• Sell consistency before features. Peter asks whether a feature will still be used four weeks later. A function that works every time, on every road, builds more trust than a vanity feature.
• Separate shared technology from brand signature. Navigation, driver information and operating systems can be common across brands. Design language, feel and driving dynamics are where a brand has to stand apart.
• Break the silos your customer can see. When navigation and the driver display use different fonts, buyers sense different teams and suppliers. Align around one vision from the clay model onward.
• Ground the story in facts customers can check. Opinions spread faster than facts, Peter observes. Specifications, verified sources and the product in hand outlast the noise of the feed.

ABOUT PETER VIRK
Peter Virk has spent 31 years in automotive, about 25 of them at Jaguar Land Rover and its predecessor companies, where he led connected car and future technology and was behind the Pivi Pro infotainment platform. After roles at BlackBerry, Group Lotus and Forseven, he co-founded wyzer.it, which helps automotive companies make products and software more robust.

The Type 01 is now public. Whether it finds the buyers it was designed for is a question for 2027.

#AutomotiveStorytelling #Jaguar #JaguarType01 #BrandStrategy

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

• Thomas Rose, Commercial Engineering Manager, McMurtry Automotive. Downforce on demand, and what it could do for a loaded truck.
• Phil White, Managing Director, Axion Shows and Conferences. Why the UK needed this show.
• Ian Palmer, Commercial Director, Cosworth Electronics. Why race cars became software defined vehicles first.
• Lucas Vieira, Forward Deployed Engineer, MOVEdot. AI agents that hand race engineers their time back.
• Jan Prins, Founder, JP76 Solutions, after 35 years at Jaguar Land Rover. Why the tire is still the hardest component to predict.
• Alan O'Neill, Founder, SCU Motorsport. The skills gap under every technology bridge.

KEY INSIGHTS

The Bottleneck Has Moved Off the Car
Thomas Rose shows physics still pays. But Lucas Vieira describes teams losing whole days to post-event reports, and Jan Prins explains that a tire still has to be built and tested before anyone can model it.

Low Volume Made the Race Car Software Defined
Ian Palmer argues race cars are already software defined vehicles, because tiny production runs push differentiation into software on proven hardware. He also warns that motorsport and automotive architectures are drifting apart.

The Real Bridges Run Through Safety, Sensing and Method
Thomas Rose sees deployable downforce shortening truck emergency stops. Jan Prins points to accelerometers inside the tire tread. Lucas Vieira's automated analysis fits any vehicle test program, on track or off it.

The Bridge Nobody Sells Is Skills
Alan O'Neill built a college race series because the technicians who service new technology are not being trained. A system nobody on the shop floor can maintain, he warns, becomes useless very quickly.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Count the hours your test program loses to reporting. MOVEdot started from engineers spending days on reports instead of analysis, and vehicle validation carries the same bottleneck.
• Put the tire on your sensing roadmap. Most vehicles know only tire pressure and possibly temperature, while an accelerometer in the tread can derive load, road friction and wear.
• Borrow motorsport's toolchain discipline before its hardware. Distributed race architectures rarely map onto domain controllers, but configuring a whole vehicle from one software toolchain does transfer.
• Budget for technicians alongside the technology. Hydrogen, high voltage and green fuel systems only deliver value if someone on the shop floor can service them.

Motorsport Technology Expo plans to return in 2027 alongside a new show, Engineered for Extremes, which widens the bridge to defense, aerospace, off-highway and marine.

#AutomotiveStorytelling #MotorsportTechnologyExpo #TechnologyTransfer #SoftwareDefinedVehicle

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

• Underwrite software investment on cost and time, not on new consumer revenue. Compressed sourcing cycles and engineering hours not spent rebuilding commodity code are measurable now. Subscription forecasts were not. 
• Decide what actually differentiates, and buy the rest. Insourcing a tire pressure monitoring algorithm wins nothing and consumes the capacity you need elsewhere. 
• Take first principles from Tesla, not the playbook. Several companies started at the same moment with the same clean-sheet, vertically integrated approach and did not survive it.
• Change the story for each audience, never the substance. Engineers, investors, executives and supply chain need different levels of detail. Selling a two-year roadmap as a shipping product is where trust goes.

ABOUT THE GUESTS
Konstantin Shirokinskiy is a Partner at Roland Berger and Global Co-Head of the firm's Software Technology Cluster, based in Detroit, advising OEMs, suppliers and investors on software strategy and sourcing. He started out at DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart and was Senior Director for purchasing and strategy at Rivian before rejoining the firm. He is a co-author of Automotive 4.0.

Prashant Gulati is CEO of SDVerse, the automotive industry's first B2B software marketplace, founded in 2024 by General Motors, Magna and Wipro. He was previously VP and Head of Strategy at Faraday Future, where he co-led the SPAC IPO process that listed the company on Nasdaq and raised a billion dollars, and led the launch of one of the industry's first in-vehicle generative AI products.
Konstantin's wish for the industry: that people stop saying SDV, the way they stopped saying internet-enabled business.

#AutomotiveStorytelling #SoftwareDefinedVehicle #AutomotiveSoftware #SDVerse

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of Automotive Storytelling, the podcast that examines mobility through storytelling, I sit down with Henrik Engdahl, former Director Electromobility Business Development at Volvo Trucks and now an independent advisor through his consultancy Nimling, to unpack what the electric truck transition actually changes: not the vehicle, but the relationships around it.

Everything in your office arrived on a truck. Your desk, your screen, your phone. Which makes this conversation far more relevant to you than the word "truck" suggests.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

One truck carries the weight of twenty cars. Henrik runs the arithmetic live. A passenger car covering 20,000 km a year at 7 l/100 km burns around 1,400 litres. A highway truck covering 100,000 to 150,000 km at 27 to 30 l/100 km sits roughly a factor of twenty higher. Replacing one heavy-duty vehicle does the work of replacing twenty cars.

The triangle diesel never needed. Three roles move goods electrically: the shipper, the fleet owner, and the charge point operator. The structure looks familiar until you notice the new line running between the shipper and the energy supply. Nobody produces their own diesel. Anyone can produce their own electricity, and that single change rewrites who holds leverage.

You are selling a change, not a vehicle. Henrik describes a commercial job that extended far past the truck: helping fleet owners install depot charging, lobbying in Brussels for infrastructure mandates, and eventually buying electric transport at Volvo so the company walked its own talk.

Electrification does not scale like software. Trucks, customers and chargers do not replicate by pushing a button. Adoption grows as geographic seeds, one depot and one corridor at a time, until the seeds meet and a network appears.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Rebuild the TCO around infrastructure, not the truck: charging assets carry a 7 to 15 year horizon and belong in the same model as the vehicle.
• Match contract length to asset life: a six-month freight commitment cannot underwrite a truck that depreciates over years.
• Find the return leg before you tender: an electric truck driving back empty destroys the utilisation the business case depends on.
• Read the toll and carbon regime first: per-kilometre road charging, CO2 differentiation and ETS coverage of fuels are moving the case faster than vehicle price.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Henrik Engdahl is an electrical engineer who has spent his career where electricity actually moves things. At Volvo Group he led development of the charging and electrical distribution platform, then spent five years at Volvo Trucks building the commercial position for electric trucks and charging services. He now advises fleet owners, shippers and charge point operators through his own consultancy, Nimling.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

The AV industry has built its case on one metric: fewer collisions. Phil argues that the metric is doing very little work, and that the gap between what companies claim and what the public sees is widening rather than closing.

KEY INSIGHTS

1. A NARRATIVE REWRITTEN TWICE, AND BREAKING A THIRD TIME: Autonomous driving began as a way to increase highway capacity. It became "computers don't drive drunk, so they will save lives." Today it is "the statistics prove we are safer." Phil traces each rewrite back to the moment the previous story collided with reality.
2. STATISTICS LOSE TO VIDEO: Safety is decided by extremely rare events, often called "edge cases". While the public sees a robotaxi drive into floodwater or over lit fireworks, companies talk about millions of miles driven.
3. SAFE IS A BETTER GOAL THAN SAFER: Robotaxi companies sell on being safer than human drivers. Phil makes the case for a different bar, closer to the UK's "careful and competent driver" standard: no red lights, no wrong-way driving, no passing stopped school buses. Earn that, and the statistics can settle later.
4. THE HUMAN NEVER LEFT THE LOOP: Remote assistance is what makes robotaxis viable today, yet the industry frames those operators as having no safety role. 

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• LEAD WITH BEHAVIOUR. Audiences judge safety by how a vehicle drives, not by null hypotheses and confidence intervals.
• WIDEN YOUR SAFETY DEFINITION. Blocked fire trucks and riders pulled off trains never show up in fatalities per mile, and they still count.
• EXPLAIN THE FIX, NOT JUST THE FACT OF ONE. "We fixed it, trust us" collapses the moment the same failure repeats.
• BUILD THE HUMAN INTO THE STORY. Remote operators and supervising drivers are part of the safety case, so stop treating them as a footnote.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Philip Koopman is Faculty Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University, where he spent nearly thirty years as tenured faculty researching embedded systems, software safety and autonomous vehicle safety. He is the originator of UL 4600, the safety standard for autonomous products, and the author of "How Safe Is Safe Enough? Measuring and Predicting Autonomous Vehicle Safety" and "The UL 4600 Guidebook". Before academia he served as a US Navy submarine officer during the Cold War, designed embedded CPUs at Harris Semiconductor, and has since conducted more than 200 industry design reviews of embedded software projects. He writes on AV safety on Substack and LinkedIn.

AND ONE LAST THING

Our closing question is always the same: what is your number one storytelling advice to our audience? Discover Phil's answer at the end of this incredible episode.

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and follow us on LinkedIn.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

At AEK 2026, one theme ran through every hallway and keynote: automotive chiplets, and the deeper shift they signal. In this special edition of Automotive Storytelling, I sat down on the floor of the Automobil-Elektronik Kongress with six people shaping the industry's next decade, from semiconductor CTOs to a Microsoft engineer to the congress chairman himself, to unpack what is actually changing under the car.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Silicon vendors have become tier ones for real
The old OEM to tier-1 to tier-2 chain has reorganized into a value network, where automakers now go straight to the chipmaker to secure innovation early. The differentiator is not raw performance, it is the tool chain built around it.

Power is the ceiling, and chiplets are the answer
Compute got cheap; moving data did not. With power and memory proximity emerging as the true limits, the industry is betting on chiplets, packaging specialised pieces so the fast-moving AI parts can evolve without dragging the rest along.

The car is becoming the blueprint for physical AI
Get the hardest machine right, and you unlock robotics at large. As coding agents mature, code turns into a commodity and high-quality specifications become the advantage, which reframes automotive's mountain of standards from burden to asset.

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Map your silicon relationships early: The chipmaker you choose shapes your architecture, so treat SoC selection as a strategic, upstream decision rather than a procurement step.
• Budget for data movement, not just compute: Power draw and memory proximity are becoming the real constraints, so design and message around them.
• Turn your spec libraries into an asset: As AI writes more code, rigorous specifications and standards become the differentiator, not the paperwork.

🌟 THE VOICES IN THIS EPISODE

Lars Reger, CTO of NXP Semiconductors. Aish Dubey, VP at Renesas on the SoC side. Martin Spiegel of HARMAN Automotive, working on IVI and cockpit domain controller systems. Dominik Wee, Corporate VP of Forward Deployed Engineering at Microsoft. Alfred Vollmer, newly appointed Chairman of the Automobil-Elektronik Kongress and a journalist with roughly forty years covering the industry. And Roger Lanctot, one of the sharpest analysts in mobility.

Ready to hear where the industry is really heading?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Key insights

From value chain to value network: Lars explains why semiconductor makers now shape OEM decisions earlier than ever, as the industry moves away from a strict OEM to Tier 1 to Tier 2 order.

Trust before intelligence: Lars revisits his own line that a car is as much a brain on wheels as a human is a brain on shoes, and uses it to explain why autonomous systems need layered, real-time architecture rather than one giant AI brain.

Chiplets, decoded: Lars breaks down what a chiplet actually is, and argues that speed and flexibility, not cost, are the real force behind the trend, as chip design cycles that used to take years get compressed into weeks.

Key takeaways

Loop in silicon partners earlier. As architecture centralizes, the semiconductor choice increasingly shapes what an OEM can build, not the reverse.

Separate real-time control from AI decision-making. Reger's layered model treats safety-critical reflexes and creative AI reasoning as different systems that should not depend on each other.

Watch for chiplet interface standards. The next unresolved question in the industry is who defines the standard that lets chiplets from different vendors talk to each other.

