Many of those who have weathered multiple economic cycles and storms said, “here we go again” in March of 2020 as the pandemic began tightening its grip on the world. Borders closed, factories shut down, and everyone held their breath, not knowing how long the monster outside their door would be ravaging the world.
Though the human and economic toll is hard to fathom, this, like many crises before, opened the door to opportunity. When work stopped, many supply chains faded away, opening the door to rebuilding with a vision for the future without the inertia of legacy approaches. The pandemic also firmly implanted the concept of a crisis in people’s minds. And when the air in big cities cleared up in a matter of weeks, we suddenly saw a preview of the alternative to the looming environmental catastrophe that’s been talked about in vain for years.
I’m Vitaly Golomb, the host of “Accelerated”. In the first season, we focused on business, technology, and society at large. One of the key industries that made a major pivot during the pandemic is the 5 trillion-dollar global transportation sector.
Since the beginning of the electrification revolution, two factors have been the consistent primary market drivers: government regulations and government stimulus. This has tremendously accelerated electrification in China and Europe. Now the US has made it clear that it intends to prioritize new energy as a keystone environmental and economic development program.
And while electrification went from eventual to inevitable in 2020, the promise of mainstream autonomous driving has hit the brick wall of reality. Major OEMs have reported a reduction in the autonomous driving system R&D budgets. And though assistive systems are making incremental improvements, there is a consensus that full autonomy is still years away.
In this series, you will hear from some of the global leaders in everything electric and autonomous moving us quickly into the future. Season 2 of Accelerated starts June 21st on all of your favourite podcast platforms and at golomb.net. Join us!
