The Society of Automotive Engineers Talk About the Connected Car
From Fred Jacobs’ blog:
At SAE’s Convergence, we were treated to a great panel of car maker execs from Fiat, GM, Audi, Toyota, Ford, and Nissan. And as they discussed everything from infotainment in their “center stacks” (better get used to that term), heads up displays, driver distraction, and voice recognition software (Siri has energized a major trend), a common theme continued to surface: the customer experience [otherwise known as “CX.”]
Every step of the way, these engineering executives realize that it’s about the customer – her safety, her convenience, and the ease of use of the technology. As Ford has learned with its breakthrough SYNC platform, it is about the customer interface and usability of the system. These auto execs did not agree on everything, but on the issue of the CX, it was always unanimous.
And that brings us to our ongoing dilemma in radio. We continue to look at our business through the lens of pushing our content to listeners – and advertisers. We rarely, if ever, contemplate or re-imagine the CX of our products – whether its our programming and its impact on consumers or our advertising and its ability to help our clients grow their businesses.
We congratulate ourselves for providing and paying for our stream – on computers and on mobile devices. And yet, if that streaming experience is clunky, erratic, inconvenient, and inconsistent, the consumer will move on to products that provide a better, streamlined, user-friendly experience.
Fred promises much, more content from this gathering in the coming days. Best get started with this original post.