A grounded look at where automotive silicon is headed, from someone building it.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of Automotive Storytelling, Stéphane Lagresle sits down with Jeff Chou, the CEO and co-founder of Sonatus, to trace one of the more deliberate bets in automotive software: the thesis that the car would eventually become a data center on wheels, and that everything the IT industry had already learned about networking, orchestration, and AI could be translated to the vehicle.

Today, Sonatus technology is deployed in more than 7 million production vehicles. Their whole product portfolio is now leveraging AI. This conversation covers how it got there.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Infrastructure Always Comes First 

Before social media, there was the internet. Before cloud applications, there was networking. Before AI in vehicles, there was the software-defined vehicle. Jeff Chou draws a consistent thread from his data center years through to the automotive present: hardware infrastructure creates the conditions for software infrastructure, which creates the conditions for applications and AI. The SDV was not the destination. It was the foundation.

The SDV Trough Was Real. AI Is What Got OEMs Out. 

Jeff speaks candidly about the "trough of disillusionment" on software-defined vehicles. OEMs had invested thousands of engineers and more lines of code than anticipated, but the promised revenue streams and cost savings didn't materialise as expected. AI changed calculus. Where SDV value was difficult to quantify, AI collapses to two metrics that every OEM understands: time and cost. Sonatus's AI Technician tool is a working example — cutting vehicle diagnostic cycles from weeks to days on the Nissan programme.

The Connective Tissue Between Human and Machine 

Cars don't speak English. Vehicles generate data that engineers, developers, and eventually drivers can't easily interpret without translation. Jeff describes the role Sonatus plays as the connective tissue between the human and the machine: enabling an engineer to interrogate a vehicle in natural language, from anywhere in the world, and get a structured diagnostic response. LLMs, he argues, are what make this human relationship with technology finally possible.

China Is Running a Different Race 

Jeff's account of how Chinese OEMs and tier ones adopt new technology is unusually direct for a CEO speaking on record. The adoption speed is staggering, he says, and the work culture behind it runs on what he calls "007" — midnight to midnight, seven days a week. His assessment: incumbent Western OEMs still have the brand equity, the distribution, and the customer base. It is their race to lose, but they need to act.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Frame AI value to OEMs around time and cost, not capability. SDV failed to deliver on the revenue promise partly because the value proposition was framed around potential, not measurement. AI tools that demonstrably reduce diagnostic cycles or compress time-to-SOP speak a language finance leadership understands.
• Build your team's cultural DNA before your customer relationships. Sonatus explicitly built a mixed team of Silicon Valley technologists and automotive industry veterans before approaching OEMs. The cultural bridge has to exist internally before it can exist externally.
• Do not position China as a competitor to dismiss. Jeff's observation is that Western OEMs should treat the pace of Chinese adoption as a signal, not a threat to minimise. What ships there first, is often a preview of where the industry is heading.
• Treat SDV infrastructure as the prerequisite, not the product. The SDV is what makes AI in vehicles possible. Companies and OEMs that frame it as an end destination misunderstand its role in the technology stack.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Jeff Chou is CEO and co-founder of Sonatus, a Silicon Valley software company specialising in in-vehicle network management, data collection, and AI-driven diagnostics. Before founding Sonatus in 2018, he built his career in the data center industry at companies later acquired by Cisco and Brocade. He holds engineering degrees from UT Austin and Stanford. Sonatus technology is deployed in more than 7 million production vehicles, with Hyundai Motor Group as a flagship customer and partner.

Automotive Storytelling is an independent editorial platform.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of Automotive Storytelling, Stéphane Lagresle travels to the Isle of Man during TT Race Week to examine one of the most structurally underexplored problems in connected vehicles: what actually happens to a car's data between the antenna and the application. Filmed on location with the founders of Stacuity, a software-defined connectivity company, this conversation moves from a 37-mile racing circuit to the engineering reality beneath the SDV transition.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The Tromboning Problem

A Latency Risk Built Into Most Connected Vehicle Architectures Today A car in Australia connects to a mobile network. The data leaves the country, routes to Europe, and comes back. That round trip adds hundreds of milliseconds to every session. Brazil has already legislated against it. India is moving in the same direction. More markets are following faster than vehicle programmes can respond. And the cars already in the field cannot be recalled to fit new SIMs.

Fleet Retrofits Without Hardware Changes

What APN Repointing Actually Means The most commercially significant detail in this episode is also the least intuitive. Existing fleets can be redirected to in-country infrastructure without touching a single vehicle. No SIM swap, no over-the-air update to the device itself. John Freeman walks through the mechanism: you repoint an Access Point Name inside the network, and every existing subscriber follows. For OEMs facing sovereignty regulation in markets they are already operating in, this changes the nature of the problem entirely.

Software-Defined Connectivity Compresses Market Entry From Months to Weeks 

A partner approached Stacuity with a test request: half a million subscribers, edge connectivity validation for a Chinese customer. Traditional infrastructure: six to nine months. With Stacuity's software-defined layer, the APN was configured and traffic routed in four minutes. The full live solution went live four and a half weeks after the request arrived. John Freeman's framing: the connectivity layer should never be the variable that slows an OEM's market entry.

The Marshals as a Network Architecture Model 

Laura Sawyer describes how more than five hundred marshals manage a 37-mile public road circuit with no single point of failure. Each node passes information forward, flags anomalies, and routes around failure. The episode uses this as its central analogy: handover, edge intelligence, and redundancy, running as a human distributed network since 1907, long before anyone gave it a technical name. It is the clearest non-specialist explanation of what software-defined connectivity is actually trying to replicate.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Audit your data routing paths before regulation arrives. If your vehicles route connectivity data through servers outside the country of use, the legal exposure is already building. Brazil and India have acted. More markets are moving. The audit is easier than the retrofit.
• Do not assume hardware changes are required for sovereignty compliance. If your fleet uses traditional SIM-based routing, an APN-level redirect may resolve the regulatory exposure without vehicle recall. Understand the mechanism before scoping a programme.
• Evaluate connectivity infrastructure against deployment speed, not feature parity alone. A six-to-nine-month connectivity deployment timeline is not a technical constraint. It is an architecture choice. Software-defined alternatives exist and are in production.
• Treat connectivity as a core SDV design variable, not a commodity. The software-defined vehicle requires a software-defined network layer. Connectivity decisions made at programme start will determine what is achievable at launch and in the field.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDES

Chris Hall is Chairman of Stacuity. In 2001, he was part of the team who secured Europe's first 3G licence and launched the Western Hemisphere's first 3G network from the Isle of Man, competing directly with Japan's DoCoMo. His route to the licence: a letter, a 19-pence stamp, and a week's wait.

John Freeman is CEO of Stacuity. He leads commercial strategy and partnership development for a platform designed to give OEMs and operators the network-layer flexibility that traditional mobile infrastructure cannot provide.

Mike Bromwich is CTO and co-founder of Stacuity. During lockdown, he built a complete mobile core network from first principles, software-only and without proprietary hardware, because the existing architecture could not answer the questions the industry was beginning to ask. His explanation of what software-defined connectivity means in engineering terms is the clearest in this episode.

Laura Sawyer is Director of Marshals for the Isle of Man TT, responsible for more than five hundred volunteer officials across a 37-mile public road circuit. Her description of how the marshal network operates provides the episode's central analogy, and the reason this conversation was filmed here and nowhere else.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🎙️ THE CONVERSATIONAL COCKPIT DECODED

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling", brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Jan Wehmeyer, VP Account & Business Lead Europe at Cerence AI, and Frank Kaleck, Director Industry Advisory Automotive at Microsoft, inside a prototype car to explore how voice AI is turning the vehicle into an intelligent partner, and the dashboard into a boardroom.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Native Voice AI vs. CarPlay: The Data Advantage OEMs Can't Ignore

Frank Kaleck reveals why automakers are moving beyond Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for their primary voice layer. It’s because a native assistant gives them something a smartphone mirror never can: real insight into what their customers actually want. That data flywheel is becoming a core competitive asset.

The Hybrid AI Architecture Running Inside Your Next Car

Jan Wehmeyer unpacks how Cerence AI pairs a Large Language Model (LLM) in the cloud with a Small Language Model (SLM) on-device, creating a system that handles free-form, multi-intent commands without structured syntax and routes sensitive data locally to protect driver privacy, even without connectivity.

From One-Size-Fits-All to Market-Specific AI Agents

Learn how the combination of Microsoft Azure's regional data center infrastructure and Cerence AI’s dedicated local teams makes it possible to serve fundamentally different user expectations — China's high-context, continuous conversation style versus Europe's preference for brevity — without multiplying vehicle variants or technical complexity.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Lead with use cases, not technology: Before presenting any new capability, anchor it in a specific driver scenario. The technology earns its place once the human problem is clearly visible.
• Embed cross-partner teams early in the project: Rather than working in sequential handoffs between OEM, Tier 1, and technology vendors, co-locate dedicated agile teams from day one. The speed and alignment gains are substantial.
• Leverage regional teams early: Cultural differences in how people interact with technology are as significant as regulatory ones. Build regional UX adaptation into the project plan from day one, not as a retrofit.
• Tailor your AI architecture to your privacy constraints: Not every function needs the cloud. Identifying which capabilities can run on-device reduces data exposure and builds driver trust.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDES

Jan Wehmeyer brings nearly a decade of experience building Cerence AI's commercial presence across Europe, having joined the company through its Nuance Communications Automotive roots in 2015. He is currently VP Account & Business Lead Europe, a role focused on translating voice AI capability into OEM partnerships at scale.

Frank Kaleck has spent fifteen years at Microsoft watching the company transform from a Windows and Office provider into the cloud backbone of the automotive industry. As Director Industry Advisory Automotive, he works directly with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to build vehicle experiences and enterprise-grade in-car productivity on top of Microsoft Azure.

Ready to hear what the car of tomorrow actually sounds like?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Automotive Storytelling", brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Claudine Rochette, VP of Strategy and Communication at Valeo's Power Division, bringing over 20 years of experience at the heart of automotive electrification. From relaunching France's first EV ecosystem project in 2009, to leading global strategy across motors, power electronics, and thermal management, Claudine unpacks what the electric revolution truly looks like from the inside, and why she has always believed the shift is irreversible.

Key insights

Valeo's answer to the hidden range killer

Claudine reveals how winter heating can cut an EV's range in half, and how Valeo's heat pump technology recovers over 25% of that lost range by managing electrical, mechanical, and thermal energy as one integrated system.

The rare earth problem nobody is talking about

Over 90% of today's electric motors depend on rare earth magnets sourced predominantly from China. Valeo's collaboration with Mahle on a brushless, inductively excited motor cuts the motor's carbon footprint by 40% while breaking the supply chain dependency.

Software never stops: the SDV lifecycle revolution

The software-defined vehicle has fundamentally changed development timelines. Valeo now maintains and upgrades motor software up to 15 years post-start of production, enabling OTA performance gains long after the car leaves the factory.

Practical takeaways

• Reframe range anxiety: The biggest EV performance gap is the energy management across electrical, mechanical, and thermal vectors combined.
• Follow the TCO story: Valeo's data shows EVs already outperform ICE on total cost of ownership. That’s a narrative the industry still hasn't pushed loudly enough, especially in commercial vehicles and trucks.
• Think B2B2C: Winning EV adoption means teaching dealers how to teach customers. The technology story only lands when the full chain understands it.
• Stay agile: That’s Claudine's #1 storytelling advice. In a market shaped by geopolitical shocks, regulation U-turns, and technology disruption, adaptability is the only constant.

About Claudine Rochette

Claudine brings over 20 years of dedicated automotive experience, starting as an engineer at Johnson Controls on engine management systems before joining Valeo in 2005. She led the relaunch of France's national EV ecosystem in 2009 and has held senior leadership positions across electrification strategy ever since. As VP of Strategy and Communication for Valeo's Power Division — the company's flagship entity combining powertrain and thermal systems — she sits at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and market narrative.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this captivating episode of "Automotive Storytelling" brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Charlotte Eisner, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Bolt, co-chair of ECAVA (EU Commission), and strategic advisor on automated transportation to the NATO Science & Technology Organization, to explore how Europe is building its own autonomous mobility future, and on its own terms.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Europe vs. the World: Slow Is Not Behind 

Charlotte reveals why Europe's rigorous three-layer approval approach (product safety + process safety + operational safety) is not a weakness, and why nobody, including Waymo, has actually cracked commercial-scale deployment yet.

The "Blank Paper" Imperative 

Discover why retrofitting Level 2 ADAS vehicles for Level 4 autonomy is a dead end, and how the engineering lesson from Bolt's Zicur experience demands starting from scratch to build vehicles that truly support autonomous drive systems.

