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tives, too. Digital-native companies can help carmakers create those fifth-screen
experiences. But companies have to consider whether their cultures will mesh
and what their partnering track record is.
What do our end-users want? Some companies — especially those with sig-
nificant operations in Asia — might already have a customer base that is eager for
shared, driver less cars.
Get ready for coexistence
I encounter a lot of wild predictions about a fully driverless future; I also encoun-
ter some skepticism about whether driverless tech will ever be practical at scale.
As I see it, cars with a human driver and an in ternal combustion engine will be a
fun damental form of transport for the foreseeable future. But driver less technol-
ogy is maturing and demand is growing. So I expect a future in which driverless
and traditional cars coexist.
Even a partially driverless future will mean gigantic new opportunities. Strat-
egy& research estimates that by 2030, mobility-as-a-service will be a US$1.4 tril-
lion market. The companies that win this market will be those that offer the most
convenient, entertaining, productive, and customized experience, with the fifth
screen at the center of that experience — and at the center of the digital economy. +
Felix Kuhnert
[email protected]
serves as PwC’s global automotive
industry leader. He draws on his
extensive automotive experience
to manage the firm’s response to
the disruptive forces reshaping
the automotive industry. He
also serves as head of PwC’s
automotive industry sector in
Germany and Europe. Based in
Munich, he is a partner with
PwC Germany.