Editor’s note: This Disruptive Leadership article originally appeared Fleet Management Weekly in July 2019.

Enterprises that don’t embrace disruption and facilitate the role of the Chief Disruption Officer within their company risk finding themselves on the list of giants who have fallen

By John Wysseier, CEO and President, The CEI Group

Last month, I wrote that for an organization to embrace disruptive innovation for long-term survival, it takes leadership — not just from the CEO, but from the entire C-suite of senior executives. Today, I want to consider another essential ingredient: a Chief Disruption Officer or CDO.

I want to start by pointing out that there is some ambiguity about this title. For some, CDO stands for Chief Digital Officer, more of a technology-focused position, while for others, the Chief Disruption Officer is a position that combines equal measures of expertise in sales, marketing, operations and strategy in addition to a grasp of digital technology. Yet, others bridge this divide by adding another D, and calling the position Chief Digital and Disruption Officer, or CDDO.

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The number of documented incidents of the hacking of connected cars and trucks worldwide doubled last year, continuing an accelerating trend that has seen their number rise by more than 600 percent since 2016.

That’s the major finding revealed by Upstream Security, a cybersecurity firm based in Israel, in its latest annual report on trends in the “smart mobility” ecosystem.

Among the report’s most troubling findings:

• Unlike prior years, when most of the documented cases were conducted by researchers to determine connected vehicles’ vulnerabilities, last year the majority of the hacks – 57 percent – were conducted by criminals.
• The vast majority – 82 percent — of the attacks were conducted remotely, both short- and long-range, which don’t require physical access to a vehicle and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
• A third of the attacks were made via the vehicles’ keyless entry system.

Read the article from Help Net Security

Nearly half of all Americans aren’t convinced autonomous vehicles will be safe but more than half would ride in one if it were government-certified to be safe.

The figures are contained in a wide-ranging report on American attitudes toward the “mobility revolution” released this month by Deloitte, the global consulting firm, based on responses from 35,000 consumers from 20 countries.

Key takeaways from the report:

• 48 percent of Americans believe the fully autonomous vehicles will be unsafe, and 58 percent indicated they aren’t willing to pay more than an extra $500 for self-driving technology.
• Nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers believe they fully electric vehicles should be capable of traveling more than 200 miles on a single charge, while 41 percent believe they should have a range of at least 300 miles.
• Only 27 percent of U.S survey respondents said they’re willing to wait between 30 minutes and an hour to recharge an electric vehicle.
• Nearly a third of American consumers said they wouldn’t pay any more for a vehicle that communicates with other vehicles and road infrastructure to improve safety.

Read Deloitte’s full report here.

PR Newswire

After hundreds of hours of test drives, research and evaluation by independent jurors, the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, Kia Telluride and Jeep Gladiator were revealed as the winners of the 2020 North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year< (NACTOY) awards at TCF Center in Detroit.

These awards are unique and among the most prestigious in the industry because they are chosen by a panel of 50 respected jurors from print, online, radio and broadcast media across the U.S. and Canada – rather than by a single publication or media outlet.

Overall U.S. car sales might be declining, but there was no shortage of compelling, innovative contenders this year. When the ballots were counted, jurors selected Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as the car that stood out among its competition.

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The Detroit Bureau

Nearly half of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was made up of products related, in one way or another, to the automobile, including the strange and quirky.

The Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR was inspired by the film Avatar, its director James Cameron helping introduce the electric show car. Fully electric and autonomous – it doesn’t even have a steering wheel. It showcased some intriguing technology, including a control system that bionically links to the driver.

The Hyundai S-A1 isn’t your typical automotive concept vehicle. It’s a mock-up of a flying taxi, part of a new partnership between the Korean carmaker and Uber. If all goes according to plan, the ride-sharing giant wants to kick off its new flying taxi service, Uber Elevate, in three cities in 2023.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Forbes

This year’s CES show indicates hydrogen, which has had a negligible impact as a clean fuel for passenger cars, is getting a new shot as a power source for heavy-duty trucks, buses, drones and cities.

Daimler has been working to commercialize fuel cell vehicles since the 1990s, and though it currently offers the F-Cell sport-utility vehicle in a few markets, the parent of Mercedes-Benz is shifting its focus to heavy trucks and buses, says R&D chief Markus Schäfer.

Toyota is applying decades of hydrogen R&D to serve as the core power source for “Woven City,” the futuristic neighborhood it plans to construct near Mount Fuji starting next year. Situated on the site of a shuttered Toyota assembly plant, it’s to be a showplace for clean tech, mobility experiments, AI-enabled everything and next-generation architecture that will be home to 2,000 residents.

Read the article at Forbes.

CNN

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Uber and Hyundai revealed a model of a four-seat, electric flying vehicle that they said you’ll be able to summon for a ride through Uber’s app someday.

The first actual prototype will be ready in 2023, according to a Hyundai spokesperson. A human pilot will fly the air taxi until the companies finalize software to autonomously control it, the company said.

Hyundai is the latest big company to announce that it’s developing a flying taxi for trips around cities and suburbs. Boeing’s flying car prototype made its first autonomous flight in 2019 at a small airport outside Washington D.C. Google co-founder Larry Page has invested in several smaller startups, including Kitty Hawk and Opener, which are developing flying car technologies.

Read the article at CNN.

Electrek

Tesla has been investing more in its cybersecurity over the last few years, and now it is returning to Pwn2Own to challenge hackers to crack its cars with ~$1 million on the line and a few Model 3 vehicles.

It offered a Model 3 to whoever manages to find and exploit certain vulnerabilities in the vehicle’s system. A hacking duo targeted the infotainment system on the Tesla Model 3 and used “a JIT bug in the renderer” to manage to take control of the system. They left with a brand new Model 3.

These types of hacking competitions with white-hat hackers enable Tesla to test and improve its security systems, which are becoming increasingly important in cars as they are becoming more like computers on wheels.

Read the article at Electrek.

What interests the boss, fascinates and engages the workers!

By Ed Dubens, CEO/Founder of eDriving

Happy, healthy and successful New Year best wishes to all FMW readers! I hope you have entered 2020 well-rested and ready for an exciting year ahead.

The start of a new year is the ideal time to take check of the policies, standards and programs you have in place to help protect your employees who drive for work, and look at the ways you can improve your risk management approach in anticipation of your business plans for the new year.

Here’s my 10-point checklist to help ensure you and your drivers are on track for a safe and successful 2020.

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By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

As a regular “Call to Action” column reader, you have seen my oft-times mentions of investing in content marketing. It is the foundation of your marketing tactical calendar!

Yes, many professionals these days think of content marketing only in terms of a digital program, but “content” provides fodder for promotional and branding messaging in any marketing effort. Public relations, media relations, direct marketing, email marketing, sales presentations, seminars and webinars, and so on depend on strategic messaging.

Here are some characteristics of a compelling content marketing program to consider:

1. Content should reinforce your company’s “go-to” market strategy and brand.

Start by meeting with your organization’s prospective content providers and leadership team to talk strategy. Understand the strategic plan, mission, core competencies, and the competitive marketplace. Then, collaboratively build a list of topics that consistently evoke key salient messages with a constant tone of voice and style. Keep things simple: focus on one major area and find new ways to drive a singular marketing or positioning point of view. Communicate and agree on the direction for promotion across all of your chosen channels. Then, track your progress in its delivery among the target audiences.

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