maximum efficiency and adaptability.
• Easy to plug-in: The architecture can be seamlessly integrated into existing architectures, providing swift deployments.
• Unified data sourcing: Seamlessly integrate multiple data sources including structured and unstructured data.
• Responsible and secure: Azure OpenAI Service instances are isolated from every other customer—the data is not used to train the AI model and is protected by comprehensive enterprise compliance and security controls.

Companies like Mercedes-Benz have already started to implement Microsoft AI-based solutions across the value chain such as production, sales and marketing, and in-vehicle services. Other industry examples include GM, Amadeus, CarMax, and Air India.

Azure innovation accelerator reference architecture

The Azure innovation accelerator (Azure IX) is an end-to-end cloud solution providing modern, flexible, and secure Azure-based IT infrastructure that is built and maintained by a highly skilled DevSecOps team. The solution can be implemented within six to eight weeks, facilitating fast innovation. This approach optimizes time to value and provides a secure environment for single or multiple companies to collaborate with minimal data management burden. This architecture can be used for various scenarios that require agile collaboration including partner ecosystem enablement, high security environments, short-term quality investments, quick-deployments, or limited IT capability.

This rapid deployment solution offers the following benefits:

• Turnkey solution: Ready-made state-of-the-art infrastructure based on a Microsoft blueprint and environment enables fast roll-out.
• Fully managed solution: To ensure infrastructure is available and up to date without taxing customer resources.
• Security as a service: Microsoft provides various managed security modules available through the platform to service the highest security demands.
• Defined governance model: Defined governance models allow trustful collaboration and joint control of the platform to protect assets and IP.
• Flexible partner collaboration: Enabling onboarding of developers from different companies with different policies to become productive on one joint platform.
• Change built-In: The platform and the managed components provide a flexible change approach based on demands.
• Focus on generating value: Burden of maintenance, change, and administration is low by design through an agile collaboration model.
• Split billing: The cost incurred can be distributed among the partners through defined split.

 The Azure innovation accelerator architecture consists of the following elements:

• Azure IX is clustered in platform infrastructure and the corresponding DevSecOps builds and runs a dynamic Azure-based cloud environment.
• The platform infrastructure consists of the mandatory Azure IX Solution Core with embedded processes based on agile principles for security and convenience.
• Azure IX provides base packages for operations tailored to the customer use case.
• Besides the full Azure and Microsoft product stack, the DevSecOps team can run and maintain third party tools and even customer tools by arrangement. The team provides immediate support and resolution for development and operations within one team, a key differentiator amongst the competition.
• The main building blocks of Azure IX are shown in the diagram below.

Within the automotive industry, Azure IX can be used as a base platform to quickly advance all mobility services including SDV, Mobility Copilots, and autonomous vehicle development. One of Azure IX’s first successful use cases has been in advancing autonomous driving development. Advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) technology needs strong collaboration between various stakeholders in the development of new functions that require a highly flexible, secure environment built for change.

Unified view of the customer reference architecture

The Microsoft unified view of the customer reference architecture brings all sources of customer data together, enabling deep insights and hyper-personalized mobility use cases for automotive and industrial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and dealers in travel, aviation, and in mobility-as-a-service. The customer 360 blueprint sets the foundation for a unified customer data platform (such as data integration, pipelines, and consent handing) to combine relevant data sources into one single view of the customer.  

Some of the benefits of this architecture include:

• Improved customer experience: The architecture provides a 360-degree view of the customer, enabling businesses to deliver personalized experiences across channels and touchpoints.
• Increased efficiency: By consolidating customer data sources, businesses can reduce the time and effort required to access and analyze customer data with “zero extract, transform, and load (ETL)” integration and “zero-data move”.
• Better decision making: The architecture enables businesses to gain deep insight into customer behavior and preferences, which can be used to make data-driven decisions.
• Increased revenue: By delivering personalized experiences and improving customer satisfaction, businesses can increase customer loyalty and revenue.
• Secure insight: A personalized ID guards customer insights ensuring consent is handled clearly and seamlessly and insights are at the touch of the customer’s digital fingertip.

Unified view of the customer is based on a harmonized data model using Microsoft Fabric to provide customer core data including unified customer identity. The architecture illustrates how live customer interactions are processed through event stream and real-time analytics, then integrated with marketing content to create a comprehensive customer 360-degree profile through Microsoft Fabric. This profile is enriched with data from third-party marketing clouds and central marketing channels, which is then analyzed for insights and recommendations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights.

Customers like Amadeus are leveraging customer centric solutions to create more choice for their customers, better quality service, and smoother trip experiences.

Connected fleets reference architecture

The Connected fleets reference architecture enables faster, lower cost, higher value fleet management solutions—such as asset management and field service—by simplifying value extraction from connected vehicle data, streamlining integration with business systems, and facilitating specialized analytics.

The Connected fleets integration framework enables partners to build value-added solutions with unique capabilities, while also enabling the customer to take advantage of key solutions such as Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Azure OpenAI Service. This eliminates the need for fractured and expensive solutions built from multiple sources, allows faster development and time to value, and utilizes the Microsoft Cloud to reduce costs. With flexible, standards-based data ingestion, the architecture supports existing connected vehicle solutions, OEM feeds, or data exchanges as appropriate. This flexibility helps to increase scope and reduce cost of vehicle data acquisition.

The Connected fleets reference architecture is enabled by the following partners: Accenture, Cognizant, Connected Cars, DSA, Hitachi Zero Carbon, HCL Technologies, Luxoft, Mojio, Netstar, STZRE, and TomTom. A live instantiation of the power of composing multiple partner solutions together is now available and underpins a new demo shown first at CES 2024, as illustrated in the following graphic:

Autonomous vehicle operations reference architecture

The autonomous vehicle operations (AVOps) reference architecture provides an integrated, end-to-end workflow for developing, verifying, and improving ADAS and autonomous vehicles (AVs).

Industry-leading Microsoft Azure cloud services are provided to integrate with your tool chain, while our partners complete a strong, industry-vetted global, secure, and hyper-scale cloud-based development platform that spans development, validation, runtime deployments, and feedback loops.

Regardless of level of autonomy, developing a self-driving software stack and bringing a new car to market presents a series of workflow challenges:

• Efficient ingestion of terabytes or even petabytes of data daily generated by fleets of test vehicles.
• Software and AI update requires validation through simulation with massive amounts of computing power.
• Petabytes of data and peta-scale computing is expensive—delivering on time and within budget is challenging.
• How do you accurately validate and test performance?

AVOps provides a templatized digital testbed that can be spun up on demand, shared across the entire value chain, and used to shorten time-to-market. This approach helps our automotive customers transform themselves into software and AI companies.

The architecture also helps optimize operational ADAS and AV workflow coordination and feature development, verification, and validation through:

• DataOps: From edge to cloud, the orchestration of petabytes of data to support parallel workstreams.
• DevOps: Scaling the continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipeline.
• MLOps: Scaling machine learning pipelines and integrating with CI and CD pipelines.
• ValidationOps: The ability to accurately simulate software and AI updates across all edge cases.

How generative AI can help

The white paper “Enhancing efficiency in AVOps with Generative AI” explores how generative AI can help reduce the complexity, cost, and time of developing and testing autonomous driving systems across simulation, validation, optimization, and personalization. Use cases include generating synthetic scenarios, validating sensor data, optimizing driving behavior, and personalizing user experience.

