Has technology development in the recent past increased or decreased trust? Autonomy has been a long term promise from the engineering community but the autonomy we see in robotics and AI is not always trustworthy and reliable. Consider self-driving cars and the challenges assocoiated with fully autnomous drones and robots. AI is moving quickly forward but not necessarily with a humanity centered focus. The outcome of new tech funding is not entirely positive, especially when it comes to the perception of the average person. An increasing number of people see technology as a source of danger and harm. They fear that technology is coming for their job, threatening their individual freedom and privacy. Is the anti-tech sentiment limited to AI and software or is it bleeding into other tech sectors such as industrial electronics? How do we engender wholesome and appropriate trust with a human-centered design focus and efforts to increase reliability and robustness? To dive into these important issues the panel will move through the following topic areas with questions from the audience inserted into each topic area.  

Trends towards software-centric focus: Marc Andreeson, the famous venture capitalist, famously quipped that software is eating the world, but although software has exploded in value and impact it has not necessarily engendered trust especially for sectors such as robotics, self-driving and AI. By focusing so much energy and resources on software has hardware and specifically, industrial electronics suffered?  

Trends towards hyperbolic marketing: The push for funding in the tech sector has caused a feeding frenzy including broad marketing claims, software-centric thinking and the push for unicorn-level growth. How has this impacted industrial electronics and the balance of hardware and software?What if the key to engendering trust is enabling appropriate distrust. With the robotics and self driving world, it often seems that marketing “full self driving” or “full autonomy” reaps tremendous rewards in terms of investment and sales… but at what cost? In order to engender trust in our engineering practices and more generally in our technology in general, do we not need to embrace the idea of robust union between hardware and software. This may be especially true for industrial electronics. 

Trends towards and away from globalization: The past decade has been defined by unprecedented global trade enabling software and hardware to be pieced together from components that are obtained around the world. How will the changes currently underway to reverse the globalization trend impact these issues of trust? Will trade wars, tariffs and increased focus on nationalism impact robust performance and trustworthiness of electronic systems? 

Trends towards “full autonomy”: Autonomy has not scaled as promised and trust for these systems is at an all time low. Cars crash on the roads at unprecedented rates while in full self-driving mode. Autonomous drones fall out of the sky due to problems with GPS, motor failures and software bugs. In the military and energy sectors the push for full autonomy has made the goal to eliminate human involvement but in chaotic environments the autonomy often fails, leaving the user stranded and ill prepared to cope. How has the focus on full autonomy reduced reliability and limited trust?  

Trends towards reduced reliability: Robots, appliances and even cars fail at a rate never before imagined. Washing machines and dishwashers made in the 1960 lasted for decades requiring very little care, but those developed today, full of sensors and electronics, fail in months requiring constant maintenance. This is true for scooters, cars, trucks, forklifts, mining vehicles, washing machines, dryers, stoves, fridges and everything in between. Are these shortcomings inevitable due to increased complexity? How much of the problem is due to industrial electronics?