Lanctot is a long time friend and colleague of AUTO Connected Car News. He won the 2017 TECH CARS Award for Best Connected Car, New Mobility or Tech Celebrity, Analyst or Spokespersonnn. He always offers great insight into the automotive connected car space.
Lanctot has over 190,000 followers on LinkedIn and is stalwart leader at industry trade shows and events. He has over 30 years’ experience in the technology industry as an analyst, journalist and consultant. He’s not afraid to voice his opinion which makes him a favorite person for journalists to interview. In fact, Lanctot will return calls to reporters from any where in the world and then give deep insights into any connected car, telematics or self-driving topic.
One voter from Germany commented about Lanctot, “The best connected man in the connected car industry, he has his finger on the pulse of all changes and provides invaluable support to numerous organizations.”
Another voter from California wrote, “He has good grasp of technology but also insights into the economics that will drive the telematics industry.”
Lanctot is well-known and well-liked in the industry, a voter summed up Lanctot’s qualities, “Roger is extremely knowledgeable and has vision. He’s very productive and well connected. He writes clearly and succinctly. He’s always candid.”
In an email response to his winning Roger Lanctot wrote to us, “I am flattered at AUTO Connected Car News’ recognition of my work and humbled by the support expressed by my colleagues and peers for whom I have the utmost respect.”
Here is an excerpt of a profile I wrote about Roger for Auto Futures:
Lanctot notes although that many industry analysts are car enthusiasts who race at the track or own fancy sports cars, however, he is more of pragmatist.
“I am not a car enthusiast, I’m car tolerant,”said Lanctot.
Lanctot worked in school newspapers writing about political and social issues before he graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and then worked at community newspapers as a local reporter. He later did research and development for technology and telematic research firms and the Consumer Technology Association. He is a avid fan of the written word he reads two newspapers a day. It is thee social and economic aspects of cars that interest him.
“Cars are ubiquitous. We are car obsessed and cars affect everything we do. Our nation was built on cars and cars affect the future of our country,” said Lancot. He gives the example of the financial crisis. When it looked like the three big auto manufacturers were in danger. If any of them will were to crumble it would have a collateral effect on the entire economy.
He says cars are something that people all have to come to terms with. He saw his millennial sons, become car owners after owning beaters who now make monthly car payments.
“We’re on an evolutionary path to something different in transportation. But we’re still doing cars and it is still hard to get by without cars unless you’re living in an urban setting with public transportation,” said Lanctot.
Lanctot is concerned about the harm caused by cars. He calls it a “sad reality” that cars kill people and hurt people through emissions and crashes. He is aware of the dark underside of the industry of fatalities. Most people know someone who has been severely injured or killed in a car crash. Connectivity could be a viable solution.
“The biggest challenge coming to the automotive industry is connectivity which is unnatural to them,” said Lanctot. He explains that automakers are driven by an individuality experience with the car as a vessel that is a refuge and it is almost antithetical to to them to be connected.
“All cars need to be connected for safety reasons, software integrity, recalls and cybersecurity of vehicles” said Lanctot, “5G will enable vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-grid communication it’s something automakers have to do.”
What drivers don’t understand is that connectivity for the automakers is about customer retention, says Lanctot who believes that connectivity should be free and built into the cost of the vehicle. Consumers won’t buy services if they can get the same thing on their smartphone. He notes that the the stage is set for 5G to connect to infrastructure this will help prevent crashes.
The future of cars however, he believes is about prying people out of individual cars and getting them into shared transportation solutions, says Lanctot.
“The bottom line is that cities and governments can’t continue to move individuals in vehicles they have to find a way to get more people in cars,” said Lanctot who asks “How do we make them shared? How do you make it attractive and what amenities can you put in the cars in the future?
Lanctot, can be blunt at times and he has gotten pushback and has even been blackballed.
“I am sincere. I am a passionate and I may be tough on the automotive industry but I desire to see changes embraced rapidly,” said Lanctot, “They may be off put by my tone but they recognize that I have the best interest of the industry at heart.” He says he has been supported by his employers and event organizers.
The car that Lanctot would like to own is the Tesla S, which he says would be out of his price range unless he had a long term no-interest loan. He would like to own one because “it’s breaks with tradition.” There are Tesla S models on the road that have over 400,000 miles on them. He likes the connectivity, the software updates and traffic in the infotainment system.Tesla is not just about the car lasting three or four years at a time, he says Tesla created a new paradigm.
Lanctot sees electric vehicles as coming of age in the future.
“We were on the cusp of a new love affair with electric vehicles. It’s an untapped vein of new enthusiasm for vehicles. Tesla is just a hint of what awaits,” mused Lanctot.
Lanctot’s former colleagues Chirag Upadhyay and Claudia Krehl joined Lanctor on the unemployment line last week. “These two exceptional human factors and user experience experts have conducted extraordinary surveys, focus groups, customer clinics, and system reviews of automotive applications and individual vehicles from automated driving to smartphone mirroring and driver monitoring in China, the U.S. and Europe,” wrote Lanctot.
He can be reached via the Strategia Now website. Via LinkedIn he showed that he will still be accessible and at the usual automotive events, “See you all soon at the next industry event – Autotech Detroit?”