# Keynote Case Study: Mercedes-Benz — The Automotive Industry Was Being Rewritten
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The automobile was no longer simply a mechanical product. It was becoming electric. Connected. Increasingly autonomous. And part of a much larger mobility ecosystem. That was the context for my keynote for Mercedes-Benz in Detroit. The focus was the disruption created by self-driving vehicles, electric vehicles and the sharing economy. Each of those trends challenged a different assumption that had defined the automotive industry for decades. Self-driving technology challenged the idea that a vehicle must always be controlled by a human. Electrification challenged the dominance of the internal-combustion platform. Shared mobility challenged the assumption that transportation always required individual ownership. Together, those trends pointed toward a much larger structural change. The automotive industry was no longer competing only around engineering, performance and design. It was beginning to compete around software, data, mobility services and the customer experience. Six themes framed the discussion: Autonomous Vehicles. Self-driving technologies were steadily expanding what vehicles could do without direct human control. Electrification. Electric propulsion was beginning to reshape vehicle architecture, infrastructure and economics. Shared Mobility. Car-sharing and mobility services were challenging long-standing assumptions about ownership. Connected Vehicles. The automobile was becoming an increasingly networked technology platform. New Competitive Boundaries. Technology companies and new mobility providers were entering spaces once dominated by automakers. Business-Model Reinvention. The future would involve not just making vehicles, but redefining mobility itself. The most important issue was not which trend would arrive first. It was that the underlying direction was clear. The vehicle was changing. The ownership model was changing. The technology stack was changing. And the competitive ecosystem was changing. That meant automotive leadership had to think beyond the next model year. My message was that disruption would come from the convergence of all these forces. The automotive industry was not simply designing the next car. It was being forced to redefine what transportation would become.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2017/11/keynote-case-study-mercedes-benz-the-automotive-industry-was-being-rewritten/