Despite pandemic disruption, opportunities will continue to arrive, mobility experts say

The pandemic affected every facet of the automotive industry. It shut down automaker and supplier production. It altered consumer preferences in transportation, travel and spending. It even changed the priorities of some of the industry's newest players developing self-driving technology and pushed them to explore other possibilities.

But as tumultuous as 2020 was for the auto industry, mobility will continue to push forward, experts said during a virtual Shift event in December. That's despite changing automaker investment and evolving consumer demand.

Who will lead that push remains to be seen.

But to Paolo Ferrari, CEO of Bridgestone Americas, one thing is certain: "The massive change that we're seeing in mobility is actually an opportunity.

"All of these things that were already in place will only mostly accelerate post-crisis," he said. "This new mobility ecosystem that is being created is exciting."

And with this, "We need to innovate in a different way."

The crisis highlighted society's readiness for a recalibration, Ferrari said.

"People and businesses are much more ready for change than we thought," Ferrari said. "And we truly are in an exciting moment because I think the concurrent changes in technology, regulation and general customer behavior is really creating an acceleration in a lot of the trends that we've already seen."

Among those trends is electrification, bolstered by stringent regulatory requirements across a number of markets and ambitious electric vehicle targets from automakers, said Randy Miller, global advanced manufacturing and mobility leader at consultancy EY.

But the crisis severely impacted some other mobility trends.

"We're seeing a significant shift away from public transport and shared mobility options as people prioritize social distancing, personal hygiene and kind of a new definition of safety," Miller told the Shift audience. "While the overall journeys undertaken have declined, we're seeing an even greater decline in the journeys undertaken via public and shared modes of transportation."

Sheryl Connelly, chief futurist at Ford, has seen a shift from previous years, when people appeared to be moving toward mass transit, ride-hailing and ride-sharing platforms.

"We know that our relationships with automobiles have become more personal and intimate because now they seem to be a place to escape, a place of safety, a place where you can control the environment," Connelly said during a panel discussion.

"As we think about our notions about what a vehicle is for us personally and the role it plays in our day-to-day lives, the COVID quarantine has really reshaped the boundaries of that definition."

Michelle Avary, head of automotive and autonomous mobility at the World Economic Forum, emphasized the continued need for transportation to be inclusive.

"We believe we really need to shine a light on the inequity in mobility. The pandemic has cracked that wide open and shown that there is a big gulf between the well-served and the underserved." She said mass transit still needs to be addressed.

Avary sees more "regulation-driven" mobility trends on the horizon, such as controlling curb and lane access to give priority to vehicles with clean powertrains and creating dedicated drop-off and pickup areas for the rising number of delivery vehicles.

As the industry seeks to go full throttle with mobility, challenges remain, including waning financial stability in the global supply chain.

"We still see some shake-ups coming," Miller said. "We've got a rough short term ahead."

Partnerships will be crucial. "Collaboration is going to be the name of the game," he said. "It's not an option. It's a requirement."