The Lucky Clover Strategy 

Learn how Bolt's four-leaf framework — private ride-hailing, B2G municipality services (hospital rides, disabled transport, late-night safety), B2B partnerships, and public transport integration — is designed to make robotaxis a civic asset, not just a tech product.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Anchor your story in the past: Tailor your narrative to the lived experience of each audience — cities, OEMs, municipalities — before introducing disruption.
• Know your "two-brain" problem: When bridging legacy automotive and new autonomy systems, recognize that evolution alone will not get you to Level 4. Rethink from zero.
• Reframe "behind" as "rigorous": Europe's approval requirements create a defensible moat — the first player to clear them will have a durable European-scale advantage.
• Design for the streaming generation: Today's riders don't want to own. Build services, not products — and price against the true cost of car ownership (100% cost, 2–5% utilization).

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Charlotte Eisner brings over 15 years of experience at the intersection of electrification, autonomy, and European mobility strategy. Born into a family of automotive engineers in Gothenburg — her grandfather co-developed the Volvo three-point seatbelt — she brings a rare legacy of safety-first innovation to the frontlines of Level 4 deployment. After roles at Scandinavian Airlines, management consulting, and co-founding ventures, she re-entered automotive via the EV wave, led business development at Zicur, and now drives strategic partnerships at Bolt, where she is building Europe's answer to Waymo.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Coming to you from the floor of Tech.AD Berlin 2026, this special dispatch brings together five engineering and strategic leaders: Pierre Vincent and Emmanuel Follin (ANSYS/Synopsys), Gordon Köfner (Cadence/VTD), José Rui Simões (Critical Software), and Khaled Alomari (MHP). With these experts, we talk about the increasing complexity that automated and autonomous driving bring to an already complex SDV world, and how homologation and testing are at the center stage.

🔍 In this episode, you will:

▶ Discover how generative AI shrinks complex test scenario creation from three weeks down to minutes. 

▶ Navigate the radical shift from traditional Tier 1 waterfall dynamics to a smartphone-like partnership model. 

▶ Understand why digital homologation and unresolved legal liability remain the ultimate autonomous deployment gatekeepers. 

▶ Learn how to avoid brute-force validation by targeting only the meaningful scenarios that add true engineering value.

This expert panel features technical leaders who have successfully architected advanced simulation toolchains, deployed safety-critical embedded systems, and structured complex OEM partnerships globally. Together, they are building the critical infrastructure required to test physical AI and bring certified autonomous vehicles onto public roads.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of Automotive Storytelling, brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, Stéphane Lagresle sits down with John Wall, President of QNX, the safety-critical operating system running silently inside over 275 million vehicles worldwide. From a one-click download for students to the beating heart of BMW's Neue Klasse, John reveals how the most important software in your car might be invisible - for now.

KEY INSIGHTS

The "Rounding Error" Paradox: working in the shadows can be an advantage

John Wall reveals how QNX grew its global automotive business while BlackBerry wasn't watching, operating as a "rounding error". It gave Wall the autonomy to work with his team tirelessly on his vision.

The "Free Puppy" Fallacy: Rethinking the Open Source vs. Commercial Debate 

Discover how QNX is threading the needle between open-source accessibility and commercial accountability with its QNX Everywhere initiative. Hear Wall’s position on this topic and what “free” really means.

Physical AI and the Next Frontier: From Tip of the Spear to Platform of the Future

Learn why Wall sees automotive as the proving ground for every other mission-critical industry, and how QNX is positioning its deterministic, safety-certified RTOS as the foundational layer for the physical AI revolution in robotics and industrial automation.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Listen to customers: After COVID, Wall personally travelled the world to talk to customers. "We can't find engineers who know QNX." That listening tour created QNX Everywhere.
• Measure yourself against the best: QNX benchmarks every performance metric against Linux, not other RTOSes — always calibrate ambition to the market leader, not your nearest competitor.
• Name the integration tax: Wall's breakthrough with Vector on Alloy Kore came from naming what OEMs were silently bleeding — identifying the hidden cost your customer can't articulate is the foundation of a winning partnership narrative.
• Stability enables innovation: As Wall frames it, the reason Apple's app ecosystem thrives is that iOS isn't rewritten every year. The same logic applies to automotive software — OEMs can't differentiate on top of a foundation that keeps shifting.

ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

John Wall brings over 32 years of experience at QNX, where he has held virtually every engineering role before rising to President in November 2025. A Carleton University electrical engineer who turned down multiple exits to stay the course, he led QNX's automotive pivot through the Harman and BlackBerry eras, championed the hypervisor and QNX Everywhere against internal resistance, and secured the landmark BMW Neue Klasse partnership. BlackBerry's chief legal officer has called him "the real heart and soul of the QNX business".

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

KEY INSIGHTS

The Five-Year Integration Challenge: Early Involvement is Everything: Discover why premium audio systems require involvement as early as the body-in-white stage, sometimes 3-5 years before production. 

Branding through sound: Greg uncovers how HARMAN engineers a distinct sonic identity for each luxury brand — from Bang & Olufsen in Audi to Mark Levinson in Lexus — with a global team of 120 acoustic specialists.

The future of in-car audio: Both guests explore how software-defined vehicles, personalization, and spatial audio are converging to make the car the world's most intimate listening space.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Know your acoustic canvas: Understand that every car model is a unique acoustic environment demanding bespoke tuning, not off-the-shelf solutions.
• Bridge format and experience: Immersive audio formats only deliver value when the underlying hardware and tuning are aligned from the start of a program.
• Leverage brand sound as a differentiator: OEMs that invest in a consistent sonic identity build stronger emotional loyalty among drivers.
• Equip for Software-Defined Evolution: Design audio systems with over-the-air update capability to enable tuning refinements, new features, and continuous value creation post-purchase.

ABOUT YOUR GUIDES

Andreas Ehret brings 18+ years at Dolby Laboratories, with roots in audio coding research at Fraunhofer IIS — the birthplace of MP3. He now leads Dolby's automotive push, championing Dolby Atmos Music as the definitive in-car listening format.

Greg Sikora has spent 20 years shaping how the world's finest cars sound, leading acoustic engineering for brands including B&W, Bang & Olufsen, JBL, and Harman/Kardon across customers from BMW to Ferrari. He is also an active PhD researcher at McGill University.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Recorded live at Mobile World Congress 2026, this bonus episode features Andrew Till, General Manager of the Secure Platform Division at Trustonic — a company that has been quietly powering automotive security for years, and is now stepping into a new role: trusted advisor to OEMs navigating an increasingly complex landscape.

Andrew makes a small but telling observation early in the conversation: the industry stopped talking about supply chains and started talking about ecosystems. That shift, he argues, changes everything: from how security is architected, to how fast a vehicle can go from concept to launch, to why Chinese automakers are moving at a speed that's forcing the rest of the world to pay attention.

A grounded, big-picture conversation on where the automotive industry's mindset is actually headed.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Recorded live at Mobile World Congress 2026, this bonus episode gives you the full conversation with Andrew Richards, VP at SoundHound AI — one of the most advanced voice AI platforms deployed in production vehicles today.

In just a few minutes on the show floor, Andrew unpacks a lot: the debut of SoundHound's Vision AI in Europe (yes, your car can now answer "what's that building?"), the real-world mechanics of Edge vs. Cloud arbitration, and why the future of in-car AI isn't about beating Apple or Google — it's about orchestrating alongside them.

He also reflects on something every driver has felt: the frustration of a car that just didn't understand you. That era, he says, is over. What's next is far more interesting.

A sharp, honest conversation from the heart of MWC 2026.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

KEY INSIGHTS

• From Buzzword to Business Reality: The NTN Breakthrough. Maxime Flament (5GAA) and Firasat Siddiqui (Harman) reveal how non-terrestrial networks went from skeptical OEM reception in 2021 to working satellite SOS demos and BMW roadmaps in 2026, driven by trust-building.
• The Ecosystem Rewrite: Why the Old Waterfall Is Over. Tanjeff Schadt (PwC/Strategy&) lays out four scenarios for the automotive value chain — from OEM-led partnering to full tech disruption — while Weizhi Yu (MediaTek) and Andrew Till (Trustonic) explain why silicon suppliers and security providers now sit directly at the OEM table.
• The Rise of the Orchestrators. Charlie Isaacs (Salesforce) and Andrew Richards (SoundHound AI) describe a converging future where AI agents in the cloud and voice assistants in the car form an orchestration layer, and how value flows to whoever connects the dots across the ecosystem.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Plan for service continuity, not backward compatibility: Design your connectivity roadmap so safety-critical services can transition across radio generations without freezing your architecture. The distinction unlocks innovation.
• Build the capability to operate in ecosystems now: The window is 12–24 months. Companies that still rely on traditional procurement behavior and rigid OEM-supplier hierarchies will find themselves driven rather than driving.
• Treat AI orchestration as infrastructure: Whether it's agentic enterprise platforms or in-vehicle voice AI, the ability to register, connect, and coordinate agents across companies is becoming as foundational as the connectivity layer itself.

FEATURED GUESTS

• Tanjeff Schadt — Partner, Strategy& (PwC), EMEA Leader Semiconductors 
• Maxime Flament — CTO, 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) 
• Firasat Siddiqui — Sr. Director Global Portfolio PMO Lead, Harman International 
• Weizhi Yu — VP Automotive Product Marketing, MediaTek 
• Andrew Richards — VP Business Development, SoundHound AI 
• Andrew Till — General Manager Secure Platform, Trustonic 
• Charlie Isaacs — CTO for Customer Connection, Salesforce

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this compelling episode of "Automotive Storytelling" – the only podcast examining mobility through storytelling, brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe – we connect with Joe Custer, CEO of Intrado, the company that invented modern 9-1-1, to explore how data-rich vehicle communications can save over 2000 lives annually. From two Boulder County sheriff's deputies who solved a location problem ~50 years ago to the forefront of Next Generation 9-1-1 and emergency response, Joe reveals why every second after a crash is a battle between technology and time.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The 12-Minute Problem: When Call Centers Cost Lives
Joe reveals how current crash notifications route through OEM concierge call centers, creating 12+ minute delays that increase mortality by 46% compared to a 5-minute intervention. Next Generation AACN can cut response times by nearly 70%.

The Severity Score Standard: One Language for Every Brand
Discover how GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda are collaborating with NENA and APCO to create a unified crash severity calculation, so that a "7 out of 10" means the same thing regardless of which vehicle model you drive. 

The Autonomous Trust Factor: No Driver, No Problem
Learn why automated emergency response becomes even more critical in the autonomous era, where driverless vehicles must communicate crashes directly to first responders through the dedicated, public-safety-grade ESInet network.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Standardize the Severity Score: Adopt the updated VEDS 3.1 standard so every brand communicates crash data in a consistent, actionable format
• Lead with the Consumer Mandate: 94% of drivers support sharing vehicle data for safety; 70% say AACN would influence their next vehicle purchase — use this in your messaging
• Follow the European Playbook: Europe's eCall mandate reduced emergency response times by 40–50% and saves an estimated 2,500 lives annually — the proof of concept already exists

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Joe Custer brings nearly 30 years of leadership in finance, strategy, and corporate development to his role as CEO of Intrado — the company that handles roughly 90% of all U.S. 9-1-1 requests. Having served as CFO and SVP of Operations, Joe led the strategic transformation of emergency services infrastructure and now champions the modernization of the 9-1-1 ecosystem through Advanced Automatic Collision Notification (AACN).

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? 

https://www.intrado.com/

https://www.intrado.com/news-releases/intrado-and-sbd-automotive-demonstrate-how-advanced-automatic-collision-notification-aacn-could-save-more-than-2000-lives-annually

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this solo episode of Automotive Storytelling, the only podcast examining mobility through storytelling, Stéphane Lagresle, founder of The Storytelling Tribe, draws on years of CES experience, including his most recent visit in January 2026, to break down the five principles that turn a trade show booth from a product catalog into a story visitors will remember and retell.

From IKEA-inspired visitor flows to the art of making your team speak the same language, this episode delivers a practical framework for anyone preparing for CES, IAA, MWC, or any major industry event.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The IKEA Blueprint: Designing Visitor Journeys, Not Floor Plans

Most trade show booths are open spaces where visitors wander aimlessly. Stéphane reveals how applying IKEA's guided flow principle — and a 3-zone model (Attraction → Engagement → Conversion) — creates a narrative arc that builds understanding step by step.

