IAAF chair Wendy Williamson has opened the Federation’s annual conference with a stark warning.
Under the theme of ‘survive and thrive’ Williamson spoke about the challenges presented to the independent sector by new cloud-based technology that is being introduced by the vehicle manufacturers.
“The threats from the VMs have now grown to unprecedented levels. Last year we talked about the connected car, but this year. We are facing a potential lock out from all the VMs. I genuinely believe that this is a greater threat than we faced ten years ago with block exemption regulations.”
“Technology seems to be outpacing regulations. To give you one example, Volvo have deleted functionality from the 16-pin socket apart from emissions data. The next step is that the garages will have to have pre-verified diagnostic tools and will have to pay the VM on a case-by-case basis to access the information they need.”
Williamson also thanked the industry for the work it had done in the past year. “I believe we are on the right track and I hope we are not just surviving, but thriving as well and I hope you enjoy what will be an interesting and stimulating day”.
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