When thinking about collaboration, or partnership, Henry Ford’s famous quote comes to mind. The founder of Ford Motor Company, which also revolutionised car manufacturing, had said, "Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success." The statement beautifully highlights the importance/value of collaboration / teamwork/ unity.

Coming Together

And collaboration is becoming a necessity in the new-age automotive/mobility industry where innovation is also becoming the name of the game. In the past few days, a slew of collaborations for technology / engineering have taken place, in India and overseas.

Below are some of them, involving a global automobile Group, Indian and foreign technology companies, a testing infrastructure provider, and also an engineering firm with affiliation to a University. .

KPIT partners with Trentar to commercialise sodium-ion battery technology


Stellantis and Mistral AI expand their AI strategic partnership


EKA Mobility and KPIT Technologies partner to drive innovation in electric commercial vehicles


German engg and testing firm MdynamiX opens first India lab in Pune


The Autonomous Drive

Many may have read General Motors’ move to stop investing in the Cruise robotaxi business also as pulling back its bet on Autonomous Driving technology. It seems now that the global major is still interested in driverless car tech, but only for personal cars. Details in the story below.

GM takes full control of Cruise in autonomous personal vehicle shift


Can China be the Autonomous Driving capital of the world?

The world’s largest car market, China, could also become the world’s largest market for cars that can drive themselves. And BYD’s ‘God’s Eye’ could play a key role in it. Here’s a look at what all you Autonomous Driving / advanced driver assistance features you can try out in China.

What autonomous driving features are available in China?


Striking a balance

Cars are going automatic, and may go autonomous in the future, but their manufacturing need not go fully automated in an emerging economy like India. Find out in the story below why Manasi Kirloskar, Vice-Chairperson, Toyota Kirloskar Motor says India needs a fine balance of manual and automated manufacturing.

Manasi Tata of Toyota Kirloskar Motor urges auto cos to strike a balance between automation and job generation


Emerging technology hub?

Not too many people may know that Kerala is also home to one of the start-ups which is deeply engaged in developing Autonomous Driving tech. Called RoshAI, this start-up is just an example.The Southern state of Kerala wants to be a key hub for new-age technology development. The setting up of an Electric Vehicle Research and Industrial Park is a reflection of that ambition.

Kerala capital well placed to become hub of futuristic automotive tech: Minister Rajan


Can Indian companies also be leaders in the global game?

The multiple megatrends, with electrification as the major one, can also be seen as good levellers. No industry player has any unassailable lead, or a lead of decades over others in terms of scale, and more fundamentally in terms of technology knowhow. That also fuels a renewed ambition among some key Indian organisation to achieve global standards. Uno Minda is one such Indian industry player. In this exclusive interview, N K Minda, Chairman and Managing Director, Uno Minda, talks about what could help Indian companies be at par with the global biggies, and what steps are his organisation taking in the quest to realise its big ambitions.

Indian Tier 1s and OEMs together can become globally competitive: N K Minda

We hope you liked this edition of our weekly newsletter. Please do write to us with your feedback, suggestions, on [email protected].

And, to get yourself updated with all the latest that’s happening, and going to happen in the Connected Vehicle technology space, do register and join the 5th ETAuto Connected Vehicle Summit in Chennai, on 20th February. Details on https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/connected-vehicle-summit