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Vice President of IT& Security – CIO at Veoneer
Digital Transformation: Driving Innovations in the Automotive Industry
Olaf Schwartz, an experienced professional, thrives on leading complex organizational change and digital transformations in top tech companies. With a remarkable history of transformative projects, Olaf currently serves as vice president of IT at Veoneer. His expertise encompasses all IT domains, including cybersecurity, application and ERP development, infrastructure management, and supplier governance.
Please tell our readers about some of the recent developments and challenges in the industry.
In the automotive industry, recent developments and challenges have sparked interest in generative AI. AI systems have improved, but working with AI remains demanding. Autonomous driving software reliability is crucial, with data collection and privacy being major concerns. China's strict data legislation presents challenges for training AI and developing autonomous driving software. While new levels of AI are emerging, they may not be fully ready for commercial use. Generative AI can expedite software development, but security remains a top priority. Cloud adoption is already established, and the decision is driven by security. The mission is to ensure data interactions add value, with automated processes and knowledgeable individuals contributing to customer value and business requirements.
What are some of the projects that you are currently working on?
Currently, we are engaged in several projects. One of them involves carrying out carve-out initiatives for a company that was acquired by a private equity firm last year. As part of this process, we have sold certain divisions to Qualcomm and Magna.
This information is publicly available, and I can share it. Although it may not be the most exciting topic, our focus is on ensuring a smooth transition and meeting the investors' requirements.
Additionally, we are working on implementing new IT systems such as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for our remaining business activities. We are also developing a cloud and data center strategy for one of the companies we support, with the aim of transitioning to a predominantly cloud-based infrastructure.
Furthermore, we continue to prioritize harmonizing our overall CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) toolchain. Our goal is to streamline and standardize the development process, providing our developers with automated and compliant tools while achieving high levels of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and overall cost-effectiveness. This initiative has been a major success in recent years, and we plan to build upon it moving forward.
Our goal is to streamline and standardize the development process, providing our developers with automated and compliant tools while achieving high levels of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and overall cost-effectiveness.
How do you envision the future of the industry?
In terms of the future of the automotive industry, a major development that keeps us occupied is the consolidation of various components into a single core processing unit. Previously, each sensor had its own dedicated signal processor and electronic control unit with separate systems and algorithms. However, this is rapidly changing as the automotive industry shifts towards using more passive and simplified sensors, along with a centralized computing unit for autonomous driving features ranging from level two to level three and beyond. This transformation has significant implications for data collection, verification, AI training sets, and software development tools within the automotive sector.
Another noteworthy trend is the emergence of generative AI, which numerous companies are currently exploring. In the next 12 to 24 months, the generative AI tools available on the market will become more specialized and resource-intensive, particularly benefiting software developers. This means that software developers can expect to have stronger support tools for coding, integrated coding, and defining overall software architecture. As a result, there will likely be a shift in demand toward skilled software architects who can effectively utilize these tools, thereby enhancing the search for talented individuals in this field.
