New Delhi: As autos have gotten an prolonged IoT system pushed by software program, German Tier-I main Continental believes that within the coming years, software program integration coupled with AI-driven applied sciences will develop into much more prevalent in autos to make them extra environment friendly, handy, and safer.
“Within the final 3 years, the content material per car has elevated upwards of 30%. For Continental, India is a vital market. We are able to count on the content material per car to develop considerably for no less than the subsequent 5 years. As an organization, we now have been rising larger than the market (development) in India, and we’re bold about our good efficiency,” Prashanth Doreswamy, president and CEO, Continental India, instructed ETAuto in an unique interplay.
The subsequent set of development areas, he mentioned, can be in physique electronics and car structure which is able to embrace excessive performing computer systems (HPCs), telematics, and management unit gateways. Parallely, the assisted features on the ADAS facet will develop into important for comfort.
The electronics structure of the trendy technology of autos is present process a profound transformation, shifting away from the numerous particular person digital management models (ECUs) of present automobiles, that are about 80 to 100 ECUs, in the direction of a small variety of HPCs. In 2019, Continental was the primary provider worldwide to supply inside HPCs for Volkswagen ID.3, which had about 20 million strains of code.
Doreswamy famous that HPCs are a vital function of interconnected autos. The highly effective pc controls and safeguards the wi-fi trade of knowledge and, sooner or later, may have the potential to assist and safe over-the-air (OTA) updates.
At present, autos in India don’t include HPCs. Nonetheless, virtually all of the OEMs are engaged on this. Within the subsequent few years, we count on that new car launches in India will function HPCs, extra prominently for physique controls and interiors, he mentioned.
Going ahead, automobiles might include 4 HPCs – for interiors, physique electronics, car dynamics and chassis controls, and for powertrain.
Doreswamy mentioned that in the long run, it’s anticipated that the 4 HPCs may very well be built-in into one single pc, which is able to have the ability to drive all the automobile. So OEMs might even think about shifting to deploying working programs.
Connectivity and ADAS for India
The automotive business is broadly remodeling in 4 directions- Connectivity, security, electrification, and automation and ADAS.
Doresswamy believes that whereas connectivity and ADAS is revolutionary and is pushed by shoppers who need comfort and luxury, security and electrification is evolutionary in nature and is pushed by the governments.
ADAS might be break up into assisted, automated and autonomous. Assisted features are extra of security features. Automated and autonomous are extra handy features– takes the work from you and does it by itself. Automation makes you extra environment friendly in a approach that it frees you from concentrating on the highway, you are able to do one thing totally different. It additionally gives comfort with loads of different applied sciences by way of connectivity.
Assisted is L1, which presents security associated features. Then automated consists of L3, L4 together with L2, and autonomous is Stage 5.
“We see an enormous development of L1 and L2 features in India within the subsequent 3-4 years. However L3, L4 are too early for India. The know-how might be made obtainable however all the ecosystem additionally must be obtainable. We additionally imagine that no less than 40 % of the brand new automobiles will include some sort of assisted perform by 2026. The telematics fitment price can also be growing as a result of we see loads of related features- even the shows have gotten extra digital than analogue,” Doreswamy mentioned.
He said that the digital stability management function (ESC) is a should for bringing in ADAS options. ESC could also be categorized into sense, plan and act. ABS has its personal objective by way of car security, however loads of inputs for the ADAS is taken by way of the car dynamics from the ECUs.
Continental has about 40,000 R&D engineers globally with 6000 of them based mostly in India. For autonomous mobility, India is the corporate’s greatest heart for the world markets, with over 2000 engineers. Final 12 months, the know-how firm opened a INR-200-crore Greenfield facility in Pune, and INR 1000 crore on a brand new campus for its Technical Heart India (TCI) in Bengaluru.
The automotive components main additionally partnered with Japan’s Nisshinbo Holdings final 12 months, to localise machining for valve block meant for the corporate’s Digital Brake Techniques (EBS) portfolio in India, which incorporates Digital Stability Management (ESC) for passenger automobiles and Anti-lock Brake Techniques (ABS) for passenger automobiles and two-wheelers.
Speaking concerning the problem of preliminary value of the software program outlined autos (SDVs), Doreswamy said that over the subsequent few years it’s anticipated that among the related options may very well be obtainable on the cloud as a subscription, the place shoppers can select to go for choose options.
