Inside (formerly known as ARTEMIS) serves as a European Technology Platform for R&D&I, aiming to improve European competitiveness and sustainability through the power of Intelligent Digital Systems. None of this would be feasible without our network of members across the continent, so NXP’s Patrick Pype explains what’s Inside.
The fun factor
As Director Strategic Partnerships at NXP, Patrick is intimately familiar with both the dangers of remaining in one’s silo and the benefits of reaching out to other organisations – including those not necessarily in the same domain. “I know a lot of specialists who know everything about the internals of an architecture or chip,” he begins, “but if you don’t look at it from a broader system perspective, you either end up in a not so challenging job or you even lose a number of competences after a certain number of years. There’s a risk that you stay isolated. Systems and chips are coming together more and more, so it’s important that people in these areas can meet.”
The foremost advantage of Inside membership is self-evident: by connecting over 200 OEMs, SMEs, universities and research institutes, we enable networking with experts from different links in the supply chain. “That’s definitely an interesting aspect,” agrees Patrick. “The second benefit is jointly preparing a vision and strategy on where Europe needs to go in terms of Intelligent Digital Systems. As individual stakeholders, we all have certain opinions but it’s more important to have a common vision for our policymakers at both a European and Member State level. The third benefit is just having fun with each other! It’s important to have a community where you can easily talk to people, where it’s not always done in a formal way but rather through informal chats and brainstorming.”
The importance of pragmatism
As an example of these benefits in practice, Patrick mentions ArchitectECA2030 and AI4CSM. Thanks to the collaboration of 61 participating organisations between them, these projects succeeded in developing solutions for the next generation of automated systems and cars. “In the past, a vehicle was to get you from one place to the other. A car is now an entertainment system and data centre on wheels. You want to have the same environment as on your smartphone, so you have to rethink the architecture of the car completely.”
“User acceptance is also very important,” he continues. “That’s a difference between Europe and the US. If what happened to Tesla in terms of accidents and problems had happened to a European manufacturer, we would not be so far along in our research because Europeans are much more conservative and much less pragmatic. In Europe, however, we work in evolutionary steps towards autonomous vehicles by means of step-wise introduction of more advanced ADAS[1] systems. And European semiconductor companies do have leadership in ADAS-related technologies.”
With this in mind, Inside maintains a focus on technologies in which Europe is strong and needs to become even stronger. An equally important aspect of membership, however, is the opportunity for organisations to take a pioneering role in the emerging markets that these technologies will open up – something which Patrick urges more to consider. “In Europe, we should aim for more strategic projects, such as smaller projects where ten to fifteen partners go for a final solution like an automated car. Inside can help with that by building some of these projects and getting involved in some of these initiatives.”
[1] Advanced Driver Assistance Systems