A friend recently lamented that, for the first time, she actually had to read the manual to learn how to operate her new car. She’s not alone. Driving a modern vehicle can sometimes feel more akin to using a mobile phone than turning the key on a gas guzzler of old.
Touch screens instead of analog gauges. Electric motors over combustion engines. Even autopilot in favor of human drivers. The car driving experience has changed swiftly over just the last decade, and is set to evolve even faster in the coming years.
Software Takes the Wheel
Powering this dramatic shift is software. While most people think of vehicles as constructions of metal and plastic, the reality is that modern autos are useless without the software nervous system that directs them.
Åsa Forsell, senior product manager at the Qt Company, told me the modern automotive customer now expects their car to be an extension of their other smart devices. Drivers demand navigation, safety, performance, and comfort at the touch of a button or via voice while behind the wheel.
She also said that apart from the consumer experience, software has been a critical advantage for an industry beset by the current semiconductor shortage. While new vehicles are in short supply because there are not enough chips to go around, embedded software means that software-driven automakers can use updates to extend the life of existing hardware in vehicles consumers already own.
Outmoded Production Standards
Forsell’s role at Qt is in-car digital experiences for the giant software company. Her job is to shepherd the company’s automotive product portfolio, ensuring that it meets both the growing demands from consumers and the specialized requirements of carmakers. That means a lot of back-and-forth discussions with customers, research & development teams, sales and market pros, and the more than one million developers using Qt’s platform.
One of the biggest challenges facing Forsell and her larger team are what she terms “heritage” issues, or the industry’s legacy approach to building vehicles. Many cars are built in silos, with each function of the car – instrument cluster, infotainment system, etc. – constructed separately from the other.
This approach can lead to different development teams using different technology tools and software, which Forsell says becomes costly to manage and institute changes. She points to Tesla’s ability to make both software and firmware updates over-the-air as one example for how to make development and updates easier.
Looking ahead, Forsell sees more merging between our in-car experience and the rest of our connected world. In turn, this will likely demand changes in how cars are designed and built to overcome those silos. And at the root of both new production standards and driver experiences will be software.
Targeting a Career in Tech
Unlike many of the women I’ve interviewed for this column, Forsell always knew she wanted to be in the tech industry. While fearful it would never happen because she wasn’t particularly good at STEM subjects in school, and despite the many teachers and adults in her early life that discouraged her, she persevered.
She credits her parents for some of that, noting that growing up in Finland, they were unique for encouraging her to experiment with tech. They provided her with computers and internet access from an early age so she could build websites and play video games. That sense of freedom and indulgence helped form the foundation for her future career.
Forsell joined her first startup during her second year of business school. She worked as a part-time Finance Assistant for a company building 3D HMI tools for the automotive industry. Inspired by the talent and passion of her co-workers, she committed herself to absorbing as much as possible.
She began by learning how to use the products the company made so she could provide technical support for customers. This progressed to her taking ownership of the company’s overall tech support functions, leading technical customer meetings, and then building demos. Forsell says that before she knew it, she was considered a “tech expert” by the team and secure in her career trajectory.
Overcoming the Gatekeepers
Looking back, Forsell recalls the people that discouraged her early in her life as only the first in a long line of those that told her she did not belong in tech. She calls these people “gatekeepers” that keep many other women and non-traditional tech workers out of the field. Ironically, Forsell says many of them were people that did not work directly in the field of technology, and that she’s been mostly encouraged by those within the industry.
For her, working at the intersection of tech and automotive – two traditionally male-dominated industries – has definitely been challenging. But Forsell points out that women make up 50% of the customer base, which is a rational business reason to encourage more female representation.
Personally, she believes diversity of thought and background are key to driving new innovations, and she is committed to helping more women join the tech workforce.
