In a February 2023 interview, then-NXP Semiconductors CTO Lars Reger described technology leadership as a bit like windsurfing: choose a direction, commit, and react as conditions change. The “drama” in the headline is controlled engagement with uncertainty—not a claim that risk-taking itself produced NXP’s financial results.
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Reger’s windsurfing analogy captures a leadership style built around energy, quick decisions, and adapting to changing conditions. A leader needs a broad direction, he suggested, but cannot plan every response to an unpredictable market. His interests in windsurfing, skydiving, rescue work, submarines, deep-sea diving, and astronautics fit the profile of someone drawn to technical challenges and unfamiliar environments.
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The metaphor is about calculated exposure to uncertainty, not recklessness. The interview offers a portrait of how Reger approached innovation; it does not establish that his personality caused NXP’s commercial performance. EE Times published the interview on February 6, 2023.
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Reger grew up in Bad Berleburg, Germany, with an early interest in natural science and imaginative engineering projects. After military service, he studied physics at the University of Bonn while also studying medicine, partly because he wanted to build medical equipment. His early work involved semiconductor detectors for medical devices, linking sensing technology with practical safety and health applications.
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He was recruited by Siemens, later associated with Infineon Semiconductors, and completed Executive MBA studies at London Business School. He then moved into Siemens VDO’s automotive-systems work, covering areas such as navigation, vehicle architecture, connectivity, and infotainment. The mix of scientific training, applied engineering, automotive systems, and business study helps explain why his later strategy ranged beyond individual chips to whole vehicle and connected-device platforms.
Reger joined Elektrobit in 2001. One project involved an early BMW iDrive-related automotive communication computer. The demanding system used a single Renesas processor for speech recognition, navigation, and human-machine-interface functions. Alex Kocher, who worked with Reger and later hired him at Elektrobit, described him as open-minded, energetic, humorous, focused, and direct. Reger joined NXP as an automotive strategist in 2013 and became CTO about five years later, according to the interview.
Finding growth beyond the automotive market
Reger’s strategic question was how NXP could find “new territories” with stronger growth potential than the overall markets in which it already competed. In the 2023 interview, he contrasted automotive growth of about 8% with automotive radar growth of about 25%. Those were his approximate figures at the time, not current market estimates or independently validated forecasts.
The logic is to pursue specific semiconductor capabilities that may grow faster than the broad vehicle market. Radar, secure elements, ultra-wideband (UWB), vehicle networking, and embedded computing can be components of larger systems—driver assistance, secure access, connected vehicles, or software-defined cars. The interview identifies these as areas Reger saw as strategic strengths for NXP; it does not rank them independently or establish their revenue contribution.
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Reger also said NXP reviewed about 220 business cases each year, while preferring projects backed by financially sound companies. The interview does not provide the review methodology or establish whether that figure remains current.
Technology priorities in the 2023 interview
Safer and more connected mobility
Reger pointed to NXP’s S32 automotive platform, automotive radar, vehicle networking, secure connectivity, and battery-management systems for electric vehicles. The interview also described BlueBox 3.0 as an automotive development platform with twice the embedded-computing power and eight times the I/O and PCIe connectivity of BlueBox 2.0. That is a product comparison reported in 2023, not a statement about present availability or performance in production vehicles.
Other examples included work with Volkswagen involving NXP battery-management systems for an EV platform, a vehicle network processor intended to support software-defined vehicles, and a vehicle-to-everything demonstration meant to alert vehicles to hazards, congestion, roadworks, or approaching emergency vehicles. These examples span a reported collaboration, a product direction, and a demonstration; they should not be treated as equivalent evidence of commercial deployment.
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Secure access and connected devices
Secure-element technology and UWB were among the capabilities Reger highlighted. An NXP digital-key solution described in the interview was intended to support vehicle access using smartphones, key fobs, and other devices, with UWB contributing secure localization. The interview also mentioned silicon-validation work for time-sensitive networking, a technology area relevant to predictable communications in industrial and automotive systems.