The Building Block Strategy: From Chapters to a Complete Story

Discover why leading with your flagship demo is like showing a movie's final scene first, and how structuring demos as progressive building blocks creates an unforgettable "aha" moment — with real examples from HARMAN and CES 2026.

The Ambassador Effect: Storytelling That Multiplies

Learn why the 20 people visiting your booth actually represent hundreds back at their offices, why 88% of B2B buyers trust personal recommendations above all else, and how to craft a story simple enough to survive the "Monday Morning Test."

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Design the journey first: Sketch your visitor path on a whiteboard before touching booth layouts — Entry → Station 1 → Station 2 → Station 3 → Exit. If you can't draw a clear line, neither can your visitors.
• Apply the half-and-half rule: Write down everything you want to communicate. Cross out half. Then cross out half again. What's left is your story. Everything else is noise.
• Run the "What do you do?" drill: Before the show, ask every team member that question and record the answers. The number of different answers is the size of your problem.
• Arm your ambassadors: Give visitors a takeaway tool — a one-pager, a QR code to a 60-second video, a shareable link — so they can retell your story with backup.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR HOST

Stéphane Lagresle brings 15+ years of experience in automotive technology communication. Having worked with Samsung, Harman, and TomTom, and walked countless CES floors, he developed the Automotive-Grade Storytelling™ methodology that bridges engineering excellence with market relevance.

CROSS-REFERENCES

• 🔗 Quick Fix #1: "The Dinner Party Test" — the foundational principle behind making stories retellable (Season 1, Episode 17)
• 🔗 Quick Fix #2: "Escaping the PowerPoint Jail" — the 18-Minute Rule and why less is more (Season 1, Episode 23)

Ready to turn your next trade show booth into a story your visitors will retell?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this compelling episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling"—the only podcast examining mobility through the lens of storytelling—we sit down with Stef Balkowiec, Co-Founder of GraphDome and former Managing Director at Cosworth Electronics, to uncover what happens when a technical founder puts their company presentation through real scrutiny. This isn't a theoretical discussion about pitch decks—it's the actual behind-the-scenes journey of transforming a technology-heavy presentation into a positioning-driven story that opens doors.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Technology vs. Trust: The Founder's Blind Spot

Stef reveals how his 60 years of combined expertise was buried at the end of his deck—and why technical founders consistently prioritize what they find interesting over what audiences need first. Discover why credibility must lead, not follow.

The "How Does It Make You Feel?" Framework

Learn how Stef rebuilt his entire deck from scratch by focusing on audience transformation rather than technical features. From vector databases and graph ontology to productivity gains and cost reduction—same technology, completely different story.

Positioning: The Product Behind Your Presentation

Stef spent weeks—not hours—repositioning GraphDome, ultimately realizing that the company presentation isn't just slides. It's the output of a rigorous positioning process that defines why you exist, who should care, and what differentiates you from both competitors and apathy.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Front-load credibility within the first 2 minutes: Move your experience and track record to the opening slides so decision-makers trust you before evaluating your technology
• Apply the Red Bull test to your value proposition: If you're describing features instead of transformation (wings, not thirst-quenching), your positioning needs work
• Budget one full week to rebuild your deck after positioning clarity: Stef's transformation required complete reconstruction, pushing all technical schematics to the appendix
• Seek safe-environment feedback before high-stakes presentations: The Evergreen process revealed blind spots Stef couldn't see after months of internal iterations

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Stef Balkowiec brings over 30 years of experience bridging motorsport and automotive technology innovation. As former Managing Director of Cosworth Electronics, he was instrumental in advancing software-defined vehicle architectures in high-performance environments. Now as Co-Founder of GraphDome, Stef is building real-time digital twin platforms that help manufacturing leaders drive productivity through smart data analytics. His unique perspective combines deep technical expertise with hard-won lessons about translating complex innovation into compelling business narratives.

Ready to discover how positioning transforms presentation?

This is the most transparent, process-focused episode we've ever recorded. You'll hear the actual feedback sessions, the strategic pivots, and even the naming struggles that come with getting your foundation right.

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #Positioning #TechFounders #CompanyStory #StartupStrategy

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this focused case study from "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling," host Stéphane Lagresle reveals what happened when Stef Balkowiec, Co-Founder of GraphDome and former Managing Director at Cosworth Electronics, put his company presentation through the Evergreen process. This shows how strategic feedback transforms technology-focused decks into positioning-driven narratives that actually land with decision-makers.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The Trust Trap: Why Credibility Can't Be an Afterthought

Most founders bury their strongest asset—experience—at the end of their decks. Stef and his co-founder have 60 years of combined expertise that should have opened his presentation, not closed it. Learn why trust must be established in the first 90 seconds, not earned after 20 slides.

From Features to Feelings: The Transformation Question

Stef discovered that his original deck answered "what does GraphDome do?" when decision-makers needed to know "how will I be better off?" The breakthrough came from one question: "How are they going to feel?" This single insight triggered a complete rebuild.

Your Deck Is the Output, Not the Input

Stef spent a full week reconstructing his presentation after gaining positioning clarity. The result? Technology moved to the appendix, the story led with human impact, and every slide answered: Why do we exist? Why should you care? What makes us different?

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Audit your first three slides today: If they don't establish credibility, articulate customer pain, or promise transformation, you're leading with the wrong story
• Apply the Evergreen three-step process: (1) Live presentation to target persona, (2) In-depth analysis on feedback board, (3) Strategic repositioning session.
• Test the "feel" versus "feature" ratio: For every technical capability you mention, articulate one emotional or business outcome your audience will experience
• Seek outside feedback before investor meetings: Founders can't see their own blind spots after internal iterations—strategic critique reveals gaps you've stopped noticing

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Stef Balkowiec brings over 30 years of experience at the intersection of motorsport technology and automotive innovation. As former Managing Director of Cosworth Electronics, he helped pioneer software-defined vehicle approaches in high-performance racing environments. Now as Co-Founder of GraphDome, he's scaling real-time digital twin technology for manufacturing productivity. His journey from technology-first pitch decks to positioning-driven narratives exemplifies the transformation every technical founder must make to succeed.

Is your foundation solid?

This episode strips away the theory and shows you exactly what positioning-first storytelling looks like in practice. Hear the actual clips from Stef's Evergreen journey, understand the framework behind the transformation, and walk away with actions you can take Monday morning.

Want to go deeper? Listen to the full 45-minute conversation for the complete behind-the-scenes journey, including Stef's naming process and strategic positioning decisions.

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #Evergreen #Positioning #PitchDeck #FounderJourney

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

For three years at CES, we've heard the same promises: SDVs are coming, AI will transform mobility, the industry is converging. But at CES 2026, something changed. The buzzwords became bill of materials. The roadmaps became production deployments. The future tense became present reality.

In this special Season 2 premiere, host Stéphane Lagresle brings you insights from seven conversations with executives at QNX, Qualcomm, Sonatus, Cerence AI, Amazon, Valeo, and VicOne, revealing three seismic shifts reshaping automotive innovation.

🚗 FROM BUZZWORD TO BILL OF MATERIALS 

Discover why SDV is no longer hype: $22-98 cost savings per vehicle, $6-12M development efficiencies, and 6-month deployment cycles. QNX shows the hard numbers. Sonatus demonstrates production systems. Valeo confirms we're "only at the beginning."

🤖 THE INTELLIGENCE REVOLUTION

The industry has been talking for years about "software-defined" anymore. Now, it's "AI-defined" vehicles. Learn why edge-first orchestration is replacing cloud-first architecture, how operational costs and sustainability are driving AI to the edge, and why agentic AI creates experiences that evolve with customers across car, office, and home.

🔄 THE GREAT CONVERGENCE 

Technical boundaries are dissolving. Industry walls are falling. Your car is becoming a node in computing and energy grids. From Valeo's computing power lending concept to Amazon's ecosystem approach, see how vehicles are transforming into network infrastructure.

🎤 FEATURING INSIGHTS FROM:

• John Pelliccio (QNX) - Software-defined audio with measurable ROI
• Alexandre Corjon (Sonatus) - Intelligence-driven SDV deployment
• Rajat Sagar (Qualcomm) - AI-defined vehicles and Snapdragon Digital Chassis
• Raja Bose (Cerence AI) - Edge-first orchestration and seamless life experiences
• Stefano Marzani (Amazon/AWS) - Cloud-native development democratization
• François Marion (Valeo) - Cars as computing resources
• William Dalton (VicOne) - AI security in an expanding attack surface

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

✓ Why edge computing is becoming "first-class citizen" instead of fallback option

✓ How cloud inference costs are driving architectural changes 

✓ What "agentic AI" actually means for user experiences 

✓ Why vehicles will lend computing power to the cloud when idle 

✓ How OEMs can deploy AI without "gold-plated hardware" 

✓ Where the real security threats lie in intelligence-defined vehicles

This isn't another CES recap. This is a reality check on where automotive innovation actually stands.

And where it's heading next.

Keywords:

CES 2026, software-defined vehicles, SDV, automotive AI, edge computing, agentic AI, Qualcomm Snapdragon, autonomous driving, automotive cybersecurity, vehicle-to-grid, cloud computing, automotive innovation, mobility technology, QNX, Sonatus, Cerence, Amazon automotive, Valeo, VicOne, edge-first orchestration, AI-defined vehicles, automotive storytelling, tech podcast, automotive podcast 

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Frantz Lohier, the first guest of Season 1, reverses roles to interview Stéphane Lagresle about how 30 episodes with automotive executives actually get made. This isn't about interviewing techniques or podcast equipment. It's about the systematic approach to understanding what makes great conversations work in a technical industry.

What You'll Learn:

The Four-Hour Formula
How to prepare for high-stakes conversations with executives you've never met, using AI tools, pre-interview calls, and strategic research to create authentic dialogue regardless of topic complexity.

The Validation Discovery
Why the podcast's original hypothesis was wrong: Stéphane assumed automotive executives were skeptical about storytelling. Every single guest proved otherwise, confirming that narrative is now critical for cutting through technical noise and winning business.

The Machinery Behind Authenticity
From Google Notebook LM for research synthesis to the intentional structure that balances technical credibility with human connection, here's the process that makes preparation look effortless.

The Honest Part
Stéphane also shares something uncomfortable: he almost didn't start this podcast. An inner voice (he calls it "Alfred") kept him from posting on LinkedIn for years. This episode is about what happened when he decided to ignore that voice, and what months of systematic content creation actually produces.

Why This Episode Matters:

If you're preparing for CES presentations, investor pitches, or OEM meetings in 2025, this episode offers a blueprint for the kind of preparation that creates memorable conversations. If you're a tier-one supplier wondering why OEMs can't remember your presentation, ask yourself if you have a story that will resonate with your audience.

Your technology might be brilliant. Your storytelling is what makes it memorable.

🎧 Season 1 complete. Season 2 coming soon.

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #B2BMarketing #PodcastProduction

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

At We.Conect's SDV Europe 2025 in Berlin, seven industry experts revealed a fundamental shift: the companies that win won't have the most features—they'll tell the most honest stories about strategic focus, security vigilance, and what software-defined vehicles really mean for drivers.

THE THREE SHIFTS DEFINING 2026:

🎯 From "More" to Strategic Focus
After years of feature accumulation, complexity has become unsustainable. Ola Svensson (Knowit): "Complexity must be reduced. Functionality is being taken away." Success in 2026 means mastering "subtractive storytelling": choosing 10 features that work flawlessly over 50 that create chaos. This is the differentiation customers will finally experience.

🤝 From Handoffs to Co-Integration
The relationship between OEMs and Tier1s keeps evolving. Michael Niklas (Aumovio) identified the real challenge: "fragmented tools, data inconsistencies, unclear ownership." Felix Pretscheck (Bosch) presented three collaboration scenarios, with "Co-Integrate" as the breakthrough: OEMs and suppliers integrating continuously through shared pipelines, compressing feedback from months to days. 

