Page 30 - SAEINDIA Magazine December 2020

MOBILITY

Engineer 2030

Democratization

Demonetization

Dematerialization

Disruption

Deception
Digitization

Figure 3 – Exponential Thinking – 6D Framework

price of the lithium-ion battery or the LIDAR and put his for generating electricity, IoT and Cloud, Mobile
bets on EVs and AVs at an early stage when many of his Internet, Digital Payments, etc (Fig 4). There are many
colleagues were looking at EVs as lab curiosities and AVs opportunities to grow the automotive business across
as science fiction . the entire ecosystem. The electric vehicle will deliver
[3]
the promised performance only when the ecosystem is
Systems Thinking
fully ready.
The emerging concepts such as Mobility as a Service
(MAAS) necessitate the automotive engineer to design Peter Senge, in his seminal book “The Fifth Discipline”,
system-level solutions. The emerging mobility ecosystem describes systems thinking as one of the pillars of a
includes ICT providers (Information & Communication learning organization
Technologies), smart power grids, renewable energy “[...] vision without systems thinking ends up
sources, charging stations, suppliers of critical materials, painting lovely pictures of the future with no deep
etc. The Mobility Engineer has to think beyond the vehicle understanding of the forces that must be mastered
and look at the entire mobility ecosystem to optimize to move from here to there.” — Peter M. Senge, The
the performance of his mobility solution. He has to Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning
understand the various interdependencies, at the system Organization.
level, that determine the effectiveness of his mobility The DESI Mobility Engineer, as a systems thinker,
solution. Systems Thinking elevates the automotive studies the relationships across the entire ecosystem
engineer from his small world of the vehicle to a larger and carefully makes his technology decisions based on
world of the entire mobility ecosystem.
the readiness of the ecosystem. You may remember
A mobility engineer who is building an electric vehicle how Thomas Edison did not stop with inventing the
needs to visualize the entire electric mobility ecosystem electric bub but went on to explore the generation and
comprising the EV charging infrastructure, the smart distribution of electricity. Edison knew that he cannot
power grid, lithium-ion battery manufacturing, mining expand his customers for the electric bulb without
of critical battery materials, clean energy – renewables making safe and affordable electricity available to all.

28 DECEMBER 2020 MOBILITY ENGINEERING