Once in a generation opportunity for UK automotive industry

The flexibility of the UK workforce, an export focused capability base and changes within the UK automotive industry in recent years are all contributing to Britain rapidly becoming the destination of choice for automotive OEMs (automotive production is set to grow at 9% per year).

Michael Mychajluk, Purchasing Risk Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, comments: “The car of tomorrow will make increasing use of sophisticated, highly integrated electronic systems for safety, comfort and performance. There are many exciting areas of development enabled by electronic systems but this introduces a significant complexity issue which can only be addressed by a supply chain that works more effectively together. This presents us all with a once in a generation opportunity to streamline the process and accelerate innovation from R&D to on-the-road production vehicles”.

“Major challenges facing the industry are coming from outside the traditional automotive areas: consumer innovations at automotive quality, security, ADAS and drive train all present new opportunity and significant challenges," adds Keith Kidd, Director of Renesas European Design Centre.

Alongside the growing interest and investment from government into the automotive sector, the AESIN initiative has recently gained significant momentum. UK organisations have significant opportunity for growth and AESIN invites all parties involved within the UK automotive electronic systems lifecycle to make contact and participate in the many and varied activities within its collaborative programme.

Andrew Birnie, Systems Engineering Manager, Freescale Semiconductor, commented: “The push towards the autonomous car presents new challenges for all parts of the automotive supply chain, from the OEM to the Tier 1 to the semiconductor vendor and IP provider. Only by forming new collaborations with experts from within and without the automotive electronics systems industry will we solve the security, user interface & system availability challenges before us.”