🔒 From Building to Securing
Every connection you market is also a vulnerability. Gregor Knappik (VicOne): "So everything gets even more interconnected. And these are basically the biggest threats upcoming that we see and needs to be solved now." With vehicles connecting to smart homes and third-party services, security isn't a feature to hide—it's a trust-builder requiring radical transparency. GPS spoofing threats, public hacking competitions, and the convergence of safety (ISO 26262) with security (ISO 21434) demand a new narrative: continuous vigilance as strength, not admission of weakness.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS:

• Reframe subtraction as vision: "We chose these 10 features because they matter" beats "We offer 50 because we can"
• Translate engineer-speak to human language: Replace "flexible feature deployment architecture" with "Your car gets better every month, like your phone"
• Launch co-integration partnerships now: Move beyond quarterly supplier deliveries to shared development infrastructure
• Build security transparency within 6 months: Proactive bug bounty programs before incidents force reactive crisis management

FEATURED EXPERTS:
Stefan Marxreiter (Avenga) • Ola Svensson (Knowit) • Mikhail Vink (JetBrains) • Michael Niklas (Aumovio) • Khaled Alomari (MHP) • Hans-Martin Ritt (MathWorks) • Gregor Knappik (VicOne)

The companies that master honest narratives—ambitious yet credible, innovative yet trustworthy—won't just win in 2026. They'll define automotive storytelling for the next decade.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Twenty-eight companies. Three years. One unified data standard that BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen all agreed to. Thomas Rösch, CEO of Cofinity-X and Board Member of Catena-X, joins "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" to unpack this unprecedented automotive collaboration.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Centralized vs. Decentralized: The Trust Paradigm Shift

Thomas exposes automotive's "one-up, one-down" data sharing trap that creates supply chain opacity, then unveils Catena-X's data sovereignty solution—where companies retain ownership while enabling standardized peer-to-peer data exchange that builds industry-wide trust.

The Standardization Strategy of Seamless Integration

Discover how 28 companies achieved the impossible—three years of collaboration bringing a global data ecosystem to life that creates a trusted environment for cross-company collaboration and innovation. It enables: Sovereign data exchange between all automotive enterprises.Catena-X creates a foundation for a connected, resilient, and sustainable automotive industry, which Cofinity-X brings to life. 

The Global Scaling of Data Ecosystems

Learn why data spaces are exploding beyond automotive into aerospace, chemicals, and construction, with Korea's government-funded rollout and 25+ Chinese company pilots proving that collaborative data infrastructure is becoming an essential industrial operating system.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Audit Data Readiness Now: Regulatory requirements like battery passports and PCF reporting are non-negotiable—Catena-X allows standardized processes for the exchange of sustainability data with all your partners
   
• Choose Your Software Strategy: Select from 50+ certified marketplace applications and services or leverage open-source code—freedom from vendor lock-in while maintaining standards compliance saves costs and preserves agility.
   
• Join Readiness Programs: Leverage Catena-X's supplier-focused booster programs—the network effect only works with broad participation, and early adopters gain first-mover advantage in supply chain transparency.
   
• Explore Cross-Industry Opportunities: If you serve multiple sectors, one infrastructure works across automotive, aerospace, and industrial—ChemX, FactoryX, and AerospaceX are emerging with identical principles.
   

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Thomas Rösch brings 40+ years of automotive and IoT expertise, including nine years founding ZF's Openmatics telematics platform. After learning firsthand why centralized, single-company platforms fail to achieve industry adoption, he now leads dual roles: CEO of Cofinity-X (first Catena-X operator) and Catena-X Association Board Member, where his conviction that "belief and making it happen" is reshaping global automotive data collaboration.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Are you asking the wrong question about your presentations? In this Quick Fix episode of Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling, host Stéphane Lagresle reveals why "How many slides should I have?" is the wrong question, and what you should be asking instead.

THE PROBLEM:

You open PowerPoint. You start adding slide after slide. Before you know it, you've got 40 slides for a 20-minute presentation.

But here's the thing: you don't have a presentation. You have a pile of information with no story holding it together. Your audience is lost because information without story is just noise.

This is the slide dependency problem. Your slides have become your script instead of supporting your story.

THE FRAMEWORK:

Using a powerful movie analogy, Stéphane introduces The One Test and The One Rule, two simple frameworks that will transform how you build presentations:

THE ONE TEST: Can you tell your story without the slides? If a massive technical failure happened and you couldn't show any slides, could you still deliver a compelling narrative? If not, you have a slide dependency problem.

THE ONE RULE: Every slide must do two things: (1) Move your story forward, AND (2) Get your audience closer to the goal you've defined (using the Empathy Map from Quick Fix #1). If a slide doesn't do both, it doesn't belong in your deck.

YOU'LL LEARN:

→ Why the number of slides doesn't matter—the story does
→ How to break free from slide dependency and build narrative-driven presentations
→ The two-part test every slide must pass to earn its place in your deck
→ Why information without emotion doesn't create retention (and how to fix it)
→ Real client transformation: from 30+ slides to 15 slides—and winning the contract
→ When to use slides and when to "kill the slide" for maximum impact
→ How to apply the Empathy Map framework to presentation design

TACTICAL TAKEAWAY:

Stop asking "How many slides do I need?" Start asking "What story am I telling?" 

THE PRINCIPLE: Information without emotion doesn't create retention. Learn how to create emotional moments around critical information so your audience actually remembers what matters.

Perfect for:

• Automotive sales and business development professionals
• B2B technology sales teams and account managers
• Product marketing and sales enablement leaders
• Startup founders and executives pitching investors
• Engineers and technical professionals presenting to non-technical audiences
• Anyone who presents complex solutions to customers

Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling is the premier podcast for automotive innovation leaders, revealing the human stories behind technological breakthroughs. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, Founder of The Storytelling Tribe and creator of the Automotive-Grade Storytelling™ methodology.

Connect: TheStorytellingTribe.com | LinkedIn: @SLagresle

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

When Mercedes-Benz's software team achieved in weeks what traditionally took years, they proved that having an entirely new approach to automotive's software can bring incredible results.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Markus Rettstatt, Head of Software Defined Car Unit at Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation and Eclipse SDV Ambassador, to decode how a 130-year-old automotive giant is becoming a software company.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The Cultural Earthquake: When Software Becomes the Product

Markus reveals the hardest part of Mercedes-Benz's transformation: convincing hardware-minded leaders that software isn't "instructions for hardware" anymore – it's the primary value layer. Discover why this shift demands new mental models about ownership, control, and what actually creates competitive advantage.

The Open Source Paradox: Why Mercedes Shares Code with Competitors

How can sharing diagnostic software with BMW, startups, and Chinese developers strengthen Mercedes' position? Markus explains the counterintuitive strategy behind OpenSOVD – and why reducing development cycles from years to weeks requires collaboration.

The Living Vehicle: Why Your 2025 Car Will Be Better in 2030

Software-defined vehicles don't depreciate like traditional cars – they improve. Learn how continuous updates are transforming the used car market, creating unprecedented value retention, and fundamentally changing what "buying a car" means for the next decade.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

Lead with Why, Not What: Transformation fails when engineers start with technical details. Start with customer impact, then developer benefits, then business value – in that order. That's how you build momentum.

Prove It with Demos, Not Memos: Markus's team didn't write proposals about vertical integration – they built a working demo covering 80% of test cases in six weeks. Change comes from showing, not telling.

Use Neutral Foundations for Collaboration: Hosting projects through Eclipse Foundation eliminates legal barriers and enables global contribution – even with geopolitically sensitive markets.

Design for Hardware Independence: Build abstraction layers that separate software from chips. This enables market flexibility (different chips for different regions) and future-proofs vehicles for computing evolution.

🌟 MEET YOUR GUIDE

Markus Rettstatt has been writing automotive software since 1998 – back when "software" meant offline routing systems and the rotary knob for destination entry. Over 25+ years, he's co-developed FlexRay bus systems, architected Mercedes-Benz's cloud-native OTA infrastructure (reducing update cycles from one year to under three months), and now leads SDV and ADAS innovation at Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation, partnering with Chief Software Officer Magnus Östberg to drive transformation at enterprise scale.

His unique perspective? He's lived through the entire evolution from "software as hardware instructions" to "software as primary value layer" – and he's leading one of the industry's most ambitious transformations.

Listen now to discover the stories driving automotive's software revolution.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Carolin Schütt, Lead CMF Design Manager at MAN Trucks and Buses, who brings along two decades of automotive design experience from BMW to commercial vehicles, to explore how storytelling transforms engineering into emotional experiences that drivers live with, not just operate.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Passenger Cars vs. Trucks: The Empathy Gap

Carolin reveals how truck design requires a deep human connection – drivers don't just commute, they live in their cabs for days – and how storytelling bridges the gap between technical specifications and the reality of life on the road.

The Polygonized DNA Strategy

Discover how MAN transformed Bavaria's topography into a design language that spans interior, exterior, and digital services, creating a cohesive brand story that elevates CMF from styling to strategic storytelling.

From CMF to CME: Designing for All Senses

Learn how the industry shift from Color-Material-Finish to Color-Material-Experience represents the future of automotive design, where every surface tells a story and creates a holistic emotional journey for drivers.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Brief with Context: When pitching, work with clear storytelling – save everyone's time and get better results
• Design as Theater: Create presentations that move people emotionally, not just inform them – if they remember one thing at day's end, make it yours
• Leverage Diverse Perspectives: Build teams with different genders, ages, and cultures – homogeneous teams produce limited, predictable outcomes
• Connect Engineering to Emotion: Use storytelling to translate technical requirements into visible customer value – specifications don't sell trucks, experiences do

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Carolin Schütt brings over 20 years of automotive design experience spanning BMW's luxury passenger cars, Faurecia's supplier perspective, and now leading CMF design for MAN's complete truck range. Her work has earned multiple IF Design Awards and Red Dot Design Awards for models including the TGX and MAN eTruck prototype. As a corporate influencer with over 8,000 LinkedIn followers, she champions female empowerment in automotive while transforming truck cabs into "mobility tiny houses" where drivers truly live.

Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinschuett/

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? #UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #TruckDesign #CMFDesign #WomenInAutomotive

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this captivating episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Anthony Cliquot, CEO of AirConsole, to explore how listening first became the foundation for transforming vehicles into social entertainment hubs and building partnerships with BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, and Audi.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Tech Meets Tradition: The Cultural Bridge

Anthony reveals how he convinced traditional automotive engineers to embrace gaming by telling a universal story about childhood car games – creating emotional resonance across procurement, engineering, and product teams in Japan, Germany, the US, and France.

The Experience-First Strategy

Discover how AirConsole solved the in-car gaming challenge by treating the car as a unique device rather than an "iPad on wheels" – integrating smartphones as controllers, leveraging immersive sound, and even syncing ambient lighting with gameplay to create memories, not just features.

The Autonomous Future: Passengers Over Drivers

Learn why the shift from driver-centric to passenger-centric experiences will redefine brand differentiation in the next decade, and how OEMs can own their entertainment ecosystem before big tech companies dominate their screens.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Listen Before You Pitch: Understand what your audience wants AND needs to hear before crafting your narrative – AirConsole's automotive pivot succeeded because OEMs told them the story first
• Lead With Emotion, Not Features: Create consistent stories about memories and experiences that resonate universally rather than drowning stakeholders in technical specifications
• Solve Experience, Not Technology: Build seamless user experiences that feel effortless – the hardest problems to solve become your most valuable differentiators
• Think Beyond Your Industry: When multiple customers from a new vertical knock on your door with the same story, listen deeply and evaluate the pull versus push dynamic

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Anthony Cliquot brings experience spanning financial services, consumer tech, and automotive innovation. Starting at Credit Suisse where he pioneered big data projects for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, he became a serial entrepreneur founding companies including Autodrop before leading AirConsole's remarkable pivot into the automotive industry. As CEO of AirConsole, he secured partnerships with BMW (launching in 18 months – "one of the fastest products we've launched"), Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche, while partnering with gaming giants like Mattel (Uno) and Hot Wheels. His passion lies in creating meaningful experiences that turn technology into stories people remember.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #InCarGaming #AirConsole #AutomotiveInnovation #SDV #CustomerExperience #B2BStorytelling

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

Are your sales presentations working against you? In this Quick Fix episode of Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling, host Stéphane Lagresle reveals why automotive suppliers and technology companies are losing millions in opportunities, not despite their preparation, but because of it.

THE PROBLEM: You've seen it happen. A customer blocks out 60 minutes. Your team spends weeks preparing a comprehensive 45-slide deck covering every technical specification, every capability, every certification. But 15 minutes in, you watch engagement evaporate: phone checking, email responding, eyes glazing over. Yet you keep clicking forward because "we spent three weeks building this deck."

This is PowerPoint Jail—when preparation time becomes a psychological prison that prevents you from actually connecting with customers.

THE FRAMEWORK: Drawing on neuroscience research from John Medina and TED curator Chris Anderson, Stéphane introduces The 18-Minute Rule: a discipline that forces brutal prioritization and transforms customer presentations from monologues into meaningful dialogues.

