R&D and technologic development should be our focus for now in my opinion. We are still in the plain manufacturing side of the field. But we urgently need take a side step to get ready for this transformed future of mobility.
Turkish automotive sector has come a long way since the second half of the 20th century, both with the OEM and the sub-industry. Manufacturing and exporting values keep increasing each year, especially after the global crisis and automotive is still the major division in the country’s export. Back in the days, this major growth was mostly due to low cost and industry development incentives however nowadays, with the highly sophisticated culture of the industry’s players, I think Turkey competes in the automotive field with high quality and the business mind-set of its people. When I think of the future of automotive, I think of shared mobility, autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles as most people do. Though some might take time and too much effort or some might fail during the way, there is no doubt the sector will evolve and transform. The need for transportation will never end as long as human beings are on this planet but it will definitely transform. We are highly affected by technology in our lives. There is no way that the automotive field; a field which continuously faces environmental and social concerns will not be affected from this. I also think that, what will affect the future of automotive will be governments and legal procedures. All are related to one another. Autonomous vehicles create pressure for the governments to take legal precautions and we do not yet know how they might interfere with the future of the market of the AVs. There is even a chance for the market to go from cut-throat competition to oligopoly to state control… R&D and technologic development should be our focus for now in my opinion. We are still in the plain manufacturing side of the field. But we urgently need take a side step to get ready for this transformed future of mobility. With all these incredible speed of the technologic development, virtually endless opportunities and connections take place, many of which we can’t fully understand the impact of today. We must not see Industry 4.0 as only robotization; we must focus on the IoT or smart city transportations or how to use blockchain technologies for our businesses. Then we also have the issue of privacy and data sharing… In this sense, I think the sector must prioritize the technological R&D along with the safety and legal concerns of these technologic transformations. We must also focus and participate on the human resource and governmental sides of this imagined future. Conversations about the all these rapid developments are taking place all over the world as we seek to understand how this will impact our businesses and lives. We are also trying to understand what the many opportunities and challenges are going to be. We sure have to educate and prepare ourselves for this incredible future and its potential impacts.