Fast-track to innovation

At Accenture, we keep up with the world around us. By implementing innovation in everything we do and leveraging our global reach of talented experts, we bring expertise and experience together to develop innovative, tailored solutions that meet our clients' needs - regardless of their size, type, or location.

With drivers spending an average of up to 500 hours a year in their cars and combined with the continuing progress of self-driving vehicles, car interiors will become an extension of the home and office, providing a similar experience and a new range of services.

Together with Faurecia - one of the world’s leading automotive technology companies – we combined disruptive technologies into business results, to invent the future of the automotive industry.

An industry facing change

Car interiors are increasingly resembling the home or the office, as car manufacturers shift their focus towards user experience and comfort. Cockpit personalization and car-sharing services enable users to have their customized settings at their fingertips, whether driving a car in New York, Los Angeles or Amsterdam. With autonomous vehicles gaining more momentum, mobility services face imminent changes that are set to affect more than just the car’s driving functions.

In order to stay relevant, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers need to act fast and reinvent the driving experience beyond the ordinary, providing services that differentiate their vehicles in the market. Having recognized this need for change, Faurecia and Accenture inked a five-year agreement to reinvent the onboarding experience for passengers - and accelerate innovations regarding mobility services.

Comfort and Experience first

Faurecia is applying digital technologies - such as AI and Blockchain - to help bolster their services and bring innovation to market. With the support of Accenture’s Innovation Architecture and experts, Faurecia is able to quickly ideate new concepts and prototypes, which are launchable at scale within the so-called “digital services factory”.

In only two months, Accenture supported Faurecia in the design, build, and run of their first demo, the “Cockpit of the Future”, incorporating multiple touch displays, state-of-the-art applications and a multi-functional voice assistant used to control several functions of the car. We also helped design the personalized experience for passengers, working closely with Amazon to develop custom commands that can be executed by Alexa, and developing multi-AI compliant technologies, as operability is key for the Cockpit of the Future.

Interior voice command to adjust settings

Besides ordinary car functionalities such as engine size or style, it’s interior and related services can also play a role as a differentiator for potential buyers. Faurecia’s Alexa integration allows drivers to use voice command to adjust multiple functions of the car such as:

• seat positions 
• climate and thermal settings
• air quality settings
• sound experience
• media playback

With these voice commands, the user can even consult and update shopping- and to-do lists!

Furthermore, Alexa’s services are set up to differentiate across multiple users, so each passenger can direct Alexa to perform separate and personalized tasks.

Digital Transformation

With these innovative services, Faurecia is delivering greater personalization, convenience, and comfort to help shape the future of driving. Auto OEMs and their customers can now quickly and easily benefit from the latest cockpit features and functionalities, with the help of cloud-based services. Furthermore, OEMs can focus on their customers as much as their cars, as Faurecia can tailor hardware and digital services to their needs due to the digital services factory approach.

In addition, new capabilities are helping Faurecia better compete in a changing mobile landscape, as Faurecia’s digital factory enables small, proactive teams to work on projects while coordinating input from several technical experts to decrease time to market, marketable products at scale and delivering bottom-line impact.