EVs and autonomy drive new skills requirements in the automotive industry

Automation, connectivity and the parallel development of electric vehicles are at the heart of car 
makers’ strategies. According to Joerg Schlinkheider, Jaguar Land Rover chief engineer for automated driving, the company uses the abbreviation 
ACES, for automated-connected-electrified-shared.

“ACES is in our DNA now for the future,” he said, 
adding that “automated vehicles will be connected to 
the cloud, to the customer and to all kinds of service”.

At the same time, major markets, from Europe and 
the US to China, are demanding electric vehicles.

“The skills we require are getting much more specific,” said Schlinkheider. Such skills include those in artificial intelligence, which is “a technique that helps detect and classify objects around [the vehicle] much better than in the past”; and in human-machine interfaces, which have become a growing area of focus since the first smartphones appeared. The techniques involved in creating the user experience for the iPhone are feeding into systems in cars.