The AVOps reference architecture provides a collaborative, open framework built on common processes that helps automate, manage, and closely monitor the validation processes for software and hardware deployment. The following Microsoft partners provide additional value-added capabilities to this framework: Ansys, Akridata, Applied Intuition, Cognata, dSPACE, and Linker Networks.

Digital selling reference architecture

The digital selling reference architecture enables reinvention of the traditional customer journey by transforming real-life spaces into an immersive and interactive digital environment that reaches a wider range of customers.

The reference architecture enables unique, efficient, and immersive ways to engage with consumers by unlocking the power of the metaverse to improve communications, sales, and operations. Enhanced by partner capabilities, focus areas include digital marketing, e-commerce, high-fidelity 3D rendering, and industry-specific systems. By integrating disparate data from the customer, field service, and dealer management systems, improved visibility, collaboration, and data insights can drive more personalized, multi-channel customer experiences. Through the digital selling reference architecture, cloud and partner capabilities, OEMs, dealers, and mobility, service providers now have the flexibility to enhance in-person interactions along with enabling new digital customer engagement models.

The following announcement by Fiat highlights the transformative impact of digital selling.

A group of curated expert partners will drive innovation while providing excellence in omnichannel fulfillment, immersive and virtual user experiences, and end-to-end process coverage. These partners include: Sitecore, Adobe, Touchcast, Annata, and Stella Automotive AI.

Reinventing the customer journey

Microsoft in mobility and manufacturing industries

• Explore Microsoft solutions in mobility and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
• Learn more about Microsoft reference architectures for mobility and manufacturing.

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• Those dealing with the “robot” under the hood moving the car of the future.
• All user-related functions, apps, and cabin-related experiences.

The underpinning of the technological development for cars in both categories is safe and secure transportation. When I say safe, I am referring to ISO 26262. When I say secure, I am referring to the new (as of the last two to three years) cybersecurity regulations such as ISO/SAE 21434,¹ ISO/DIS 24089,² and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) WP.29³ focused on keeping these secure for their entire useful life. Yes, going forward, cars need the lifecycle of their cybersecurity managed for the 15 to 20 years they are on the road.

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Unique complexities of the automotive industry

Considering the complexities of these cars and the automotive industry, this is a very tall order. Here are some of the challenges:

• Complex supply chain: There are thousands of suppliers globally contributing to the making of a car and the start of production.
• Volume of code: Cars are now the most significant threat surface in the world, with a typical midsize car containing more than 150 million lines of code from hundreds of suppliers in thousands of files, mostly in binary format.
• Product lifecycle: Cars have a long useful life of 15 to 20 years in active use versus two to three years for consumer products.
• Regulations: Functional safety and new cybersecurity mandates for managing the life cycle of security.

As cars become more connected, the risk of cyberattacks increases.

Functional safety and cybersecurity

Functional safety is the discipline that deals with designing and manufacturing systems to reduce the risk of harm to people. Cybersecurity deals with protecting information and systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. The automotive industry needs to combine functional safety and cybersecurity to ensure that the safety and security of the driver, passengers, and other road users are not compromised.

Incorporating cybersecurity into the design and manufacturing process of cars is essential. While connected cars open a whole host of new opportunities to the industry and passengers of the vehicles, this connectivity and visibility is a double-edged sword as it also makes them susceptible to bad actors trying to hack them to obtain data or even functional control of the vehicle itself remotely. The implications of a more than 3,000-pound vehicle being directly controlled by an unintended user is of utmost concern. Again, safety is the focus.

Standards and regulations

The automotive industry has several standards and regulations that address functional safety and cybersecurity. Developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), one such standard is ISO 26262, which outlines the safety requirements for road vehicles, which aims to reduce the probability of hazards in automotive applications where the machine operation can impact the life of the passenger.  

The ISO/SAE 21434 vehicle cybersecurity engineering standard is focused on the entire automotive product lifecycle and integrates safety and security measures that ensure vehicles have been designed, manufactured, and deployed with the rigorous security requirements in mind. It also, defines the responsibilities for various groups involved during different stages of automotive product development. The final version of ISO/SAE 21434 standard, also includes a Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA), focusing on possible threat scenarios within a vehicle operation, with relevant posture scoring factors. It also defines the “shift left” aspect of security aligned with automotive systems engineering V-model, to approach the products functionality and cybersecurity requirements simultaneously. 

ISO/DIS 24089 is another standard that provides guidelines for managing software updates in a consistent and systematic way. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as a part of WP.29 standard has put a new regulation R156 in place which regulates the software update management system. ISO 24089 provides the guidelines on how to systematically manage software updates compliant with the UNECE R156. The UNECE WP.29 has also developed regulation R155 focused on the cybersecurity lifecycle management of road vehicles. 

Securing the car of the future

Securing the car of the future involves several technical details, such as securing the vehicle’s electronic architecture, managing the software lifecycle, and managing the cybersecurity lifecycle using software updates. The car’s electronic architecture is moving from domain controllers to zonal architecture with an eye on the ultimate cloud-connected central computer. Managing the lifecycle of software and cybersecurity using software updates ensures that the car remains secure and protected against any new threats that emerge. This requires dedicated Vehicle Security Operations Centers that manage this process and automate as much of the process as possible.

The UNECE WP.29 regulation mandates four concrete areas of cybersecurity:

1. Manage vehicle cyber risks
2. Secure vehicles by design
3. Detect and respond to security incidents
4. Provide safe and secure software updates

Three lifecycle phases of development, production, and post-production are called out, with post-production to include monitoring, detecting, and responding to cyberattacks. Cars need to be built securely, and that security posture needs to be maintained as they go through the manufacturing process. Finally, once they go out the door on day zero in the lot, they need to stay secure for the life of that car. This means every aspect of the car’s design, development, manufacturing, and operations will be affected and need to change. As of January 2021, WP.29 applies to passenger cars, vans, trucks, buses, and other light vehicles are subject to the regulation as of January 2021.

The big-compelling-event: In the European Union (EU), WP.29 regulations R155 and R156 will be mandatory for all new vehicle types from July 2022 and will become compulsory for all new vehicles produced from July 2024. That means starting July 2024, all vehicle manufacturers need to manage the life cycle of the security of the cars they build and operate for the life of that vehicle on the road (15 to 20 years).

Compliance

WP.29 covers 54 countries, including the EU, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. WP.29 regulations in these countries are legally enforceable, and proof of compliance is required for a car manufacturer to obtain the needed type-approval and sell into the above markets. That means even the automotive original equipment manufacturers in countries not covered by WP.29 will be affected if they want to sell cars in the above countries. Like the existing homologation process for ISO 26262, type approval provides mutual compliance recognition across the EU without further tests. Approval can be obtained from technical services auditing companies such as TUV SUD. Development, manufacturing, and finally operations of the car will be affected and will need to change.