YOU'LL LEARN: 

→ Why the sunk cost fallacy destroys B2B sales conversations
→ The Stopwatch Challenge: A practical test for your next customer deck
→ Why shorter presentations lead to longer, richer customer conversations
→ How to prioritize what customers need to hear vs. what you want to tell them

TACTICAL TAKEAWAY: 

Stop measuring success by deck completion rate. Start measuring it by customer engagement and business outcomes. Learn exactly how to build narrative-driven presentations where every slide earns its place—and nothing can be skipped.

Perfect for:

• Automotive sales and business development professionals
• B2B technology sales teams
• Supplier account managers
• Product marketing and sales enablement leaders
• Anyone who presents complex technical solutions to customers

Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling is the premier podcast for automotive innovation leaders, revealing the human stories behind technological breakthroughs. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, Founder of The Storytelling Tribe and creator of the Automotive-Grade Storytelling™ methodology.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling", brought to you by the Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Thomas Stocker, key member of Gentherm's executive team, leading their European operations and former BMW infotainment integration leader. Thomas shares insights on leadership, team dynamics, and the importance of adapting to change in a rapidly evolving industry..

KEY INSIGHTS

Hardware Engineers vs. Software Visionaries: The Transformation Challenge

Thomas reveals how Gentherm evolved from producing millions of heated seats and massage components to developing WellSense – a software-defined wellness platform backed by clinical research and physiological algorithms that orchestrate thermal, pneumatic, and massage effectuators.

The Science of In-Car Wellbeing: From Medical to Mobility

Discover how Gentherm leverages knowledge from its medical business unit – where temperature management can help improve patient outcomes – to create clinically-validated wellness experiences that can trick your brain into feeling warm in seconds and optimize energy consumption in EVs.

The SDV Enabler: Wellness as a Service

Learn how WellSense positions itself as the "wellbeing brain" in software-defined vehicles, enabling OEMs to offer downloadable wellness modes, personalized AI-driven comfort settings, and subscription-based features that adapt to individual passenger preferences and contexts.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Build Cross-Functional Bridges: When selling system solutions, map stakeholder silos early – Thomas faced four different VPs controlling components of one integrated experience
• Invest in Clinical Validation: Gentherm's science lab with hundreds of patient studies differentiates their wellness claims from engineering guesswork – quantify the impact of your innovations
• Look to China for Future Trends: Chinese OEMs are standardizing massage in mid-tier vehicles and embracing wellness features that Western brands still position as expensive options

 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Thomas Stocker brings over 25 years of automotive innovation experience spanning BMW, Harman International, and Hensoldt defense systems. He led infotainment head unit integration for BMW flagship models, oversaw connected car operations across Europe and Asia Pacific at Harman, and now drives Gentherm's transformation from thermal component supplier to wellness experience platform provider across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling", brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Jonathon Husby, President and CEO of ADAC and Chair of the Automotive Hall of Fame, discussing his career journey, the importance of storytelling in the automotive industry, and the cultural transformation he is leading at ADAC. Jon Husby shares insights on leadership, mindset, and the future of the automotive industry, including the impact of AI and evolving consumer expectations.

KEY INSIGHTS

Selling with a powerful story rather than features

Jon Husby explains how he decided to win a massive deal by leveraging the power of storytelling. Rather than leading with technology to purchasing or engineering, the strategy involved telling a story about brand differentiation to the brand and marketing executives first.

The "Saying How, Not No" Philosophy of Innovation

Discover the mindset transformation that enabled his team to deliver critical automotive parts in 90 days instead of three years by challenging self-imposed limitations and asking "what would it take?" instead of accepting "we can't."

The Future of Extended Vehicle Lifecycles

Learn how 8-10 year vehicle programs are reshaping supplier strategies, requiring scalable innovation families and iterative technology upgrades to prevent 2037 vehicles from feeling like they were designed in 2024.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Lead with Brand Story: Approach customers with value propositions and brand differentiation before discussing technical specifications
• Implement Value Selling Training: Train entire teams in understanding customer agendas to increase new win profitability by 5+ percent
• Ask "What Would It Take?": Reframe impossible requests by having teams explain the "how" rather than accepting the "no"
• Know Your Numbers Cold: Master detailed business metrics to drive strategy and avoid slowing down team decision-making

ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Jonathan Husby brings 30+ years of automotive experience spanning leadership roles at Harman International, TomTom, TeleAtlas, SEG Automotive, and Denso Corporation. As the first non-family member CEO of ADAC and Chair of the Automotive Hall of Fame, he champions cultural transformation through storytelling and people-first leadership.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – the only podcast examining mobility through storytelling, brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe – we connect with Andrew Hart, CEO at SBD Automotive and architect of the groundbreaking 4S Mobility Initiative, to explore how the automotive industry can realign with consumer outcomes in an era of unprecedented disruption.

This episode is made of 2 parts - this is part 2.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Four major disruptions

Andy explains how mobility is going through major shifts:

• The shift in user behavior, moving from ownership to experience
• The impact of SDV, which changes the way cars are built and maintained
• The new way we'll live in cities and how the car must adapt to them
• The impact of regulations and their evolutions

The need for a new framework

Andy explains the challenges that the Automotive industry has to face to manage those disruptions, whether it's their disconnection with consumers, the focus on wrong metrics, or outdated collaboration models.

The 4S Framework

Starting with consumer needs, rather than ending by them: that's one of the key aspects of the 4S Framework. Andy explains why mobility needs to be Safe, Secure, Seamless and Sustainable.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Measure What Matters: Replace unit sales KPIs with consumer outcome metrics to drive better decision-making across teams.
• Start With Empathy: Use real consumer data and stories to ground product development in actual needs, not assumed features.
• Embrace Agile Iteration: Test experiences quickly in market rather than perfecting them in isolation for years.
• Build Cross-Functional Alignment: Create common KPIs across engineering, design, and business teams using the 4S framework.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Andrew Hart brings 20 years of automotive expertise spanning the industry's major transformation cycles. Having led strategy advisory for over 50 global OEMs and suppliers, he steered SBD Automotive through a 2021 management buyout, keeping the company independent and employee-owned. His passion for consumer-centric mobility outcomes led to founding the industry-wide 4S Mobility Initiative.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – the only podcast examining mobility through storytelling, brought to you by The Storytelling Tribe – we connect with Andrew Hart, CEO at SBD Automotive and architect of the groundbreaking 4S Mobility Initiative, to explore how the automotive industry can realign with consumer outcomes in an era of unprecedented disruption.

This episode is made of 2 parts - this is part 1.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Four major disruptions

Andy explains how mobility is going through major shifts:

• The shift in user behaviour, moving from ownership to experience
• The impact of SDV, which changes the way cars are built and maintained
• The new way we'll live in cities and how the car must adapt to them
• The impact of regulations and their evolutions

The need for a new framework

Andy explains the challenges that the Automotive industry has to face to manage those disruptions, whether it's their disconnection with consumers, the focus on wrong metrics, or outdated collaboration models.

The 4S Framework

Starting with consumer needs, rather than ending by them: that's one of the key aspects of the 4S Framework. Andy explains why mobility needs to be Safe, Secure, Seamless and Sustainable.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Measure What Matters: Replace unit sales KPIs with consumer outcome metrics to drive better decision-making across teams.
• Start With Empathy: Use real consumer data and stories to ground product development in actual needs, not assumed features.
• Embrace Agile Iteration: Test experiences quickly in market rather than perfecting them in isolation for years.
• Build Cross-Functional Alignment: Create common KPIs across engineering, design, and business teams using the 4S framework.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Andrew Hart brings 20 years of automotive expertise spanning the industry's major transformation cycles. Having led strategy advisory for over 50 global OEMs and suppliers, he steered SBD Automotive through a 2021 management buyout, keeping the company independent and employee-owned. His passion for consumer-centric mobility outcomes led to founding the industry-wide 4S Mobility Initiative.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this captivating episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from the Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Felix Kilbertus, Chief Design Officer and former Head of Exterior Design at Rolls-Royce, to explore how legendary automotive design bridges tradition with transformation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Silicon Valley vs. Goodwood: The Creative Culture Clash

Felix reveals how Austrian heritage and global experience shaped his unique approach to navigating diverse design cultures from French elegance to Japanese precision.

The Three-Line Philosophy of Luxury Design

Discover the sacred simplicity behind Rolls-Royce design – where just three lines define automotive perfection and how restraint becomes the ultimate creative power.

The Electric Heritage Revelation

Learn how Henry Royce's forgotten electrical roots transformed the Rolls-Royce Spectre from challenge to destiny, proving that innovation often means returning to origins.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Master the Power of Naming: Give every design proposal a compelling name – it transforms how audiences perceive and choose concepts
• Embrace Constraints as Creative Fuel: View limitations as applied art opportunities that differentiate design from pure artistic expression
• Develop Editorial Excellence: With AI generating infinite options, focus 80% of your energy on selection and refinement rather than creation
• Bridge Business and Beauty: Design leaders must speak fluent business language while protecting creative team environments

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Felix Kilbertus brings 20+ years of global automotive design experience across Pininfarina, Rolls-Royce, Fiat, Nissan, and Renault. His portfolio includes the groundbreaking fully-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre, Phantom Series 2, and BMW Pininfarina Grand Lusso. Felix transforms how luxury brands balance heritage with innovation.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #PininfariaDesign #RollsRoyceSpectre #DesignLeadership

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this captivating episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from the Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Felix Kilbertus, Chief Design Officer and former Head of Exterior Design at Rolls-Royce, to explore how legendary automotive design bridges tradition with transformation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Silicon Valley vs. Goodwood: The Creative Culture Clash

Felix reveals how Austrian heritage and global experience shaped his unique approach to navigating diverse design cultures from French elegance to Japanese precision.

The Three-Line Philosophy of Luxury Design

Discover the sacred simplicity behind Rolls-Royce design – where just three lines define automotive perfection and how restraint becomes the ultimate creative power.

The Electric Heritage Revelation

Learn how Henry Royce's forgotten electrical roots transformed the Rolls-Royce Spectre from challenge to destiny, proving that innovation often means returning to origins.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Master the Power of Naming: Give every design proposal a compelling name – it transforms how audiences perceive and choose concepts
• Embrace Constraints as Creative Fuel: View limitations as applied art opportunities that differentiate design from pure artistic expression
• Develop Editorial Excellence: With AI generating infinite options, focus 80% of your energy on selection and refinement rather than creation
• Bridge Business and Beauty: Design leaders must speak fluent business language while protecting creative team environments

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Felix Kilbertus brings 20+ years of global automotive design experience across Pininfarina, Rolls-Royce, Fiat, Nissan, and Renault. His portfolio includes the groundbreaking fully-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre, Phantom Series 2, and BMW Pininfarina Grand Lusso. Felix transforms how luxury brands balance heritage with innovation.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #PininfariaDesign #RollsRoyceSpectre #DesignLeadership

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this compelling IAA 2025 Special episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – the only podcast examining mobility through storytelling – Stéphane takes you inside Munich's Messe to explore three fundamental transformations reshaping the entire automotive industry.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Software at Scale: From Concept to Millions of Vehicles

Discover how BMW processes daily requests from millions of connected vehicles, while HERE virtualizes development and TomTom deploys navigation solutions in just 12 weeks.

Conversation Revolution: Multi-Agent AI Meets Xbox Gaming

Learn how Mercedes became the first to integrate both Microsoft and Google AI simultaneously, while LG brings console-quality Xbox gaming to vehicles and Cerence transforms voice into true conversation.

Collaboration Imperative: From Competition to Ecosystems

Explore how German OEMs created Catena X for supply chain collaboration, while CATL focuses on safety standards that benefit all electric vehicles across the industry.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Recognize the Scale: SDV isn't coming—it's operating at 20M+ vehicle scale with proven cloud architectures and virtualized development environments
• Embrace Conversation: Move beyond voice commands to conversational AI that understands context and switches between multiple knowledge sources seamlessly
• Build Ecosystems: Success requires collaborative platforms that connect tier-N suppliers, not just traditional OEM-tier 1 relationships
• Deploy Fast: Standardized, plug-and-play solutions can reduce deployment times from years to weeks in software-defined architecture

🌟 FEATURED VOICES

Dr. Céline Laurent-Winter (BMW) - VP Connected Vehicle Platforms revealing the scale of BMW's cloud transformation 

Nicolas Legros (HERE) - Director of Product Marketing explaining the SDV Accelerator that virtualizes automotive development with AWS

Jan Wehmeier (Cerence AI) - VP Europe showcasing Microsoft integration for conversational productivity in vehicles

Valentin Janiaut (LG Electronics) - Demonstrating Xbox cloud gaming and the "living room on wheels" vision

Plus insights from: TomTom's 12-week navigation deployment, Kotei's Unreal Engine for Automotive, Sonatus's AI Director platform, Catena X's supply chain ecosystem, CATL's NP 3.0 safety innovation, and Jato Dynamics' market analysis

Ready to understand how IAA 2025 revealed the industry's transformation from hardware to software, control to conversation, and competition to collaboration?

