where is it going? According to Bob Lutz - out of this country
Well here I am with a BS in Computer Engineering working in the Auto Industry and it is not too bad as I currently have a job, but there are many that don't and some getting laid off work all the time.
In a recent interview for Automotive Testing Technology International magazine in the May 2006 issue, Bob Lutz had a little mention about outsourcing of engineering for reduced costs and therefore improving profits. Here is his quote from the magazine
"We will, over time, reduce the engineering staffs in our most expensive locations, such as the US and western Europe, and we will transition more engineering to Daewoo in Korea, Brazil, and China. There will be a gradual footprint migration out of high-cost engineering cneters into low-cost engineering centers where the capability is at least equal."
Well, guess I have very little desire to work for GM (or any Global type company for that matter, which outsources engeering) any time in the future. At what point does the US transition from one of the best engineering countries in the world to a less than the best? NASA is still in a lurch. Hell I don't even follow what they are up to any more. When will Boeing outsource that way, if they haven't already. I believe Bell Labs is now owned by a foreign company too, not that they have been the producers they have been in the past. Oh well, there will always be a need for engineers somewhere, somehow. At least I have a job for now with Cobasys, which is still a US based company.