Over the past 11 years as an industry analyst and consultant, I’ve had a front row seat to the forces reshaping the automotive industry. Disruption, pivots, and big bets – all of them, palpable in every office and every workshop. It’s the opportunity embedded in this moment that compelled me to join Aeris’ automotive team.
In my former world, perhaps the most important attribute you can bring to the table is the ability to tell a story. The art of storytelling is something that I learned over the past decade, but when the opportunity to help Aeris tell its story came across my desk, the decision to join the team as director of product marketing made itself for me.
From today, you’ll get to hear about one of the best hidden stories in connected, software-defined and AI-enabled vehicles, and I am fortunate to be considered the narrator.
Why join Aeris now?
Most think of Aeris as a connectivity company, and it’s true that we have a compelling, scalable suite of connectivity management tools that enterprises across the world use to manage, optimize, and secure our 115 million global embedded device footprint. What most don’t realize is that we have a uniquely positioned set of automotive-specific connected vehicle enablers that 5 leading automakers based in the United States, Europe, and Asia use to create compelling connected vehicle experiences around the world.
While that relatively untold story is reason enough to join, it’s also personal for me. I had the privilege of working with the Aeris team for multiple years in the mid-2010s to design, implement, and scale its first global connected car program. As a patent holder for some of the car-to-cloud technologies underpinning the Aeris Mobility Suite, I take it personally when I tell this story. These technologies were first scaled in production here at Aeris, and they quietly laid out the foundation for software and AI-defined vehicles around the world.
Silicon Valley innovation at automotive scale
One of the coolest parts of working for Aeris is seeing how well the company bridges the cultural gap between Silicon Valley and traditional automotive.
With the industry collectively spending north of $60 billion in SDV-related R&D annually, automakers are racing to rewire decades of hardware-first thinking into agile, software-defined machines. Every automaker is working hard to accelerate product development through these SDV efforts, targeted vertical integration of disruptive technologies, and partnership-based relationships with suppliers. Many look to automotive and tech leaders in the Bay Area, and now China, as a source of inspiration for how to achieve these goals. Aeris, however, has been spanning these worlds for over a decade.
Now that OEMs are deepening their partnerships with suppliers, I’ve seen first-hand how this team uniquely understands automaker needs and complexities while maintaining the flexibility, pace of innovation, and outside-the-box thinking of Silicon Valley that’s driven the success of our 5 OEM partnerships.
Every automaker that’s trusted Aeris as a connected vehicle partner over the past decade remains a customer today. That’s the kind of track record I’m proud to represent, and an experience I hope we share with more of you over the coming years.
Building for the future: connected operations and AI
Calling Aeris a connected vehicle platform provider falls way short of doing our capability justice.
Where our value comes from is the deep understanding of how to make the most of a connected car. Our business doesn’t scale based on the amount of compute we sell or data we transfer. We center our automotive portfolio and roadmap on automotive customer lifetime value creation and transformation of connected vehicle operational efficiency at a global scale. I was amazed to learn that we helped one OEM reduce the total cost of ownership of their connected vehicle platform by over 70% over two years while helping shift their connected vehicle profit & loss from red to black.
This is where Aeris’ deep connectivity background creates a unique foundation that no other partner in the software-defined vehicle space has. We have tools and insight into how vehicles use embedded connectivity to create stronger customer value and optimize costs throughout the lifetime of a vehicle program. We apply that to our car-to-cloud enablers in Aeris Mobility Suite today for vehicles on the road in 92 countries and counting. Soon, you’ll be hearing more about how we’re using that insight to power the future of digital twins, OTA, cybersecurity, vehicle AI, and connected operations – all of which underpin mature software-defined vehicle tech stacks.
Hitting the ground running
I’m exactly one month into my tenure at Aeris, but in my excitement to dig right in, some of you might have already heard from me. Most of the time has been spent on getting to know the highly motivated, opinionated, and collaborative team, spread across Santa Clara, Chicago, Michigan, Germany, France, India, Sweden, and Japan.
We spent last week together in Chicago charting the strategy for the future of our automotive business, and I’ve walked away more vindicated than ever in my decision to join the team. Backed by energy, passion, creativity, and capital, there’s no question in my mind that the Aeris automotive portfolio and team can’t be kept a secret any longer.
If you want to hear the story for yourself, reach out to us below to book a meeting.
Author:
Alex Oyler, Director Product Marketing, Aeris Automotive
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