Top Best Connected Car Tech Celeb, Analyst and Advocate

TechCARSAwardsnobackgroundtinyThe famous or infamous in the connected car space nominated for “Tech CARS Award for Best Connected Car Analyst, Advocate or Personality, include one analyst, one leader and one consumer advocate- Roger Lancot, Andy Gryc and John M. Simpson. The people nominated have done quite a lot to shepherd a new era in connected cars for the category some might call Connected Car Man of the Year. Voting ends January 15 at 11:45 pm PST.

Roger C. Lanctot

rogerII_400x400As Associate Director in the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics, Roger Lanctot has a powerful voice in the definition of future trends in automotive safety, powertrain, and infotainment systems.

Roger draws on 25 years’ experience in the technology industry as an analyst, journalist and consultant. Roger has conducted and participated in major industry studies, created new research products and services, and advised clients on strategy and competitive issues throughout his career. Some consider Roger the Kevin Bacon of the connected car industry as evidenced by his wide LinkedIn and Twitter following and his frequent speaking and blogging activities on critical industry issues impacting topics such as vehicle safety, fuel efficiency and traffic.  Roger is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

Lanctot often gives great quotes to the media and is not afraid to speak his mind. Lanctot has a great following on Linkedin where he wrote:

“Oblivious to the obvious and distracted like a squirrel with a shiny object, Pogue opts for the lowest common denominator – Android Auto and CarPlay – rather than reaching for the brass ring of life-saving, integrated safety systems tuned to avoid collisions.”

Lanctot gave David Pogue the Copout of the Year Award.

Andy Gryc

AndyGryc_400x400Andy Gryc produced this year’s Connected Car Expo and brought the connected car space to life in a brilliantly orchestrated day of seminars, exhibits and networking. He managed to get verbose CTOs to keep their spiels down to six minutes with slides!

Andy Gryc is a well-known automotive technology evangelist whose reputation in the industry is rooted in his hands-on experience in the automotive and embedded trenches – software architecture and engineering, technical sales and product marketing – for well over two decades at companies like QNX, OnStar and HP. Through CX3 Marketing, he lends his industry knowledge, technology insights and marketing expertise to analysts, journalists and companies throughout the automotive industry.

John M. Simpson

JohnMSimpsonThere are few people in this world who advocate for safety and can speak out against the great behemoth Google except for John M. Simpson. He is fearless in fighting for safety and against companies who file their own accident reports. Simpson advocated for police reports, video and data to be given to the California Department of Motor Vehicles when robot cars are involved in accidents. He urged Secretary Foxx and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must not rush to implement regulations and relentlessly investigates consumer issues.

John M. Simpson is a consumer advocate for Consumer Watchdog and is the director of the organization’s Privacy Project. His investigations of Google’s online privacy practices and book publishing agreements helped trigger intense media scrutiny and federal interest in the Internet giant’s business practices.

A frequent contributor to op-ed pages across the country, Simpson is a veteran journalist who held top editing positions at international, national and community newspapers. Most recently he was executive editor of Tribune Media Services International, a syndication company. He was previously deputy editor of USA Today and editor of its international edition.

“One thing is for certain when it comes to the Internet giant, whether you now refer to it as Alphabet or still call it Google. The folks from Mountain View are adept at spouting self-serving spin”

“Do not put the interests of the robot car developers ahead of the public’s safety in the face of ongoing pressure from self-driving robot car manufacturers like Google, which has promised a vehicle without a steering wheel or brake pedal.”

John M. Simpson

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What connected car personality, analyst or advocate do you think deserves a Tech CARS Award, you can vote for your favorite, here.

Tech CARS Awards nominees were culled from social media nominations, database and news analysis. You are welcome to extol the virtues of your favorites in the comments below.