David Bem

Senior VP of Science & Technology and CTO, PPG Industries

Search every verified David Bem interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Bem, Senior Vice President of Science & Technology and CTO at PPG, has discussed the company's efforts to adapt its coatings technology for the emerging autonomous vehicle market. In a 2018 interview, Bem described how PPG established a new business unit to prepare for the shift toward autonomous and electric vehicles. He explained that the company developed coatings that can make dark-colored cars more visible to the sensors used in autonomous driving systems, a technique he said was adapted from aerospace heat management technology. Bem stated that this approach could increase sensor signal from a gray car by six times, and that the coatings could be tuned to optimize for future sensor packages. He also noted that the real driver for adoption of autonomous vehicles would be safety and infrastructure, not just whether the technology works, and emphasized the importance of starting early to define safety systems. In an earlier 2015 talk, while serving as Vice President of R&D at Dow Chemical Company, Bem discussed broader innovation challenges, including working across the entire value chain with government entities to create value. He highlighted examples of Dow's work, such as developing adhesives that allow lighter and safer car construction by channeling crash energy, and a product developed with Unilever that keeps bar soap hard in tropical climates to extend its usability in developing countries. Bem framed these efforts as addressing societal problems, including CO2 emissions and disease from lack of hand washing, and challenged innovators to elevate conversations about problems to government officials to help shape research funding policy.