Since cars became an intrinsic utility, the humanity has speculated with how the car of the future might look like. The K.I.T.T. prototype driven by Michael Knight in the famous 80s series Knight Rider already reflected that future cars would be above all very smart. 30 years later, the emergence of Uber, the socialization of mobile devices and the development of high technology such as cloud computing, big data and Internet of Things (IoT) are making the present cars increasingly intelligent, and in a very near future more autonomous, hyper connected and social.

This new scenario addresses big changes that threat to disrupt the whole automotive industry and even dependent markets. All participants across the automotive industry value chain need to be mindful of the speed and dramatic transformation experienced in other industries. The old-school engineering excellence focusing on car handling, safety and data-sheet figures will be not enough this time to overcome the new challenges posed by the digital age. Therefore, it is important for all participants to step on the accelerator towards digital transformation if they don’t want to lag behind.