Digital Transformation of Automobile and Mobility Service

Abstract

The traffic system for automobiles has not changed its physical, industrial, and social structures in more than 100 years since its introduction to society. It has been deployed at a large scale and plays an important role in mobility. The system elements which is driver, automobile, and road physically contact each other, and the system is managed only by humans. Advancements in electric and electronic technologies for over 30 years have improved performance of automobile, but they have not improved performance of drivers and road. However, drivers, automobiles, and roads have begun to be connected each other through digital data, and the traffic system is now starting to be managed not only by humans but also by information technology such as artificial intelligence. This situation is assumed to change the system value, size, range, and role dramatically. This is the digital transformation of automobile and mobility service. New trends of CASE, i.e., connected car, automated driving, sharing car, mobility as a service, and electrification have made large-scale innovation in not only automobile and service but also automobile traffic system, automotive industry, and society as a whole. This paper outlines these new trends of system and service. Then, the latest needs of a data cycle of digital transformation for improving the systems and services are described because they change every year, with the involvement of people. Moreover, the paper discusses why the automobile digital transformation requires scalability, flexibility, security, traceability, safety, and reliability, and describes the expectation for field programmable technology as a candidate for the requirement.