COMMENT: Cloud VRM is crucial to safety recall prevention

BY DR MARK SEARLE. Vehicle recalls are a painful lesson for any OEM that fails to manage quality. Consumers and the media alike are more than willing to deliver judgement on a product that falls short, especially where safety is concerned. It is perhaps the OEM’s greatest curse therefore that customers and the media also demand innovation in every phase of the roadmap and on every new production line. Software is very much a part of the modern car and where software at least is concerned, it is innovation that presents the greatest challenge to quality. However, help is at hand and two developments in vehicle technology could be the answer to reducing vehicle recalls: the connected car and vehicle relationship management (VRM).

• By Martin Kahl
• August 2, 2013