Attack surfaces

Cars have become the world’s largest and most complex threat surface, with millions of lines of code running on several computers and many attack points and tactics that bad actors can exploit. On a per-car basis, this is significantly more complex than most IT systems worldwide. Nowadays, most industry news is dominated by the word of IT hacks and exploitation of IT systems. To be clear, the IT industry has dealt with security issues for decades, whereas cars were not connected until recently, hence car security meant something completely different. So, a sector that has not been dealing for long with cybersecurity is now supposed to secure the most complex and sophisticated entities and threat surfaces in the world, where every car is a mission-critical system, where the operation of the machine impacts the life of the passengers.

In IT, over 80 percent of incidents are caused by company employees, primarily because of inadequate security hygiene (for example, lack of rigorous security culture).⁴ To meet the security requirements of the three lifecycle phases of development, production, and post-production of cars, a holistic approach to security cultural transformation at every car manufacturing company is needed.

Cultural transformation

Cultural transformation starts with educating everyone about security, regardless of role or job title. This means everyone from software and hardware designers and developers to the C-suite.

Sharing a common language to discuss security is the best place to start. That means educating everyone on the risks involved, expectations from each other and the whole team, and using security best practices regardless of the task, and in many cases, regardless of the cost associated with a “security-first” culture. When the team is educated on security, they become empowered to make better decisions, resulting in positive security outcomes.

Building a security-first culture aligns knowledge with behaviors so that, as an example, developers think about securing before writing a line of code, and C-suite decision-makers think about security risks impacts on the bottom line and consider proper investment in security as business-critical.

Unfortunately, the security industry is currently challenged with a need for more qualified resources, so attracting and retaining the best talent from diverse backgrounds and developing security leaders is more critical than ever. 

Shifting left, which means embedding security as early as possible in the product development life cycle and automating as much as possible leveraging AI and machine learning, also helps developers focus on solving high-value problems.

Automotive manufacturers can improve their security posture by focusing on people and the culture of “security-first” within their teams, followed by using the best security tooling focusing on minimal gaps and overlaps to build a strong foundation for security operations.

The only way to secure the cars of the future is to take a holistic approach to cultural transformation that institutionalizes a “security-first” mindset.

Start your security transformation with Microsoft

At Microsoft, along with our partners, we have curated a broad portfolio of products and services for a comprehensive support of automotive and manufacturing industries during the three lifecycle phases of development, production, and post-production, and all the associated homologation processes. For the design and development phase along with our partners, we offer a comprehensive set of tools and services, focused on compliance as well as managing the lifecycle of cybersecurity for the automotive market. We can also help our customers with their security cultural transformation journey.

For managing the every day lifecycle of the vehicle on the road, we have curated key partners who are leveraging the Microsoft Cloud and our security products, along with products and services, to provide comprehensive Vehicle Security Operations Center (VSOC) services, as well as converged SOCs covering IT and manufacturing operational technology security as well. 

Customers who have switched to Microsoft Security not only have significantly reduced their cost, but they have also drastically improved their cybersecurity posture. The ultimate in doing more with less.

¹ISO/SAE 21434:2021, Road Vehicles, Cybersecurity engineering, ISO.

²ISO 24089:2023, Road Vehicles, Software update engineering, ISO.

³WP.29 – Introduction, UNECE.

⁴Stanford Research: 88% Of Data Breaches Are Caused By Human Error, KnowBe4.

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This year’s congress event highlighted topics such as autonomy and sustainability with a focus on the reduction of carbon emissions, retail, and the role of governments in developing industrial decision-making. Microsoft provided thought leadership around our role in supporting transformation in the automotive industry.

Our focus encapsulates the entire segment known as “mobility” with a distinct concentration in automotive, mobility, transportation, and logistics, or effectively, the movement of people and goods. Within automotive, we provide the “platform for platform creators” and empower companies to innovate around industry opportunities.  

Accelerating the future of mobility

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Addressing the industry challenges

While these opportunities are expanding, the industry is hyper-focused on the larger challenges that must be addressed to pave the path forward. These include: 

• Technological disruption: The rapid pace of technological advancements and the challenges for companies to stay ahead of the curve. Existing automotive OEMs and mobility companies need to invest in research and development to keep up with evolving customer expectations and industry standards. 
• Regulatory environment: The mobility industry is subject to various regulations and standards related to safety, emissions, and data privacy. Especially as we evolve autonomous systems and connected data. Companies need to navigate these regulations while ensuring compliance and adapting to changing requirements as new standards are introduced and mature. 
• Infrastructure limitations: The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) requires a robust charging infrastructure, while autonomous vehicles rely on extensive sensor networks and high-speed internet connectivity. Expanding and upgrading infrastructure to support these emerging technologies can be a significant challenge and highlight the adjacent industries that are a significant factor in supporting the adoption of future mobility.  
• Shift in consumer preferences: Changing consumer preferences, such as the rise of ride-sharing services and the sharing economy, can disrupt traditional business models in the mobility industry. Companies need to adapt to these shifts and develop innovative solutions to cater to evolving customer needs. 

Enabling innovation

While applicable to all industries, digital transformation, and the integration of digital technology into all areas of business are fundamentally changing how businesses operate and deliver value to customers. The automotive and mobility industry is no different and in fact, is heavily impacted by the move from physical to digital. This intersection of boundaries is also seen as the shift towards a “software culture”, that promises to usher in an unprecedented convergence of people, business, and things that disrupt existing business models and create new revenue opportunities in the movement of people and goods.  

As the industry transforms digitally, there are major trends that are having a significant impact in the areas of customer experience—connected, autonomous, shared mobility, and electrification (CASE), software defined vehicle (SDV), edge-to-cloud environment parity through high-performance computing, and AI. This shift acknowledges the drive by traditional OEMs, new entrant OEMs, mobility service providers, and suppliers to develop new digital and software-driven solutions which cloud platforms can enable. As we engage with automotive and mobility companies, we see similar areas of focus for innovation which include: 

Products and services

Product design and development is the single biggest area in the IT budget of most OEMs in the automotive industry. Companies are tasked with innovating top-line growth while holding the line on costs and the challenge of leveraging a labor pool in transition as skilling adapts to newer technology and techniques required to support innovation. This is also a growth area for many traditional OEMs now expanding into mobility service offerings and capabilities like SDVs to ensure product adaptability and create new business models that help companies drive growth beyond traditional practices. Read how General Motors reimagined its development tool chain process to drive innovation and connect people to things that matter here.  

Factory 

At its core, automotive is a significant manufacturing operation and more than ever has an imperative to improve productivity and adaptability to meet evolving customer demands, mitigate risk, and improve efficiency and sustainability to fuel innovative growth. With data as the new currency, many manufacturers are deploying AI tools, maximizing the value of their data to support the decision-making process. Manufacturers are increasing the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) cybersecurity solutions at the edge, cutting OT cybersecurity breaches in half. Companies with manufacturing operations will also prioritize digital literacy as a key skill set during the talent retention process to support digital transformation and enterprise-wide technology adoption. Read how ZF developed its digital manufacturing platform to reduce production downtimes and optimize inventory. 

Supply chain

The automotive ecosystem and the many players that support it are all linked by an intricate supply chain. The industry is rebalancing its supply chains seeking more resilience to endure future disruptions which now may arise from many different vectors—economic, geo-political, natural, and technological for example. Strategies such as multi-shoring sourcing will enable a more proactive stance against risk in supply reliability. In addition, actively managing carbon footprint as a key metric to execute sustainability initiatives is a goal beyond simply reporting. Read how Daimler Truck North America optimized supply chain processes to reduce downtime. 

