Quelle:
https://vtec.net/forums/one-me…569&page_number=1#1363569
(As a long-time Honda observer, enthusiast and employee, this WSJ article saddens me. But perhaps an inevitable, inconvenient truth)
"Honda Took Pride in Doing Everything Itself. The Cost of Technology Made That Impossible."
WSJ: 5 Aug 18...
TOKYO—A semiautonomous Honda SUV was traveling down a test track at 20 miles an hour in March last year when a child-size test dummy moved into the middle of the road. Oblivious, the Honda mowed it down.
It was part of a brutal day of Japanese government testing for Honda Motor Co. ,whose vehicle was equipped with a camera and sensors that were supposed to detect obstacles and apply brakes to avoid a collision. The SUV scored 0.2 out of a possible 25 points in the pedestrian portion of the test, the worst among tested vehicles.
With its long heritage of technical prowess, Honda was determined to do better—and it did. But Honda engineering didn’t get it there. The car maker turned to an off-the-shelf sensing kit from Robert Bosch GmbH, the companies said. With the Bosch technology, the new Honda Civic took the same test in November and scored 24.4 out of 25.
Honda’s decision to go shopping points to a radical culture change at one of Japan’s proudest companies, where founder Soichiro Honda in the 1960s said, “We refuse to depend on anyone else.” The struggle at the entrepreneurial success story cuts deep into Japan’s sense of itself as a global leader in technology.
Honda once used staff technicians to design new technologies ranging from engines to the shape of the suspension arms. Today, Honda believes rapid shifts in technology mean it can no longer afford to keep pace working solely on its own.
That is raising hackles among some within the company who complain about “PowerPoint engineering”—where engineers assemble slides showing how they will patch together others’ technology rather than build it themselves. “Honda is changing things that Honda should not change,” said Hideaki Tsuru, who worked in Honda’s R&D arm for 20 years until retiring in 2016. He said making unique products is “Honda’s soul.”
Honda Took Pride in Doing Everything Itself. The Cost of Technology Made That Impossible. The car maker outsources key tech for electric vehicles and autonomous driving to megasuppliers such as Bosch, Continental AG and Denso Corp. , as well as smaller companies with cutting-edge technology such as Intel Corp. subsidiary Mobileye. “We want to work with those that possess the best technology, regardless of whether they are Japanese suppliers or American ones or European ones,” said Honda’s chief executive, Takahiro Hachigo, in an interview.
Honda, which prides itself above all on its engines, is farming out the development of an electric motor. Hitachi Ltd.’s auto-parts division has the majority stake in a joint venture with Honda that will make electric motors for Honda cars by March 2021. By 2030, two-thirds of its cars will be partially or fully electric, Mr. Hachigo said. In June, Honda also said it would buy electric-car batteries from General Motors Co.
For Honda, whose official name translates as Honda Technical Research Industry, the shift to outsourcing is forcing it to rethink its identity as a creator of unique auto technologies. Some of
its most famous products include a navigation system that pre-dated civilian use of GPS, and the CVCC engine, which used less fuel and cut emissions. At the time of the engine’s unveiling in
1972, Honda’s then-head of engine research, Shizuo Yagi, trumpeted: “We at Honda did everything on our own.”