The vehicles of the future will be defined by the software predicted Amnon Shashua, the Israeli professor and founder of Mobileye, as he accepted the Mobility Innovator award at the Automotive Hall of Fame dinner in Detroit.
“Cars of the future won’t be differentiated by their horsepower,” he said. “They will be differentiated by software.”
Shashua told the audience he was drawn to the automobile industry because it offered the best platform for computers that could be made to see and then made the car safer. Shashua’s company went public in the largest IPO ever of an Israeli-based company and since 2017 continued to operate independently following its acquisition by Silicon Valley-based Intel.
Mobileye’s technology is now used on more than 120 million vehicles around the world, and in the future, coupled with artificial intelligence, will help save lives, he said.
Shashua was one of seven active leaders from across the industry, including Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley, who was named industry leader of the year, honored by the organization. Farley’s “bold and calculated decision making has made him one of the most exciting names in the auto industry.”
Five Leaders honored for role in industry
The Automotive Hall of Fame also honored five other industry influencers, including three women, at the center of the auto business. The list of influencers included Shilpan Amin, General Motors senior vice president; Randy Parker, Hyundai Motor America, senior vice president of sales, who improved the company’s relations with dealers and played a critical role in launching of all-electric Ioniq 5; and Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs of government, who has elevated the visibility of automotive suppliers in Washington D.C. at a critical time.
Also honored were Sherry House, the CFO of Lucid, the fledgling EV startup, who began her career at GM as an engineer in GM’s EV1 project. She later went on to work for Waymo and later took a role in finance; and Linda Zhang, a Chinese immigrant who said she has been in love with cars from her first ride at the age of eight, joined Ford out of college and after 26 years with company now is chief engineer responsible for the development of the all-electric F-150 Lightning.
“This year’s class of inductees continues to recognize the diversity of contributions to this industry,” said Sarah Cook, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame.
“From manufacturing to racing, road travel to the rarest of luxury performance vehicles, this group tells some of the most interesting and important stories of the industry, and we couldn’t be more pleased to recognize their achievements and welcome them into the Hall of Fame.”
HOF pioneers
The Hall of Fame also honored automotive industry pioneers, including Lyn St. James, one of the most successful female race car drivers in history; Lu Quanqui, one of the first citizens of China inducted founded Wanxiang Group, an international automotive supplier; Taichi Ohno, an engineer and executive, who launched the Toyota Production System; and Alma and Victor Green, who edited the fabled “Green Book,” which made it it safer for Black Americans to travel by car when segregation prevailed across the Southern United States.