Customer experience

OEMs are overhauling marketing, sales, and service processes, with a deliberate shift to centrally managing the complete customer journey and providing additional channels beyond the dealer network. Currently, customer experience projects face highly fragmented data and identity. In marketing and sales, central management of marketing and sales processes requires rapid experience innovation including metaverse. In service, connected vehicle data is utilized to improve traditional vehicle maintenance processes, reduce warranty expenses, and innovate with new business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) offerings like insurance, subscription, fleet, and other services. This is a strong growth area where technology-savvy companies are acting as disruptors to existing business models and are driving innovation leading to new services and business models. For OEMs, it is a focal point for driving deeper customer engagement and building brand loyalty. Read how Porsche Cars North America created an improved service experience for technicians and customers with mixed reality. 

Data and AI

It is said that data is the new currency—at least when it comes to intelligence that is driving innovation, informing on strategy, and powering decision-making. Generative AI and capabilities like ChatGPT have opened a world of opportunity across all the business areas mentioned above. It seems everyone is involved in pilots or projects in one way or another as companies seek real value in deploying them to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Read how Amadeus created personalized, on-demand mobility experiences with AI.

Security

Along with data comes the absolute requirement for data sovereignty and security. The foundation of any data-driven transformation strategy must include security measures to combat cybersecurity threats that not only impact data but also can threaten vehicles, assets, and infrastructure that are becoming increasingly connected. Read how automotive quality control leader Hollen grew its business through enhanced security.  

Microsoft at Automotive News World Congress 2023

We are witnessing a great inflection point in the industry—one that will dramatically evolve the landscape of automotive, future mobility, and related industries and ecosystems. Most importantly, this transformation will impact people. We enjoyed the engagement at Automotive News World Congress 2023 and welcome you to learn more about Microsoft in automotive.

The post Enabling innovation: Microsoft at Automotive News World Congress 2023 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

• Metaverse and the future of car buying.
• Mixed reality transforming service and customer experiences.
• Connected, autonomous, and software-defined mobility.

The Future of Automotive Industry Solutions

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The theme for CES 2023 is “Human Security for All” and intends to highlight how innovations in sustainability, transportation and mobility, digital health, and the metaverse are addressing the world’s greatest challenges.

In a CES Insider Look video, Sanjay Ravi, General Manager, Automotive, Mobility, and Transportation Industry, highlights some of the key disruptions, and innovations creating what he termed a “once-in-a-century transformation.” The common industry goals of Connected, Autonomous, Shared mobility, and Electrification (CASE) have expanded into more impactful end goals of improving the societal, sustainability, and safety impact of mobility and improving the interactive and connected experiences that make our daily lives more productive and enjoyable.

Microsoft is working closely with our customers, partners, and the community and enabling them to drive the future of mobility. Data and AI are playing an increasing role in mobility. In a recent podcast interview, Sanjay talked with Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve, who is advancing the safety and testing of autonomous vehicle technology using AI.

Transportation and aviation also featured at CES, are navigating their own roadmap to the future with a keen focus on sustainability. Contributing to more than one-third of all carbon emissions globally, we see nearly all players finding unique ways to reduce this impact, including an Alaska Airlines and Microsoft partnership to help the advancement of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in key routes. Along with our customers and partners, we highlight our own emphasis on sustainability to be carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050 to remove our historical emissions since our founding in 1975. In addition, Microsoft is helping our customers fulfill their sustainability mission with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.

Innovation must lead from trust, data sovereignty, and cybersecurity and these are the core foundations at the center of empowerment for our customers and partners. Over the next five years, we are investing more than USD20 billion to continue the expansion of our cybersecurity capabilities, an imperative in our increasingly connected world.

Microsoft at CES 2023

The Microsoft CES theme of “Drive the future of mobility” embodies our vision to empower—not compete with—the industry to shape our mobility future. It is often out of duress that innovation sparks and grows. And there’s no doubt that the larger global ecosystem is under great pressure from both macro and micro influences. Organizations and individuals are having to do more when more may not always be readily available.

But as we’ve seen, the human resolve is strong and perhaps more vibrant than ever given our recent challenges. Part of the CES mission is to expose this resolve and technical prowess to the world as innovation will power us forward. Once again, we join the global community to showcase and celebrate the impact of innovation in automotive, mobility, and transportation at CES.

Subject to modifications, we are supporting these industry endeavors across five key areas:

1. Empowered Organization

To lead external transformation, organizations must first transform internally. The pandemic created unique opportunities to improve inter and intra-organizational productivity, ushering in an opportunity to drive efficiencies through a diverse, inclusive, and hybrid workforce. Here we will showcase the impact these trends have on accelerating transformation of productivity, frontline workers, citizen development, and most importantly, security.

Key showcase:

• Lynk & Co.: Improving enterprise efficiency isn’t the only area of focus companies have. That efficiency is now extended to the vehicle and leveraged through Microsoft Teams to bring on-the-go, safe, and efficient productivity integration while keeping eyes on the road.  

2. Resilient Operations

We have all been directly impacted by the vital links to a global supply chain and operations. Whether as a consumer, supplier, or someplace in between, improving operations is a key focus. Companies must find ways to create sustainable, agile, and collaborative supply chains that improve visibility and resilience. Many may not know that Microsoft operates a significant global manufacturing and supply chain operation. That experience along with our partner ecosystem has enabled our customers to drive rapid transformation in operations.

Key showcase:

• Creating resilient, sustainable supply chains with Microsoft Supply Chain Platform.
• Factory supply chain transformation with PwC and ZF and the creation of the ZF cloud in partnership with Microsoft as a platform for innovation across factories, products, and services.
• Powering the future of electric vehicles (EVs) with Rockwell and advanced battery technology leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT), mixed reality, and product lifestyle management (PLM) integration to power the electrification of mobility.

3. Accelerate Innovation

At the core of transformation is the need to innovate. Disruptions impacting the industry have created a sense of urgency creating rapid transformation opportunities that are truly moving the industry forward at a rapid pace in many areas.

Here we highlight:

• Autonomous simulation with Ansys and Applied Intuition enables advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles (AV) engineering and product teams to safely develop, test, and deploy autonomous vehicles at scale.
• AI, cognitive services, and the future of in-car interactions.
• Developing the future of software-defined vehicles with Eclipse Foundation.

4. Customer Experience

A benefit of transformation at its core is creating engaging experiences that build long-term value for the customer. After all, the customer is the ultimate beneficiary of technological advances in mobility. Whether it is integration with entertainment, productivity, sales, or service—opportunities are being created that offer unique, connected, and immersive experiences.

Examples include:

• Re-imagine the car-buying experience with the Fiat Metaverse Store supported by a Fiat 500e on display with an interactive, digital customer purchase experience powered by Touchcast, Annata, and Sitecore.
• Revolutionizing the end-to-end automotive retail ecosystem with Tekion.
• AI, cognitive services, and the future of in-car interactions with General Motors (with the all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ in-car demonstration at the General Motors OnStar booth).

5. Mobility Services

Traditional automotive, transportation, and logistics providers see themselves as part of a larger mobility ecosystem, not just creators of a product to move throughout it. Mobility is vibrant with blurred lines between old and new business models, and the creation of entirely new categories that address the future needs for the movement of people and goods.