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #IAA2025 #SDV #ConversationalAI #AutomotiveEcosystems #BMWConnectedVehicles #MercedesAI #ElectricVehicles

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this debut "Quick Fix" episode, Stéphane Lagresle shares a real story from a high-stakes customer meeting with a major OEM. 

The Problem: A 45-minute technical presentation that never once mentioned the customer's name, logo, challenges, or goals. Sound familiar?

The Solution: The Dinner Party Test - a simple framework that asks whether your presentation style would work at a dinner party. If someone monopolized the entire conversation talking only about themselves, would you want to meet them again?

What You'll Learn:

• The one question that transforms customer presentations: "What do they need to hear?" (not what you want to tell them)
• How to create an Empathy Map that puts your key decision-maker at the center of your story
• A tactical implementation guide for researching customer challenges before every meeting
• Why you're competing against every other priority in the room, not just other suppliers

Perfect for: Sales teams, account managers, business development professionals, and anyone who presents to automotive customers.

Key Takeaway: In automotive, we're not just selling technology - we're competing for attention. Make your presentations about their success, not your features.

Connect with Stéphane on LinkedIn or visit thestorytellingtribe.com for more resources on automotive storytelling.

Tell us in the comment if you want more Quick Fixes like this!

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Valentin Janiaut, Software Solution Task Leader at LG Electronics Vehicle Component Solutions and French engineer with a unique Korean automotive perspective, to explore how traditional electronics giants are redefining themselves in the software-defined vehicle era.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

From Electronics to Software Identity

LG's journey from being perceived purely as an electronics supplier to establishing credibility in automotive software required deliberate branding. The creation of "AlphaWare" wasn't just about naming products—it was about reshaping market perception and internal identity.

Engineering as Universal Language

Valentin's observation that engineering culture transcends national boundaries is significant. While French, British, and Korean automotive cultures differ, engineers share a common problem-solving mindset that enables collaboration.

The Open Source Future of Mobility

Learn why collaborative development models will eliminate redundant engineering efforts and how successful SDV implementation requires both getting and giving back to the community.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Bridge Cultures Strategically: Leverage cross-cultural engineering mindset to transcend country-specific business approaches and connect with global teams
• Name Your Software Solutions: Create strong brand identity for software products to establish credibility beyond traditional hardware reputation
• Focus on Experience Over Features: Design solutions that enable end-to-end customer experiences rather than standalone technical capabilities
• Embrace Usage-Based Models: Develop digital services that deliver clear value every time they're used, justifying subscription or token-based pricing

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Valentin Janiaut brings over 10 years of automotive software experience spanning Korean and European markets. From launching R-Link 2 for Renault to creating LG's AlphaWare software suite, he's driven the evolution from hardware-centric to software-defined mobility. His LSE MBA combined with cross-cultural engineering expertise positions him uniquely to decode the future of automotive software.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? 

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #SDV #LGAlphaWare #SoftwareDefinedVehicle

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Andrew Till, General Manager of Secure Platform at Trustonic and cybersecurity visionary with decades of experience across mobile and automotive ecosystems, to explore how security becomes the invisible foundation that enables automotive innovation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Hollywood vs. Reality: The Cybersecurity Narrative Challenge

Andrew reveals how Hollywood's glamorized hacker portrayal threatens talent recruitment, and how he proposes to flip the narrative and showcase cybersecurity as collaborative, diverse, and essential to automotive innovation.

The Chinese Security Leadership Revolution

Discover how Chinese OEMs have emerged as global cybersecurity leaders, driven by export ambitions and ecosystem-first vehicle design that demands robust security foundations.

Beyond Fear: Security as Revenue Enabler

Learn why the future of automotive cybersecurity lies not in fear-based selling but in positioning security as the invisible enabler of connected services, payments, and ecosystem partnerships.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Start with Security: Build security into software development from day one, not as an afterthought
• Never Assume: Eliminate assumptions in security protocols – most breaches stem from human error and shared passwords
• Implement Periodic Attestation: Move beyond startup verification to regular 20-30 minute security health checks
• Embrace Hardware-Software Synergy: Optimize security solutions for specific chipsets rather than treating them as separate domains

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Andrew Till brings over 30 years of experience spanning mobile revolution to automotive transformation. From pioneering content stores at Motorola to leading Android ecosystem development at Symphony Telecom, through automotive innovation at Harman, Andrew now oversees Trustonic's mobile, automotive, and IoT security solutions. His passion: protecting people through technology that just works.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? 

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #CybersecurityLeadership #ConnectedVehicles #SoftwareDefinedVehicles

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Michael Plagge, VP Ecosystem Development at the Eclipse Foundation and former Alibaba Cloud executive, to explore how open source collaboration is transforming automotive software development from the ground up.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

European Pride vs. Global Progress: The "Not Invented Here" Challenge

Michael reveals how European developers' attachment to their methodologies creates barriers to open source adoption and why embracing external solutions is crucial for industry-wide transformation.

The Code-First Revolution: Beyond Standards to Implementation

Discover how modern software collaboration focuses on jointly developing source code rather than specifications, enabling immediate product integration versus traditional paper-based standards approaches.

The Safety-Service Balance: Automotive's Unique AI Challenge

Learn how the automotive industry must maintain life-critical safety standards while transitioning to service-oriented software development and integrating AI-powered tooling without compromising vehicle safety.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Embrace External Solutions: Overcome "not invented here" syndrome by evaluating external technologies based on results, not origin
• Implement Top-Down Support: Secure board-level commitment for open source initiatives while fostering bottom-up developer engagement
• Focus on Non-Differentiating Components: Collaborate on middleware and basic software to reduce costs while maintaining competitive advantages in customer-facing features
• Adopt Code-First Collaboration: Shift from standards-based to implementation-based cooperation for faster, more effective software development

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Michael Plagge brings over 15 years of international automotive and tech experience across three continents. From leading business development at Alibaba Cloud to General Manager for Elektrobit in China, he now spearheads the Eclipse Foundation's automotive initiatives. His unique perspective bridges Eastern result-focused development culture with Western engineering traditions, making him ideally positioned to guide the industry's open source transformation.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

 #UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #OpenSource #SoftwareDefinedVehicle #EclipseFoundation

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this new episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" by The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Robert Fey, known across the industry as "Mr. Broken Testing" and creator of the Automotive Test Efficiency Framework (ATEF) at Synopsys, to explore how automotive testing must evolve from hardware-driven legacy approaches to software-first methodologies that enable true digital transformation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Legacy vs. Innovation: The Testing Time Trap

Robert reveals how automotive's traditional waterfall, hardware-driven testing creates 20-week feedback loops that kill innovation velocity and why fast feedback within 24 hours is essential for software-defined vehicles.

The ATEF Method: From Chaos to Clarity

Discover the systematic framework that transforms tool evaluations from "comparing logos" to evidence-based efficiency scoring, enabling teams to measure testing maturity and identify improvement opportunities.

The SDV Shift: Product Over Project

Learn why the industry must abandon project-based thinking for product-centric approaches, where software reuse across vehicle generations demands fundamentally different testing strategies and organizational structures.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Start Small, Test Smart: Begin unit testing at the smallest software components to exponentially reduce complexity and testing overhead
• Demand Fast Feedback: Establish 24-hour feedback loops between code changes and test results to maintain development velocity
• Score Your Efficiency: Use standardized frameworks like ATEF to benchmark testing capabilities and identify specific improvement areas
• Bridge the Gap: Position testers closer to development teams to eliminate communication delays and accelerate problem resolution

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Robert Fey brings over 15 years of automotive experience from hands-on development to leading 40+ verification engineers. After driving IT transformations at major OEMs, he joined Synopsys where he leads business development and product management for TPT testing tools. His passion for fixing "broken testing" led to creating ATEF, launched in 2025 to revolutionize how the industry approaches testing efficiency.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? 

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #TestingRevolution #ATEF #SoftwareDefinedVehicle

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this illuminating episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Alexander Much, former Director of Functional Safety, Cybersecurity and Open Source at Elektrobit and seasoned automotive software expert with 22 years of industry experience, to explore the critical intersection of software complexity and functional safety in modern vehicles.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Silicon Valley vs. Detroit: The Integration Challenge

Alexander reveals how automotive companies evolved from hardware-focused manufacturers to software-dependent organizations, and why most OEMs still lack clear business models for post-sale software maintenance.

The Mathematics of Automotive Safety Cases

Discover how modern cars require 50-100 individual safety cases per vehicle, creating unprecedented regulatory complexity.

The Future of Software-Defined Safety

Learn why functional safety is moving toward increased government regulation if the industry fails to maintain societal acceptance, especially as autonomous systems enter the market.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Embrace Societal Context: Understand that functional safety definitions vary by region and time period – what's acceptable changes with societal norms
• Invest in Software Quality: Recognize that half of software costs occur after the car hits the road, requiring new business models for ongoing maintenance
• Focus on Function Over Technology: Prioritize what the software does for users rather than technical specifications when communicating value
• Enable Through Education: Never demand compliance without enabling engineers to understand complex concepts standards and safety protocols

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Alexander Much brings 22 years of automotive software experience from working student to Director level at Elektrobit. He's been instrumental in AUTOSAR's early implementation, served as a principal automotive SPICE assessor and functional safety auditor, and led the groundwork for the first automotive HPC project now on roads. 

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #FunctionalSafety #AutomotiveSoftware #ISO26262

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Lina Wölm, Director of Brand Communications and Product Marketing at Shiftmove and accomplished expert in strategic communications, to explore how fleet management is transforming from manual operations to AI-driven mastery.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Traditional vs. Tech-First: The Fleet Management Divide

Lina reveals how the fleet industry is a patchwork of very different companies, some using high technology and others still using Excel, and how software-first companies navigate this cultural transformation.

The Consulting-Technology Hybrid Strategy

Discover how Shiftmove combines AI-powered platforms with human expertise to unlock hidden business KPIs that fleet managers never knew existed.

The Cultural Integration Formula

Learn how successful tech companies merge distinct corporate cultures (Swiss precision, German engineering, French networking) under unified brand umbrellas while respecting market-specific needs.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Educate Before You Sell: Help customers identify problems they don't know they have rather than just showcasing technical features
• Leverage Physical Interaction: Bring distributed teams together regularly – the "chitchat between breaks" builds stronger cross-functional relationships
• Create Umbrella Branding: Use unified brand messaging while maintaining product-specific approaches for different market regulations
• Focus on Business Impact: Show fleet managers how their operations can drive company-wide KPIs and cost savings, not just operational efficiency

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Lina Wölm brings 18 years of cross-disciplinary marketing experience across dynamic international tech companies. Her expertise spans strategic communications at Solar, advertising technology at Plista (25 markets), and currently leading brand transformation at Shiftmove. She specializes in translating complex technology into compelling narratives that drive business results.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel? 

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Dr. Jan Wehinger, Partner at MHP and automotive transformation expert, to explore how the industry is navigating the complex shift from hardware-defined to software-defined vehicles while managing unprecedented cultural transformation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Tech Giants vs. Traditional OEMs: The Cultural Collision

Jan reveals how over 50% of SDV transformation success depends on cultural change, not technology implementation, and why traditional automotive companies face unique challenges compared to greenfield players.

The Partnership Evolution Strategy

Discover how the industry is shifting from competitive advantages to collaborative advantages, requiring new partnership models between OEMs, Tier 1s, and tech companies to succeed in the SDV era.

The AI-Driven Future of Automotive Leadership

Learn how AI agents will begin guiding employees and why autonomous driving – not monthly subscriptions – will be the real business model game-changer for software-defined vehicles.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Deploy Strategy Rapidly: Abandon massive PowerPoint decks, go for immediate execution and continuous re-steering in fast-changing markets
• Prioritize Cultural Transformation: Invest 50%+ of transformation resources in changing organizational mindset from hardware to software-defined thinking
• Evaluate Partnership Portfolio: Assess collaborative advantages over competitive ones when building SDV capabilities with tech partners
• Focus on Trust-Building: Leverage traditional automotive brand heritage for safety-critical features like autonomous driving differentiation

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Dr. Jan Wehinger brings over a decade of experience in automotive transformation consulting. Partner at MHP (a Porsche company) since 2019, previously Senior Manager and researcher at Volkswagen focusing on future trends and innovation management. Currently leads strategic craftsmanship initiatives combining technology implementation with organizational change across Europe, China, UK, and US markets.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #SDV #AutomotiveTransformation #AIInAutomotive

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Martin Groschwald, CEO of Konzepthaus Consulting and host of "Gestalten in Automotive Design," to explore the radical transformation of automotive design leadership from isolated stylists to strategic business architects.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Stylists vs. Strategists: The Great Design Divide

Martin reveals the fundamental shift from design departments as isolated "sandboxes" to integrated business units that shape entire brand experiences across all customer touchpoints.

