🎙️ THE REALITY CHECK: When Hype Becomes Hardware

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.

For the season finale of "Under the Hood: Automotive Storytelling," we're going behind the scenes.

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.

The debate is over. 2026 is SDV execution year.

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.