A significant enabler of mobility services is the introduction of Microsoft Connect Fleets. A new reference architecture that creates an interconnected ecosystem of partners and makes use of common architecture, data models, and business applications from the Microsoft Cloud. Look for this announcement at CES and visit the booth to learn more.

Here we represent:

• Turning connected vehicle data intelligence into actionable insights and business system integration for efficient fleet management operations with Connected Fleets, a Microsoft reference architecture. Learn how Accenture utilized Connected Fleets with the campus Connector transportation system at Microsoft campus headquarters to improve mobility options and efficiency.
• Enhanced visibility of vehicle data and insights through Connected Cars and Wejo, offering insights from more than 13 million active vehicles and 18 trillion data points.
• EV charging management as demonstrated by HCLTech, enhanced by the Connected Fleets reference architecture.

Learn more

If you’ll be in Las Vegas for CES 2023, stop by and visit us in booth #6017 in the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall for hands-on, immersive experiences and an opportunity to talk with mobility experts from many of our customers and partners.

To learn more about Microsoft in automotive, mobility, and transportation, visit the Future of Automotive Industry Solutions homepage.

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It has been 30 years since author Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Snow Crash appeared and the term metaverse was coined. During that timeframe, we have seen the launch of online networks that embody many of the metaverse’s most important concepts, without ever using the term.

The rebranding of Facebook to Meta in October 2021 significantly increased metaverse conversation, and the hype has been driven by a variety of technology players preemptively claiming to be metaverse companies or to be creating a metaverse.

Metaverse is one of the latest technology buzzwords to hit the headlines. What is it and will it revolutionize everything? The answer is yes, no, and maybe. Is it simply the latest phase in the evolution of business transformation? Certainly, the metaverse expands the traditional notion of an ecosystem into a 21st-century virtual business, social, and collaborative interaction space.

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I hope to shed a bit of light and stimulate conversation about this latest evolution of the internet.

What is the metaverse?

According to Matthew Ball—venture capitalist and author—the metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.¹

We see it as a set of technologies that allow for persistent digital representation, connected to aspects of the real world. Meta means, “beyond,” and verse means “universe.” Together, the metaverse refers to a virtual world parallel to the real world that can be experienced more completely with technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These virtual worlds will connect to a social system and fully functioning economy in which data, digital goods, content, and intellectual property (IP) can pass, and individual users, organizations, and companies can create content and goods to ensure that the metaverse continues to expand and evolve.

In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang Studios, which launched Minecraft, for $2.5 billion (about $8 per person in the United States) and over time, made virtual reality versions available on Oculus Rift, PlayStation, and Microsoft HoloLens.

The beauty of Minecraft is that like Lego blocks, it offers infinite possibilities within an infinite digital space to allow anyone to create their own metaverse. With over 130 million monthly users, Minecraft is but one early example of the metaverse impacting our daily lives.

The metaverse: An evolution of the internet

The metaverse will not fundamentally replace the internet, but instead, build upon and iteratively transform it. It is a logical evolution of the internet. Just like fixed-line internet ushered in the age of personal computing and mobile internet increased the proliferation of content and access to the internet, the metaverse will place everyone inside a “virtual” version of the internet on a continuous basis. It will enable us to constantly be “within” the internet, creating more immediate experiences.

Technology is extending the imagination boundary

From a technical standpoint, the building blocks of the metaverse, VR, AR, AI, and blockchain are rapidly evolving. VR enables the use of computer simulation to generate a three-dimensional space of the virtual world, and a way to provide the user the visual and other sensory stimulation to feel as if they are in the real world.

Identity and the economic system will leverage blockchain technology to establish credibility. As a distributed database or ledger shared among computer network nodes, blockchain guarantees the accuracy and security of a record of data without the need for a trusted third party.

To ensure the plurality of the metaverse, edge computing technology is needed to ensure a consistent experience for all users.

Metaverse use cases

A quick web search for metaverse shows increased mentions across the entire mobility sector. Microsoft is also active in this space by supporting both the consumer and industrial metaverse. A recent announcement mentioned how Microsoft and Meta are partnering to deliver immersive experiences for the future of work and play. And, at the Microsoft Ignite conference in September, examples of current industrial metaverse applications were shared, like Kawasaki Heavy Industries demonstrating metaverse enabling collaborative spaces for engineers, service technicians, and frontline workers utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins, and mixed reality.

Metaverse in automotive

We see the convergence of digital and physical worlds evolving in the automotive industry in areas including virtual vehicle design and physical production, led by real-time collaboration on engineering design and materials.

In manufacturing and supply chain operations, the metaverse and digital twin models are enabling rapid production processes that require significantly less physical testing, improving efficiency. This results in reduced risk and improved quality control with detailed, physics-based designs to shrink the margin of error for production. A metaverse-based digital twin can also be used to streamline and optimize supply chain management, from product design through procurement, manufacturing, and inventory.

With vehicle sales, the metaverse is bridging the gap between the dealership and customers opting for online purchasing. 2D and 3D solutions in this space are offering virtual viewing of vehicles, test drives, and explanations of complex technology features to create a more fluid customer journey and buying experience for consumers.

Opportunities to enhance the in-car customer experience are also being explored. Entertainment, gaming, and productivity are all potential opportunities that can engage vehicle occupants where appropriate. When it comes to service, the metaverse is accelerating the upskill of existing technicians and enabling remote virtual diagnostics and repair of vehicles. This touchless, frictionless approach will result in greater customer satisfaction to improved customer retention.

Metaverse in transportation

While some argue that the metaverse will enable more satisfying virtual social interaction and therefore less need for physical mobility, others look towards a more efficient multi-modal mobility future.

The metaverse will enable intelligently networked, constantly evolving, and integrated multi-modal transportation networks. By leveraging digital twins of physical infrastructure like airports and major roadway systems, all the way down to transit infrastructure, the coordination of transporting people and goods will improve dramatically. With AI automation dynamically creating less friction between origins, stops, and destinations, travelers will plan and execute journeys across multiple transportation modes in an increasingly more cost-effective and efficient manner as these services become part of the larger metaverse network.

Metaverse in travel and hospitality

While the metaverse cannot replace travel, it can enable the travel industry to provide enhanced experiences and the opportunity to engage with the customer more deeply with new and unexpected adventures.

The metaverse will help the hospitality business meet evolving guest expectations. In the area of pre-travel planning, a virtual concierge can enable travelers to take virtual, three-dimensional walkthroughs of hotel room options, airport terminals, destinations, and attractions. The objective will be to provide travelers with options and a clear idea of what they might expect when they visit their destination. This will enhance the booking experience, improve guest satisfaction, and increase booking volume.

Status—where are we now?

As I have shared, there are several examples of actual metaverse scenarios impacting the industry today. There are also many opportunities yet to be explored as the technology is still in its initial stages. As these examples continue to develop, we see metaverse experiences classified as industrial or consumer metaverse, further defining the intended applications. In either application, removing walled gardens is important to ensure continued growth and adoption. This means that the metaverse will require a mutually agreed-upon set of underlying standards that make it possible for people to live, work, and play in the metaverse together and to move between different instances with persistent digital identities and profiles.

