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184 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE Article by Tracy Riggan • IPC I n the first-of-its-kind event, IPC brought together stakeholders from e-mobility, OEMs, their supply chain, regulators, and policy and technology experts to IPC APEX EXPO 2023 for the e-Mobility/EV Automotive Special Session. These experts discussed the many challenges as well as collaborative- based solutions to those challenges. Panelist Udo Welzel of Robert Bosch framed the chal - lenge with a compelling statement: "The modern car has 10X more lines of code than an airplane, thus making it the most complex technical system we are building in volume." Even if a failure rate stays the same, Welzel advised, when opportunities for failure rise, failures rise as well. To kick off the special session, guest speakers framed the supply chain circumstances chal- lenging EV makers, and added the context of government regulations and incentives, as well as consumer trends driving EV maker design and implementation choices. This confirmed the supply chain trend of de-emphasis on China, consumer focus on technology features, and policies that will drive charging unit reli - ability requirements higher. Special Session: e-Mobility/EV The key takeaway was that industry is focused heavily on software vs. hardware and yet, over- the-air (OTA) updates cannot fix a resistor or a dendrite. Hardware must be a focus to support the power, heat, and safety demands of feature- rich, OTA upgradeable systems. The second part of the special session featured a panel discussion, with representatives from Rivian, Jabil, and KYZEN. They addressed the many design and manufacturing challenges of new applications for electronics, talked about building understanding across industry to accel - erate the needs in technology development, and raised concerns about the lack of skilled labor in both automotive and electronics. The key message was that collaboration and communication across industries are necessary to address the technical challenges, the limits of which are increasingly pushed by competi - tion, consumer demand, and government safety regulations. While we defined the scope and challenges of e-mobility, there is more to be discussed about the technical challenges. S&T Tracy Riggan is senior director of business, Solu- tions, at IPC.