The Issues Affecting The Automotive Industry

This is an interesting one for me to cover; I have never really had any major interest in cars, and by extension the automotive industry. But let’s dig into it anyways and see if I can accurately sum up some of the issues affecting the industry.

First off let’s start with the technological advances that have happened recently. First off we have something that would have been a pipe dream five years ago, Wi-Fi Connection in a car…While not anywhere near a location that offers Wi-Fi. In other words, the vehicle itself is what generates the Wi-Fi connection. Granted at the moment you need to purchase a relatively expensive device (averaging at around 399 USD), that is essentially a portable router for your car, and pay for the service in most vehicles; however some companies, Ford and Chrysler (I was able to find info on those two working on it, but not much on the others, but I can safely say they probably are…The Automotive industry seems to be in a perpetual state of one-upmanship after all, and why let your competitor get the leg up on you so easily?), are making their own networks available for certain models.

A few other pieces of tech to consider are the relatively new camera system installed in quite a few car models, and the closely related back up radar. First let’s start with the radar, as it is an older innovation. Essentially this little device is much like its older brothers, airport and military radar (both of which have been in use for decades), in purpose; it uses sound to “see” the area behind the car, if it sees something, such as traffic or trees, in the path of the backing up vehicle it will sound an alarm to let the driver know about the problem. Camera systems are similar in purpose to the radar systems built...

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... Automotive industry faces fairly stiff competition from other companies around the world. For example Toyota is one of the biggest foreign auto companies in the US, directly employing 31,000 employees in the US itself. Another instance of this competition is that roughly two thirds [or 66.66 (infinitely repeating) percent] of “import cars” to the US are manufactured by foreign companies here in the US, for at LEAST $2,000 less in labor for each vehicle. All of this information means is that the US industry is constantly changing and in a state of flux. With newer laws forcing the industry to improve its product on a fundamental level; new technology attracting new customer and making more money for the companies that implement them; and foreign competition at cheaper prices; the companies in this field must adapt, or fall into the pages of history as another failure.