Dennis Smith, president of Messe Frankfurt USA, welcomed approximately 100 attendees to the first Business Outlook Conference at NACE Automechanika Chicago at McCormick Place West this morning. This year’s show has 18 industry organizations involved with 23 private sponsors, 38 co-located events and 30 press publications in attendance, Smith said.
“We aim to work together with the automotive aftermarket industry to create a platform that brings the industry together with a focus on training, networking and industry development,” he said. “NACE Automechanika Chicago will offer 173 training sessions that will train more than 3,000 industry professionals.” The show offers 400 exhibitors representing 19 countries and 6,000 attendees are expected to attend, he added.
The first words out of his mouth were, “Relax, it’s going to be OK.” He said there seems to be much consternation about the Trump administration and the apparent unwillingness of Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representative and in the Senate to work together for the benefit of the country. Part of this is due to President Trump’s personality and part is because he is a political neophyte rather than a Washington insider.
“Political leadership has lost a lot of power in the house and senate, especially the house, which creates weaknesses,” Redding said. “If you are Speaker of the House, and you have a rank and file member who does not fall in line, there is not much leadership can do to punish him. The stick used to wield power has been removed.”
Redding said he thinks that Trump's appointments so far have been “very good. The Department of Transportation selection is a good appointment, but there are a lot of empty offices beneath her. That hurts policymaking.”
He also encouraged attendees to watch Gary Cohn, formerly of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, who was a Trump appointee to the National Economic Council and an assistant to the President for economic policy. “He would be in and out of major policy decisions affecting the aftermarket,” Redding said.
Automated vehicles and connected cars
The Obama administration issued guidelines and best practices about automated vehicles and connected cars, but was reluctant to pull the trigger on new connected vehicle legislation, Redding said. In that federal regulatory void, several aggressive states, such as California, jumped in to regulate.
Dozens of bills were introduced by numerous states related to connected vehicles. The varying standards created a regulatory quagmire for companies that want to build vehicles that can be driven in all 50 U.S. states.
“It is a wild west show and without federal legislation there will be more confusion,” Redding said. “It’s like you can see a train that is coming and it’s going to kill you, but you can’t do anything about it.”
Cybersecurity guidance and best practices were issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in October 2016, but things have been quiet on that front since then.
“There has been little direction from the federal government and Congress on cybersecurity,” Redding said. “With the Trump administration team not in place, we don’t know where it is going. Until we get a NHTSA administrator and other key positions filled, you won’t see any federal action on this. It could be 2019 before there is any federal law on cybersecurity."
Redding said that an auto parts act that would reduce from 14 years to two years how long OEMs can hold patents on their parts won’t be addressed this Congress. “It’s not a high priority and is unlikely to go anywhere. The U.S. House Judiciary Committe is focusing instead on immigration reform.”
Redding said that there needs to be more appointees from the administration to get finality. “It is not known what the Trump appointees will do, but we must get them confirmed to resolve these issues. They are missing a lot of names. Usually with a new administration, there is not so much opposition to appointees,” Redding said. “This is a reflection of where we are now."
Looking ahead, the appropriations bill, which determines how government will be funded, will keep legislators busy from September through November. Since 2018 is an election year for the Senate, that will dominate the political landscape next year, he said.
Panel discussion on telematics, connectivity
Greg Potter, executive manager and COO of the Equipment and Tool Institute, moderated a panel discussion on Telematics and In-Vehicle Connectivity. Panelists included Bob Stewart of General Motors, Mike Fitzgerald of Innova and Tim Morgan of Spanesi.
Panelists discussed how telematics and vehicle technology is changing the customer experience. Their discussions solicited many questions from the audience.
Stewart said the global connected customer is a new department for GM. “Everything is about a connection today,” Stewart said. “OnStar is the original connected car experience at GM and is 20 years old.”
“Currently, much of the vehicle data is only available to the OEM,” Fitzgerald said. “We talk about how that data needs to be made available to the aftermarket. This goes back to Right to Repair, which was passed in 2013, but excludes telematics. The industry is back to where it was before 2013. This (telematics) has a much greater potential impact on the aftermarket than the original Right to Repair Act.”
The aftermarket wants to be able to secure vehicle data from OEMs so they can work on vehicles. “There has been little movement between the aftermarket and OEMs on telematics,” Fitzgerald said.
He said the aftermarket’s primary and preferred options to address this issue are advocacy and negotiation. If those don’t work, the aftermarket will take the issue to the consumer if necessary, as it did in 2013.
Fitzgerald said the two most important things that companies need to do are to develop their own telematics action plan and to connect to their customers’ vehicles.
Morgan said everybody who is in the service business also is in the collision business, they just may not recognize that yet. Telematics has the ability to direct drivers who have been in an accident to a collision repairer. “Where will the telematics system take cars after an accident,” he asked. “We don’t know yet, that is all to be determined.”
When asked a question about the future of the OBD II port connection, Stewart said the OEMs will be required in the near future to have a plug-in feature for vehicles. Fitzgerald said of the 270 million vehicles on the road, more than 200 million have an OBD II port connection. “Lots of business will be done for years to come through the OBD port,” Fitzgerald said.
When asked about customer retention and marketing through telematics devices, Potter said that marketers want the data so they can market directly to consumers in their vehicles. “Access to the data is about customer retention but also about money and marketing to the client,” he said. “Customer retention data can benefit the customer, but lots of money is going to be made through the marketing.”
Mike Jones, founder and president of Discover Leadership Training, closed the Business Outlook Conference with a lively motivational speech that included a close look at comfort zones, perception and communication, and reactive and responsive listening.
Jones, a former Continental Airlines pilot and helicopter pilot for the Houston Police Department, is a self-described human behavior expert.
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