Motorola Creates New Group to Focus On Automotive Communications
16 October 1998
Motorola Creates New Group to Focus On Automotive Communications
NORTHBROOK, Ill.--Oct. 15, 1998--Company Cites Growth of Emerging Industry
Marios Zenios Named to Head New Business
Motorola announced today that it was creating a new business group to more intensely focus resources on the growing worldwide opportunity in the emerging automotive communications industry, and to ensure that customers are easily able to access the full scope of Motorola's capabilities. The new group -- Telematics Communications Group (TCG) -- will bring together several product businesses and development efforts currently occurring across the corporation. They include the businesses developing telematics hardware and software, the wireless phones that are "built in" to vehicles, Global Positioning System (GPS) products and infotainment software and servers. Marios Zenios, corporate vice president, has been named general manager of TCG, and it will be part of Motorola's Automotive, Component, Computer and Energy Sector (ACCES).
Joe Guglielmi, senior vice president and president, ACCES, said the decision to create this new group-level effort is tied to the growth Motorola has seen in its automotive communications, or telematics, related business and growing interest from consumers and automotive manufacturers in these products.
"Consumers have been particularly interested in the initial safety features, such as emergency calling and roadside assistance," said Guglielmi. "These products enable a driver to contact a service center at the push of a button and they enable the service center to pinpoint the location of the vehicle via Global Positioning System (GPS) technology." In addition to emergency calling and roadside assistance, the early products have also included such features as navigation information and remote door unlock service.
According to Guglielmi, "As products continue to evolve they are expected to begin offering a much wider variety of entertainment and information services, Internet access and automatic vehicle diagnostics. In fact, the potential benefits these products may offer the mobile public are limited only by imagination and the ability of companies like Motorola to translate imagination and technology into viable products." Industry insiders predict that products will offer services ranging from an audio reading of stock reports and email to recommending restaurants and reserving theater tickets to displaying movies for the kids in the back seat.
"We are in the early stages of a convergence of computing, communications, navigation and automotive technologies that industry analysts believe will someday offer an unprecedented flow of information to and from drivers, passengers and even vehicles," says Guglielmi.
Motorola has been a pioneer in many of the technologies behind these new products, including Global Positioning System products (GPS), wireless communications, computer systems and servers, as well as in developing and packaging electronics for the harsh automotive environment. Motorola has also been one of the leaders in developing a streamlined automotive wiring system, or bus, that has the capability of efficiently linking all of these technologies together into a single seamless system.
"It isn't enough to know how to develop wireless communications, computers or video players," says Zenios, "you have to know how to package them so that they can operate reliably in an incredibly harsh environment where they are subjected to intense heat, vibration and everything that the weather and road conditions can throw at them."
According to Zenios, Motorola's experience has enabled the company to win more contracts to date than any other competitor and this move will enable Motorola to build upon its leadership and continue driving the evolution of telematics products.
"This consolidation of our efforts will enable us to harness corporate-wide strengths for a focused and united effort to fully capture leadership of this exciting new market. But most importantly, it will enable us to focus a single core team on meeting our customers' needs for industry-leading products and ensuring that they get the products they want, when they want them," said Zenios.
Zenios has been with Motorola since 1983 and has served in engineering, sales and business management roles in both the cellular and automotive businesses. Most recently he has served as general manager of Motorola's Component Products Group.