The big question some attendees at last week’s AWS re:Invent conference were trying to answer was the best way to move traditional data center technologies into moving objects: Planes, trains and automobiles, for example.

Finding the best way to get the cloud into the car could be another way of putting it, according to a digital engineering executive.

“Two decades ago, [it] was called IoT,” said Walid Negm, (pictured), executive vice president and chief research and innovation officer at Capgemini Engineering (Capgemini Service SAS). “But we’re not talking about just sensors [now].”

Negm spoke with John Furrier and David Nicholson, hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed the future of engineering and how it is now co-joining, natively, with software. (* Disclosure below.)

‘We’re coding our way out of hardware’

“If they can make their vehicle containerized, if they can monitor the car’s behaviors they can offer new types of experiences for their clients,” Negm said.

What he is referring to is developing a new model of transportation, which also applies to industry, like that used in construction equipment or manufacturing facilities. It’s an entire paradigm shift to software-defined systems replacing, or augmenting, traditionally pure physical products.

“We’re coding our way out of hardware,” he said.

Data-oriented technologies, such as cloud, must be considered not only as a part of the “engineering now,” but also the business.

“How do you co-design hardware and software together?” Negm asked. This is a very real consideration and part of what has led R&D innovation specialists Capgemini Engineering to its working relationship with Amazon Web Services Inc.

Those software-defined vehicular systems have unique challenges, according to Negm. Real-time data is required, and the importance of trust magnifies.

“There’s safety criticality issues that you have to take into consideration,” he stated.

Explainable artificial intelligence comes into play too: Are autonomous systems doing the right thing? Being able to know that a product was definitively defective, or not, and why the algorithm said what it said or made certain judgements becomes crucially important. Negm believes these are some key questions still to be answered by adopters.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Capgemini Service SAS sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Capgemini nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE