The automotive industry is now living through a perfect storm of new consuming habits, environmental concern, a shaky world economy and groundbreaking technological changes. Embracing change and reinventing yourself has now become essential for keeping up with the pace of innovation while also ensuring environmental and social responsibility and meeting cybersecurity challenges.

Miguel Hormigo, Industry Manager of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions sector, has taken part in the IoT Solutions World Congress (IoTSWC), organized in Spain by plataforma enerTIC. Its remit is to debate the automotive sector’s problems, needs and solutions with the overall aim of driving Industry 4.0. In this scenario digitalization helps to streamline processes, supporting the procurement phase, getting to know customers better and giving them personalized services to meet their particular needs while also ensuring that production remains profitable, dynamic and flexible.

The current boom of smart factories and the advent of connected vehicles mean that technological integration and innovation have changed from an option into a sine qua non of survival. After some tricky years for carmakers, worldwide production is now expected to grow 30% by 2030, building up to a total output of 123 million vehicles, mainly as a result of the takeup of autonomous vehicles.

This modernization depends on some salient factors like the convergence between carmakers and technology firms plus academic cooperation with research centers and universities. We at GMV provide technological support for the automotive sector, involving all the following: automation solutions, such as advanced robotics or highly precise and safe GNSS solutions for autonomous driving; digitalization for carrying out such aspects as predictive maintenance and process simulation; and, last but by no means least, design-up cybersecurity with the Smart Secure Key, taking in all aspects along the way right up to intrusion-detection and -prevention systems.