Build What’s Next: Digital Product Perspectives

EVs and Automation Technology: Impact and Implications with Blair Holt and Josh Batie

April 17, 2024 Method Episode 5

In this episode of Build What’s Next: Digital Product Perspectives, host Josh Lucas is joined by Blair Holt, Director of Experience Design at Method, and Josh Batie, VP of Autonomous Mobility at Toyota North America.

Join them as they discuss:
● The challenges of developing autonomous vehicles
● The importance of in-cabin experience
● Fleet management
● The ongoing transformation of the automotive experience.
● Toyota's cautious approach to EVs
● The future of mobility
● And more!

Blair Holt is the Director of Experience Design at Method. Before that, he worked as the Principal of Business Design. Blair has also worked at Bank of America, Lowe’s Companies, and Toyota. He has over twenty years of experience in defining customer-centric products, services, and experiences.

Josh Batie is Vice-President of Autonomous Mobility at Toyota North America, where he has worked for over eight years. Prior to working at Toyota, Josh was employed at Nissan Motor Corporation for three years. Josh has over twenty years experience in the automotive industry.

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Episode Resources:
● Blair Holt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairtholt
● Josh Batie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-batie
● Josh Lucas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-lucas-7844401b
● Method Website: https://www.method.com

Episode Highlights:
● 09:20 From EV Skeptic to EV Evangelist 
● 12:32 Industry Turning Points
● 17:08 Future Proofing Vehicles 
● 31:04 Proceeding With Caution 
● 39:12 Managing Vehicle Fleets 
● 51:40 The Future of the Automotive Experience 


Quotes:
● “I never recognized how much it meant to be able to visualize what the car was planning on doing and transitioning that to what I was feeling from the seat. And that's where that marriage of the digital and the physical will never go away. Because it was those two things put together where I was like all ‘All right, it sees that person jaywalking, and it's already made a decision here, and it's thinking about what it's got to do there. I'm good with that because I wouldn't do any more myself at this point.’ It's beyond what I would have done.” -Josh Batie
● “The essence of the car is different than it was before, and so who needs to educate on it and sell it and service it might be fundamentally different.” -Blair Holt
● “I think you're going to see companies start making big strides to building these cars where they have the ability to be improved in the future. And that's from a safety standpoint, regulatory standpoint, but also an experience standpoint. And so I think that's the biggest one you're going to see is that throughout generations of owning a car, just like maybe when you bought your car, you put larger tyres on it or you modify it to be something personalized. I think that you'll see a car be able to evolve over time with different owners to meet their needs.” -Josh Batie