Other key elements will include the creator economy, universally accepted rules of behavior, recognition of digital currencies and a means of converting them into real-world currencies, digital object ownership rights, security standards and processes, and Web 3.0.

Web 3.0 and the metaverse

In Web 1.0, internet browsers connected everyone online. Web 2.0 extended this connectivity and has revolutionized the availability, speed, and access to information and transformed the way we connect and interact with people and the world around us.

Web 3.0 is known as the next generation of the internet. It will introduce new capabilities such as blockchain with aspirations to become more equitable, transparent, and decentralized, concentrating the power (and data) in the hands of users, instead of entities. It will analyze, understand, intelligently integrate, and interpret information to provide users with an enhanced, hyper-personalized, and interactive experience.

While Web 3.0 is focused on who will own and control tomorrow’s decentralized internet, the metaverse is focused on new ways in which users will experience the internet of the future. Web 3.0 and the metaverse complement each other, with Web 3.0 serving as the basis for connectivity in the metaverse, and the creator economy in the metaverse supplementing the vision of Web 3.0.

What’s next

We have only begun to scratch the surface of possibilities with the metaverse. It will continue to be an evolving platform that will dramatically change the way we interact with the world around us. From an industrial metaverse or consumer metaverse point of view, we see growing interest, application, and exploration of metaverse capabilities in the broader mobility industry, and with adjacent industries like retail, banking and insurance, and energy as well. The future may well be shaped by the visions created within the metaverse today.

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¹Framework for the Metaverse, The Metaverse Primer, MatthewBall.vc.

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From anywhere and on any device, travelers can book every step of a globe-spanning trip with flights, lodging, cruises, trains, and other providers. This represents a vast and diverse cyber ecosystem, where resilience is essential at every level. The industry includes booking platforms, insurance carriers, payment providers, loyalty programs, and others, all of which exchange sensitive data. Nearly all these need to confirm consumer identity, making every transaction and database a vulnerability. 

Against this rapid growth in the digital ecosystem, COVID-19 and high staff turnover have left travel and tourism organizations more resource-constrained than ever. Digitization and increased data sharing have opened vast opportunities, but also exposed new vulnerabilities. The move to the cloud requires new expertise for already overwhelmed IT teams.

As the travel and tourism sector looks ahead, Microsoft partnered with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to develop a white paper, Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism, to help plan for a more resilient future. Drawing on insights from industry leaders across the globe, Julie Shainock, Global Leader, Travel and Tourism, and Shane O’Flaherty, Global Director of Travel and Transport, co-authored a white paper with the WTTC to share the most recent understanding of cyber-resilience for the industry. 

Together, Microsoft and WTTC are committed to equipping the travel and tourism industry for an increasingly digital future, grounded in security and resilience. 

Evolving pressures and new challenges 

The white paper, “Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism,” identifies the key challenges travel and tourism organizations should be thinking about and offers best practices for preventing and detecting cybercrime as it has become more complex in recent years. 

Globally, the industry saw a sharp increase in digital security breaches from 2015 to 2019, at higher costs. The risks are familiar: phishing, ransomware, malware, and identity theft are common attacks. What’s new is the widening variety of vulnerabilities—not just in the various data systems and connections that have proliferated, but also with IoT-connected devices.

Travel and tourism organizations have a complex security environment because their employees are working across the globe. The shift to hybrid work has made this environment even more challenging, and workers more susceptible to cybersecurity breaches.  

With the workforce challenges of COVID-19, many travel and tourism organizations need to defend against more vulnerabilities with reduced IT and security teams. As Alain Simon of Amadeus says in the paper, “the issue is not a problem of budget, but a problem with resources.” 

An added dimension for a sector that operates globally is legal and regulatory compliance. Each country or region determines its own legislation around privacy, critical infrastructure, and supply chain security. For example, the European Union has implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Australia has the Privacy Act, and various states in the United States have different privacy laws—making compliance of utmost importance.  

Highlighting best practices 

People are eager to travel again, but COVID-19 has required travelers to disclose more sensitive information than ever, such as their health status, often accessed from smartphone apps and QR codes—solutions that could become compromised and risky. It’s important to make customers feel safe—and that requires new digital safeguards in every organization.

At the Microsoft Security Response Center, our experts in the Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center partnered with Julie Shainock and Shane O’Flaherty from our travel and tourism team to provide the latest best practices for ensuring cyber resilience across the industry.  

With decades of experience safeguarding IT software and systems across the globe, Microsoft is at the forefront of cyber resilience. Working every day with partners in the customer, developer, and government communities, we’re continually developing new technologies and practices to stay ahead of cybercriminals.  

Those best practices are detailed in the white paper, tailored to the unique environment and challenges of the industry. For example, it’s no surprise that with such high travel and tourism worker turnover in recent years, staff education is key. Cybercriminals are always adapting their attacks, and training ensures staff know how to identify and avoid security breaches. Training is imperative for organizations of any size, and how much should depend on employees’ level of access to sensitive data.  

Another practice outlined in the paper is applying a Zero Trust approach to access within a given organization. IT leaders should be open with employees and customers about new security measures and data collection needs. Explain why policies are changing, what this information will be used for, and how long it will be kept. 

The evolving vulnerabilities of hybrid work and IoT devices also require updates to organizational standards. Security protocols, including employee cyber hygiene, need to extend beyond the physical workplace. Organizations need the technology to provide protection anytime, anywhere, and anyplace. 

With travel resurgent, customers expect to digitally share more sensitive information with more organizations, but they also expect that information is kept safe. The travel and tourism sector’s global reach and distributed nature require an approach that not only protects against attacks but also prioritizes resilience. This requires understanding the nature of cyber risk. 

Customers are excited for travel to fully reopen, and the industry is eager to welcome them. With continued collaboration, innovation, and compliance, the industry can enable them to move freely around the world, safely and securely. 

Learn more 

Download the white paper “Codes to Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Travel & Tourism” for the latest cybersecurity issues and best practices for the industry. 

Read more about the work of the Systems Security and Privacy team at the Microsoft Research Lab in Redmond.  

The post Tackling the digital future of travel with Microsoft and WTTC appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

An organization has several options available to manage their computing requirements—on-premises, cloud, and hybrid cloud—are the primary scenarios you are most likely familiar with along with variations of each. Utilizing a cloud computing environment to develop, deploy, manage, and use applications to support the business is one of the scenarios we are all most familiar with.

On-premises high-performance computing

But what about computing operations that require dedicated computing power to run complex calculations such as machine learning, AI, or simulation work? A traditional on-premises environment would be built around a complex network of servers and computing resources including storage (hot, cold, and archive), power, networking, and complex management by dedicated technology resources. Not only is this extremely capex intensive, but it also tends to be less efficient as these computing resources are often designated by department or workload where we see high idle or low utilization time, resulting in higher energy consumption and cost. And, from a utilization standpoint, many traditional licensing agreements for on-premises applications and resources may be built around capacity limitations which can hamper the ability to drive larger, more complex jobs without making adjustments that could require additional costs and complexities.