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These themes extend beyond cars. The interview cited a SAMPL additive-manufacturing project intended to verify that 3D-printed spare parts were authorized, as well as a low-latency industrial safety demonstrator using secured connectivity. They illustrate how authentication and dependable communication can address different settings, but the source does not establish adoption levels or production volumes.
Edge AI and sensor processing
Reger emphasized placing intelligence closer to sensors and devices, where local processing can reduce the need to send every raw measurement to a more powerful application processor or cloud service. The interview discussed event-based vision sensors from Prophesee, which transmit information when a scene changes rather than continuously sending conventional image streams. Reger was interested in the potential for sensor-level preprocessing to reduce downstream processing demands.
The interview explicitly noted that Prophesee had not publicly disclosed an NXP partnership at the time. It therefore supports describing Reger’s interest in the technology, not claiming a finalized commercial relationship. Separately, the article said NXP was the lead licensee for a new Arm microNPU intended for embedded AI tasks such as pose estimation, facial recognition, object detection, and enhanced speech recognition. It also described a customized version of Glow for selected microcontroller applications. These were reported initiatives, not proof of particular customer deployments.
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Vehicle edge-computing activity included work with Otonomo and collaboration with Amazon Web Services intended to help automakers collect and use vehicle-generated data. A connected-vehicle data solution involving Teraki, Airbiquity, Cloudera, and Wind River was another example. The range shows the intended ecosystem around vehicle data, but the interview does not quantify deployments or resulting revenue.
Industrial, logistics, and emergency applications
The article used several demonstrations to illustrate “technology with purpose”: an asset tracker measuring location, temperature, and impacts during transport; a rescue-oriented HoverGames drone concept using infrared sensing to find people in water; and a secured wireless safety system for industrial settings. It also mentioned cooperation with Dirac on audio quality and an LTE-M development ecosystem involving Avnet, Verizon, Sequans, and Microsoft.
These examples vary in maturity—from demonstrations and student-oriented platforms to ecosystem collaborations. The interview does not provide evidence that each became a broadly available product or achieved commercial scale.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Autonomous driving as a gradual transition
Reger’s view in early 2023 was that automated driving would arrive incrementally rather than in a sudden shift to fully autonomous cars. Vehicles already included limited automated functions such as anti-lock braking, electronic stability control, lane keeping, and adaptive cruise control. He pictured a driver reaching a motorway manually, activating a highway-pilot mode, and taking control again near the destination.
Those functions are not interchangeable with fully autonomous driving, and the interview does not define legal automation levels or supply independent safety and regulatory evidence. Reger argued that the initial economic case for fully autonomous operation might be stronger in taxi fleets and truck logistics than in privately owned passenger cars, where vehicles may sit unused for much of the day. That is his historical market perspective, not a verified 2026 forecast.
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Research before revenue
Quantum computing was presented as a long-horizon investment. Reger said NXP had begun building quantum computers at its Hamburg site with German government assistance. He framed the effort as a way to attract talent, signal scientific ambition, and develop electronics and control expertise that could transfer to cars, drones, or other systems. He characterized its near-term revenue profile as zero.
The interview gives no technical specifications, project milestones, architecture, funding details, or evidence that the work produced a production-ready quantum computer. Its account supports understanding the project as research and talent strategy, not a validated commercial business.
The interview also mentioned an AI-ethics initiative for edge devices. As with the quantum work, the source offers a strategic direction rather than measurable outcomes.
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Reger described his mother as a “sparring partner” who challenged him to explain technology clearly. If he could not explain a technology in a reasonable way—or if it frightened her—he believed he needed to reconsider either his understanding or his presentation. His father, initially skeptical of automotive assistance systems, changed his view after Reger demonstrated lane keeping and adaptive cruise control in a BMW.
The anecdotes connect communication with technical leadership: a system’s value depends not only on what it can do, but also on whether people can understand and trust its role. They also reflect the interview’s central tension. Reger was drawn to uncertain, ambitious projects, but the work had to connect to a comprehensible use—safer mobility, secure access, efficient sensing, or practical communications.
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