The AI Acceleration of Design Process

Discover how artificial intelligence will automate 75-80% of operational design processes while amplifying creative capabilities, potentially reducing team sizes from 500-700 to 200-400 people.

The Future of Design Authority

Learn why the next evolution moves beyond "vanilla design" toward brand-driven approaches that enable faster decision-making and more individual creative contributions.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Master Business Language: Communicate design vision without relying solely on sketches – explain concepts clearly to the 95% who speak business language
• Embrace Matrix Organization: Position design as a cross-functional business unit rather than a manufacturing silo to influence strategic decisions
• Develop Future-Focused Skills: Prepare for AI-enhanced workflows that will require broader business understanding alongside creative expertise
• Build Strategic Storytelling: Act like a designer but think like a business leader – combine visual flair with data-driven reasoning

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Martin Groschwald brings 15+ years of automotive design leadership experience. As CEO of Konzepthaus Consulting, he's transformed design departments at top global brands and earned recognition as "the most connected person in car design." His passion lies in elevating creative teams to strategic business relevance.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #DesignLeadership #AIInDesign #AutomotiveInnovation

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Claudio Geyken, CEO and Co-founder of RIDERgy and multilingual energy visionary, to explore how AI-powered software is revolutionizing electric fleet management and creating the missing link between automotive innovation and energy transformation.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

Traditional Grids vs. Smart Fleets: The Infrastructure Challenge

Claudio reveals how existing electrical infrastructure wasn't designed for EV charging demands, creating circuit-breaking risks, and how intelligent software bridges this gap through cloud-connected optimization.

The Software-Defined Energy Revolution

Discover how "software-defined energy" parallels software-defined vehicles, creating seamless integration between automotive and energy sectors through AI-powered predictive analytics and real-time control systems.

The V2G Transformation: From Consumer to Prosumer

Learn how Vehicle-to-Grid technology transforms EVs from energy consumers into grid-supporting assets, enabling automatic energy arbitrage that benefits both fleet operators and the broader energy ecosystem.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Start with Smart Metering: Implement 15-minute interval metering to unlock energy cost optimization opportunities for your fleet operations
• Leverage Existing Assets: Maximize utilization of vehicle batteries for grid services instead of investing in additional stationary storage infrastructure
• Think Circular Economy: Optimize charging schedules to extend battery life and maximize asset utilization across your entire energy ecosystem
• Engage Regulatory Bodies: Actively participate in industry associations to influence policy development that enables innovative energy management solutions

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Claudio Geyken brings 20+ years of energy systems expertise spanning six universities across five countries. Former founder of Community by InnoEnergy (connecting 10,000+ changemakers), Climate Reality Leader, and advisor to European Commission initiatives. Currently leading RIDERgy's mission to accelerate electric mobility through AI-powered energy optimization, with clients including Audi and backing from Total InnoEnergy.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #EnergyTech #V2G #SoftwareDefinedEnergy

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this captivating episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Giovanni Azzara, Sales and Marketing Director at Easyrain and former media industry veteran, to explore how Italian innovation is solving autonomous driving's most dangerous blind spot: wet weather conditions.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

The Innovation Speed Divide

Giovanni reveals how Chinese automakers move at lightning speed compared to European counterparts who demand perfection before implementation, and why this cultural difference is reshaping the global automotive landscape.

The Software-First Transformation Strategy

Discover how Easyrain pivoted from selling complex hardware to positioning their DAI software as the essential "brain" that makes autonomous vehicles safe in adverse conditions.

The Robotaxi Reality Check Revolution

Learn why current autonomous driving systems fail in rain and snow, limiting robotaxis to sunny geofenced areas, and how this creates a massive market opportunity for safety-first solutions.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Leverage Cultural Speed: Adapt your innovation timeline to match regional market expectations – Chinese fast-tracking vs. European validation requirements
• Lead with Software Value: Position software solutions as the core intelligence rather than supporting tools to simplify stakeholder buy-in
• Target Regulatory Bodies: Engage with NCAP and insurance companies early to influence safety standards and create market pull
• Use Visual Proof Points: Deploy video demonstrations and live test drives to overcome technical skepticism across different cultures

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Giovanni Azzara brings over two decades of experience bridging technology and business development across automotive, interactive TV, and media industries. His unique background in software engineering and storytelling helped transform Easyrain's go-to-market strategy, leading to partnerships with Hyundai and NVIDIA certification. Currently spearheading the company's mission to make autonomous driving safe in all weather conditions.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?
#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #AutonomousDriving #SafetyTech #AutomotiveInnovation

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we connect with Derek Kerton, Managing Director of the Kerton Group and founder of the Auto Tech Council, to explore how storytelling and collaboration drive automotive innovation across continents.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

• Silicon Valley vs. Detroit: The Culture Clash

Derek reveals the stark differences in pace and mindset between fast-moving Silicon Valley startups and traditional automotive giants working on five-year development cycles—and how to find common ground.

• Startup Storytelling for Automotive Success

Discover how startups can craft clear, compelling pitches that immediately communicate value, avoid common pitfalls, and arm internal champions within automakers with actionable partnership proposals.

• The Democratization of Innovation

Learn how the global landscape for automotive innovation has opened up, with opportunities now spanning from Toronto to Toulouse, and why Silicon Valley remains a critical hub for connecting startups and OEMs.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• State Your Value Upfront: In a 10-minute pitch, clearly communicate what you do in the first minute so automotive scouts can quickly assess fit.
• Know Your Audience: Tailor your story to the needs and expectations of automotive industry insiders, who already understand the sector’s challenges.
• Offer Concrete Next Steps: End your story with specific partnership proposals, not open-ended invitations to talk.
• Equip Your Champion: Ensure your story is easy for internal advocates to retell and champion within their organizations.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Derek Kerton brings over 25 years of experience bridging the worlds of startups and automotive giants. As founder and chairperson of the Auto Tech Council, he has facilitated thousands of startup presentations, connecting nimble innovators with the world’s largest corporations. Derek is passionate about open innovation, early EV adoption, and helping startups translate technical excellence into compelling value propositions.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #AutoTechCouncil #InnovationBridge

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" – Where technology meets narrative, and mobility's future is told through visionary voices.

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

In this compelling episode of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" from The Storytelling Tribe, we sit down with Stef Balkowiec, former Managing Director of Performance Electronics at Cosworth and a seasoned leader in automotive and motorsport technology.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS

• Motorsport’s Race-to-Road Virtuous Circle

Stef reveals how the rapid innovation cycles and advanced data analytics of motorsport are shaping the future of software-defined vehicles (SDVs) in the automotive industry, creating a symbiotic relationship that benefits both sectors.

• The Power of Common APIs and Data Models

Discover why standardized service APIs and robust data models are the true foundation for SDV success, enabling personalization, digital twins, and third-party ecosystems – and how motorsport is already leading the way.

• Storytelling Across Stakeholders

Learn how to craft compelling narratives for diverse audiences, from assembly line workers to investors, ensuring everyone understands and supports the transformation towards a software-led automotive future.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Motorsport as a Catalyst: Leverage motorsport’s structured data and rapid innovation to accelerate automotive SDV development.
• Communication is Key: Tailor your storytelling to the needs and perspectives of different stakeholders for maximum buy-in.
• AI & Digital Twins: Use clean, time-anchored data from motorsport to power AI models and digital twins, avoiding the pitfalls of unstructured data in traditional automotive environments.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Stef Balkowiec brings over 30 years of international experience driving innovation, growth, and operational excellence in automotive and motorsport technology. With a proven track record at Cosworth, Harman, and Nokia, Stef is passionate about building high-performance teams and bridging the gap between technical innovation and commercial strategy.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

#UnderTheHood #AutomotiveStorytelling #SDV #MotorsportInnovation

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS
Silicon Valley vs. Traditional Automotive
Henriette reveals the cultural divide driving breakthrough innovations between tech giants and traditional manufacturers.

The Vehicle Size Revolution
Discover why Tesla's robotaxis are shrinking while European pilots use larger shuttles, and the psychology behind shared mobility acceptance.

City Government Power Play
While tech companies compete, cities are becoming the power brokers of the mobility revolution with strategic approaches to autonomous technology.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Positioning mobility technology for maximum city adoption
• Why environmental messaging isn't enough – and what works instead
• The counterintuitive approach to scaling autonomous technology

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Dr. Henriette Cornet combines technical expertise (Technical University of Munich) with implementation experience across Europe and Silicon Valley, providing cutting-edge insights through Urban Innovate.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS
The Netflix Revolution Impact
Nerea reveals how Drive to Survive transformed Formula 1's audience demographics, expanding from traditional European fans to include women, North American viewers, and younger audiences – leading to expansion from 1 to 3 US races.

Multi-Brand Ecosystem Management
Discover the complexity of managing Ferrari's three distinct ecosystems: luxury fashion, luxury cars, and racing team – ensuring all partnerships align across divisions while maintaining Italian heritage and global appeal.

Content Strategy Under Pressure
Learn how F1 teams create diverse content for multiple audience segments while managing 25+ team partners and navigating strict FIA regulations that limit filming days and content creation opportunities1.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Balancing technical precision with human storytelling elements in high-performance environments
• Creating content strategies that serve multiple stakeholders without losing brand consistency
• The art of telling the same story from different angles to engage diverse audiences

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Nerea Pala combines deep Formula 1 experience (4 years at Ferrari Racing) with brand ecosystem expertise, now helping companies through Pala Consulting build consistent brand systems where "every part of the system is built with consistent ingredients".

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS
From Hardware to User-Defined Vehicles
Martin reveals how SDV isn't just about software – it's about creating "user-defined vehicles" that deliver enhanced customer experience through continuous updates, customization, and adaptation over the vehicle's lifetime.

The Open Source Evolution
Discover why open source has been quietly powering infotainment systems for 15 years, while ADAS systems are just now embracing collaborative development – and the executive knowledge gaps that still need bridging.

Speed vs. Quality: The Tesla Lesson
From 30-month automotive development cycles to Tesla's 9-month navigation project demands – Martin shares how the industry can learn from IT's 20-year evolution without compromising safety.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Why "German engineering perfection" must evolve to continuous customer learning
• The counterintuitive relationship between development effort and customer value in software
• How AI will transform both vehicle functions and development productivity

Regional SDV Strategies Revealed
Martin exposes how US companies look to Silicon Valley, Europeans study China, while Chinese manufacturers pragmatically implement West Coast concepts with unmatched speed.

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Martin Schleicher brings over 25 years of automotive software expertise from Elektrobit to Continental, serving as Chairman of the NDS Association and driving industry standards through Eclipse SDV and SOAFEE initiatives.

Ready to discover how software is redefining the automotive story?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.

🎯 KEY INSIGHTS
Silicon Valley vs. European Business Culture
Frantz reveals the stark cultural divide driving innovation between Silicon Valley's risk-taking, matrix-oriented structure and Europe's more hierarchical, formal approach to automotive development.

The Software Revolution in Automotive
Discover why traditional OEMs struggle with software integration while managing over 100 million lines of code, and how Tesla's vertical integration enables faster market movement through complete ownership of both chip and software stack.

The Power of Storytelling in Product Launches
While industry skeptics doubt its value, Frantz demonstrates how storytelling proves crucial for product launches, project management, and cross-cultural communication in the automotive sector.

💡 PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• How to bridge the gap between engineering excellence and market relevance in automotive technology
• Why humor is the universal language for aligning teams across different work cultures
• The counterintuitive approach to reimagining traditional features like car radio through AI-driven personalization

🌟 ABOUT YOUR GUIDE
Dr. Frantz Lohier combines academic excellence (PhD in Signal Processing from University of Paris) with over two decades of experience across Logitech, Qualcomm, Samsung, Forvia, and iRobot, bringing a unique global perspective shaped by his upbringing across Iranian islands, Nigeria, France, Switzerland, Singapore, and the Ivory Coast.

Ready to discover the stories behind the steering wheel?

"Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling" uncovers the human narratives driving innovation in an industry that impacts lives worldwide. Hosted by Stéphane Lagresle, this podcast explores how the power of storytelling ultimately connects technology to humans.