The nature of many HPC workloads like AI, simulation, and testing, is that while they are intensive, they are often only required in “bursts” of activity, particularly to support specific projects like engineering or product development within the specific organization or organizational structure. In the automotive, mobility, and transportation space, for example, this can be highlighted in autonomous driving simulation, testing, verification, and validation, or analyzing complex routing or global logistics simulation scenarios for transportation and logistics operations. With an on-premises environment in these situations, you may be constrained by the amount of time or permutations of the scenarios that you can manage at the same time. Again, the long-term cost implications of this scenario make inefficient use of capital investments and technical resources which could be leveraged for other projects.

Cloud-based high-performance computing

Continuing with the automotive industry example, advances in mobility are driving intense investment around the core industry initiatives supporting C.A.S.E—Connected, Autonomous, Shared Mobility, and Electrification. Modern vehicle engineering is considered a large control loop involving the physical world, sensors, controllers, and actuators. An excellent example of leveraging a cloud-based HPC environment involves the engineering around Autonomous Driving (AD), Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and Autonomous Vehicles (AV). These advanced systems require a plethora of sensors and computer systems on the vehicle which must be aware of, sense, and respond to stimuli both within the vehicle and in the vehicle’s immediate surrounding environment. Everything from weather, road conditions and markings, traffic and traffic control devices (TCDs), pedestrians, street signs, and other anomalies need to be recognized and processed to enable an appropriate vehicular response that ensures, above all else, safety.

For these systems to be put into use, they must be simulated, and tested, based on a defined verification and validation environment for a specific global region and Operational Design Domain (ODD). You’ve probably seen road-going autonomous vehicles plying local streets with their array of spinning sensors and protruding appendages. Even before this critical on-road data collection phase, these sensors must be rigorously tested in a simulated environment built on HPC, requiring intense computing resources to simulate real-world conditions. For many original equipment manufacturers (OEM), this capability would typically be supported by a traditional, mostly on-premises computing environment. But with autonomous development workloads that support multi-physics, perception training, and simulation, for instance, an enormous amount of data and computing power are involved. To put the scale of this problem into perspective, sensor simulation work can generate over four gigabytes of data per second, per vehicle. Managing this amount of data and running the required scenarios can strain even the best on-premises environments.

Hybrid cloud high-performance computing

In support of autonomous driving, multi-physics, and perception training, vehicle sensors such as cameras, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), or RADAR, must be on-par and in many cases better than human perception to support anticipatory and near-immediate responses. Think of the scenario where a driver encounters a hidden object in the roadway at the last moment but cannot take a certain evasive action due to an oncoming vehicle. These split-second human decisions must be made by the autonomous vehicle planning system based on the sensor or perception environment and these precise scenarios must be simulated with extreme granularity. Even physical and environmental elements such as the location of sensors, the impact of weather, road conditions, as well as vehicle dynamics, must be simulated to understand autonomous system impact. This software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation regimes must be run with exhaustive permutations to yield the best results which can become critical restraints in a non-HPC environment. Other challenges include inflexible software contracts, restricting the amount of software utilization for a given job, fixed resources that can hinder the amount of computing power available, storage management, orchestration obstacles, and geographic disparity, all adding to longer development cycles and lost time to market.

To combat these challenges, companies in automotive and other industries with complex computing requirements are finding relief by leveraging hybrid cloud extension models. In this model, complex jobs can be assigned to cloud-based HPC environments at will with efficient orchestration. The advantages include the ability to rapidly scale up to provide optimal resource availability and then rapidly scale down to avoid costly underutilization of HPC resources when they are no longer needed, greatly minimizing the impact to on-premises resources, and reducing the costly overhead associated with upscaling or maintaining a long-term on-premises environment. Critically, this model enables a business to maintain select, mission-critical, or other applications or processes in their own on-premises or other environments, such as HIL, while enabling practically unlimited computing resources to complete other complex workloads in a cloud environment, creating enhanced agility. In the above automotive simulation example, an HPC environment can simulate billions of miles over millions of scenarios enabling the shortest, most cost-effective path to production.

While leveraging a hybrid cloud scenario to work these complex scenarios can yield significant benefits, getting there can require a significant shift in strategy and approach. Critical to enabling this transformation is the orchestration of on-premises and cloud workloads. For complex training of machine learning algorithms for AI and simulation like we see in automotive, an HPC environment works very well. It enables a focus on continual optimization cycles through iterative training to improve AI results. The value, in this case, is a “mature” and accurate solution that requires increased computing time and resources to achieve.   

For other workloads, a company may want to create rules in the orchestration process that requires specific thresholds and requirements to be met to define when jobs will run in either a cloud or on-premises environment and work to integrate the two environments. The orchestration process can also be aware of data sources and security requirements as well.

From a business opportunity perspective, leveraging a hybrid HPC environment can provide the best of both on-premises access and cloud extensibility, agility, and access to a vast amount of computing resources to tackle complex modeling and simulation jobs, in a cost-effective manner.  

Benefits of hybrid or cloud high-performance computing

One other very important benefit to leveraging a hybrid or cloud HPC environment is the environment itself. In company boardrooms of all sizes, sustainability is no longer discussed as an option. It’s imperative that all facets of business operation can be viewed through a sustainability lens. There is no exception from a computing standpoint where a Microsoft study has shown cloud to be as much as 93 percent more energy-efficient, and as much as 98 percent more carbon-efficient, than on-premises solutions. A win-win for your bottom line and the environment as well.

For more information, visit the Azure high-performance computing for automotive webpage. Learn how Audi AG leveraged HPC and cloud to meet their complex storage and computing challenges.

The post High-performance computing for accelerated vehicle innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Now that we’ve ushered in 2022 and closed the chapter on 2021, I look back highly impressed with the resilience of the automotive, mobility, and transportation industries. Presented with unprecedented global challenges, the industry’s engine never stopped running. Companies across the value chain remained resilient, innovative, and proactive. These brands tracked everything from the ongoing pandemic and the supply chain crisis to the rapid shift to hybrid work, and the impacts of a global semiconductor shortage. In fact, innovation accelerated this year and enabled businesses across the industry to develop disruptive solutions and business models to keep pace and charge ahead.

While challenges remain, the industry’s resolve to accelerate transformation will set the stage for ongoing recovery and sustained growth in 2022. The growth and rewards for efforts the industry made in 2021 were beacons for the opportunities that lie ahead.

Empowering the ecosystem

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more. As an integral part of the automotive, mobility, and transportation industry, Microsoft seeks to empower, not compete with, our customers and partners to create something beyond just solutions: an aim to drive true social impact. Indeed, we are all embracing and helping to develop a more sustainable future, encouraging innovative new ways to connect, interact, and engage with people and the world around us.

We witnessed growth and innovation across the ecosystem making mobility safer, more sustainable, and productive which we will explore in the sections below.

Automotive and beyond: expanding the movement of people and goods

Given the momentum in mobility and technological transformation across the movement of both people and goods, Microsoft has expanded its automotive industry team to encompass mobility and transportation.

Travel is beginning to make a comeback. However, experts agree that we will not see pre-pandemic tourism levels for several years to come. Customers in the travel industry are looking to technology providers to address challenges and demands in a post-pandemic world. Partnering with Microsoft, Amadeus has driven innovation in its travel software development cycles, and data capabilities creating closer connections with its customers.

With a focus on sustainable transportation through electric air mobility, we partnered with Vertical Aerospace for efficient fleet management to maximize battery life through AI and big data analytics.

