How do car companies develop new features?

Source: https://auto.bestpracticeconferences.com

American Chemical Society Publications illustrates the complex process of innovation in the automobile industry. They focus on General Motors as a key example. They help us understand how the car industry develops new features and how they predict what will be a hit in the future. The car industry uses a complex trial and error development process to develop new features.

There is an extensive and difficult process used to develop new products. There are teams of researchers, scientists, and engineers that work together to develop new features. Since each new feature could take several years to develop, they must think ahead to the needs and desires of society in the future.

A simpler version of the process they use starts with generating ideas. They brainstorm ideas that could be a hit and get responses from focus groups and surveys. Second, they create a prototype and release it. Third, they receive feedback and capitalize on it. Based on their feedback, they either scrap the project, improve it, or develop it. Of course that is the simpler version of General Motor’s process, but it does a great job of summarizing their complex version.