Transforming the workplace

The global pandemic created the need for businesses to embrace a hybrid workforce model. This meant providing efficient collaboration, productivity, and skilling solutions in a secure fashion on a global scale. The Manufacturing Institute claims up to 2.1 million United States manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 because of a lack of adequate skills¹. The displacement of workers due to the impact of the pandemic has stressed this even further. Our latest Work Trend Index report highlights these trends and the impact on frontline workers.

Despite these challenges, the industry disruption was a lever to advance new, cloud-based transformative technologies to digitally empower their workforce, allowing companies to adopt more resilient, safer, and productive operations in less time. For example, operations equipped with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft HoloLens allow employees to quickly learn complex tasks and collaborate from anywhere, addressing both skilling and operational effectiveness.

Mercedes-Benz USA  helped its service technicians more efficiently repair and maintain its models by providing U.S. dealerships with HoloLens 2 headsets, reducing time to resolve problems, and reducing technician travel time. Finally, ZF embraced digital and remote work for 150,000 of its global employees driving massive efficiencies in the process.

Accelerating innovation

By 2030, virtually all new cars will be connected devices, functioning as datacenters on wheels. Current trends in the automotive industry are rapidly increasing the capabilities of connected vehicles. Automakers are gaining in-house data management capabilities through partnerships with cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure which will allow them to offer a wide range of digital car-based and add-on services that will benefit business and consumer.

On this front, we announced how Cruise and General Motors partnered with Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles—a critical milestone for the industry. Bosch also teamed up with Microsoft to develop a software platform to seamlessly connect cars to the cloud. The partnership will simplify and accelerate the development and deployment of vehicle software throughout a car’s lifetime in accordance with automotive quality standards, yet another critical requirement to help drive the global adoption of connected vehicles.

Volkswagen developed a platform for autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) driving systems, enhancing the brand’s transformation as a software-driven mobility provider, delivering secure and reliable automated driving solutions to Volkswagen customers.

With accelerated change, we see the benefits and support innovation led through open ecosystems. We are proud to partner with The Eclipse Foundation and several industry leaders to define a working group focused on the software-defined vehicle.

And the shift to electrification

One of the dominant trends playing out this past year was the movement towards electrification. This year we saw initiatives and legislation around the world move towards the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles. Car manufacturers responded by ramping up investments in technology and innovation to transition to EV fleets. Industry leaders like General Motors announced large-scale goals this year to accelerate production of electric vehicles, and new EV models are coming to the market from the traditional and new auto players.

In support of this transition, our traditional grid infrastructure cannot be overlooked and is critical to supporting this growth. Clever partnered with Microsoft earlier this year to optimize and balance the consumption of energy against the grid more efficiently.

Data-driven resilient operations and monetization opportunities

To successfully execute this innovation strategy, the industry must become more operationally resilient and efficient. Data is enabling a reduction of time-intensive and error-prone manual workflows, improving decision support, and enhancing visibility amongst trading partners throughout the value chain, creating more proactive and resilient operations and supply chains. In addition, data is providing new monetization opportunities enabling differentiated service offerings to customers for improved lifetime value.

With more than 6.5 million packages handled every day, FedEx uses advanced data analytics and machine learning operations (MLops) to reduce manual data processing, improve package handling accuracy, and reduce customer support calls. In similar fashion, Daimler Trucks North America uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights to predict supply chain issues before they happen allowing them to meet commitments more consistently to dealerships and customers.

As one of the largest suppliers to the industry, we’ve helped ZF create the ZF Cloud, digitalizing all industrial and operational production and business processes. Through the comprehensive set of cloud, AI, IoT, and data technologies, ZF is transforming into a cloud-centric mobility service provider that delivers sustainable, safe, convenient, and affordable mobility solutions to its customers.

In addition to operational and supply chain improvements, data gathered from vehicles also creates new opportunities for driving sales, enhancing product design for newer vehicles, and the monetization of new revenue streams. Wejo is partnering with Microsoft to build its cloud infrastructure to deliver near real-time vehicle data and significantly enhance predictive analytics to provide value-added services for customers.

Using the power of machine learning and AI, Arrival is creating an open data platform to extract insights from vehicle data and edge computing to streamline vehicle-to-cloud data flow. This unified, canonical data standard and transparent data sharing policy will enable insights to improve vehicle designs, advance fleet logistics, and help spur advancements in mobility ecosystems and business models.

Data security and trust

No conversation about data would be complete without addressing security. With the proliferation of data across the industry, an important foundation must be security and trust. With our focus on ecosystem empowerment, we provide industry-leading “Zero Trust” security capabilities for our customers and partners through automated threat protection, robust cloud security, and governance and protection of sensitive data.

Enhancing the customer experience

The pandemic, labor impacts, supply chain, and semiconductor shortages had a profound impact on the industry and the customers it serves. For consumers, lower inventories of new cars made the used car market a prime target, creating new opportunities for dealers to engage with their customers and build long-term customer value.

Working with Annata, Microsoft is enabling a new approach to digital sales and services which enables dealers to provide more personalized customer experiences, building long-term customer loyalty. Tekion is simplifying the traditional dealer and consumer relationship journey with the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC), utilizing Microsoft’s cloud-native tools to modernize the end-to-end retail journey. Another example is XPENG Motors, who is building on Microsoft’s Neural text-to-speech technology to enhance the in-car customer experience.  

Building a sustainable future

In 2020, Microsoft emphasized its commitment to helping our world work towards a more sustainable future by presenting a plan towards becoming carbon negative by 2030. By 2050, we aim to remove all the carbon dioxide emissions that the company has produced either directly or by energy consumption since the company was founded in 1975.

As we commit to reaching our own sustainability goals, we are also committed to enabling other companies and organizations to reach theirs. In 2021, we announced the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help companies and organizations record, report, and reduce their environmental impact through automated data connections and actionable insights. Etihad is already leveraging the cloud to measure and benchmark its environmental footprint, allowing the brand to implement and assess carbon efficiency savings across its business operations. We will continue to drive relationships with key players like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to help advance our global sustainability goals for Microsoft and our customers.

A look ahead: 2022 and beyond

Our industry continues to drive innovation rapidly and at scale. We are seeing established players pivot and rise to challenges that create new opportunities for growth. At the same time, new players are disrupting the established ecosystem with innovations that are pushing boundaries and re-writing the playbook. Looking back at 2021, it amazes me to see everything the industry has accomplished in these uncertain times, and I am excited for what we will do together in 2022.

While Microsoft and others had to pivot from in-person engagement at this year’s CES 2022 in Las Vegas due to concerns over COVID-19, we created a digital experience to demonstrate our unique industry capabilities around accelerated innovation, mobility services, customer experiences, and resilient operations.

You can learn more about our digital presence at CES 2022 and the exciting press announcements made in our Microsoft Automotive and Mobility press kit. I also encourage you to learn more about how Microsoft is joining with customers, partners, and the automotive, mobility, and transportation industry to create a culture of collaboration through Microsoft Cloud for Automotive, Mobility, and Transportation.

With ever-exciting times ahead of us, I wish you a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Sources:

¹2.1 Million Manufacturing Jobs Could Go Unfilled by 2030—National Association of Manufacturers.

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