India to have Research Center for Futuristic Vehicles Including Autonomous and IoT-Enabled Ones
The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the leading automotive R&D organization of India, will set up a new mobility research center to test the futuristic vehicles like autonomous and connected or IoT-enabled vehicles. The announcement was made by Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director of ARAI.
Coming up at Takwe near Talegaon, Pune, the upcoming mobility research center will have vehicle test tracks for automotive, testing and certification facility for equipment related to construction and mining industry.
The facility will come up on a 2.5 acres plot in Kharadi which has already been identified and allotted by Pune Municipal Corporation.
Construction work for this center will commence in this year only and will take about 3 years to complete. The center would be spread over 110 acres.
The new center in Talegaon would house infrastructure for undertaking research work in fire safety of vehicles, impact of functioning of tyres on road and safety measures for vehicles with LPG and CNG cylinders.
In 2017, ARAI partnered with Cognizant Technology Solutions to work on autonomous vehicle technologies.
In the same year, ARAI had also set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Electric Mobility (e-mobility) space to help the Indian automotive industry transition from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles. Additionally, for the first time, ARAI is also creating a platform for startups in the e-mobility space at the CoE.
In November last year, a Hyderabad-based startup E-trio Automobiles got approval from ARAI, for retrofitted car kits in Alto and Wagon R, which will allow the startup to convert these models of car into all-electric ones.
ARAI has also formed a dedicated Technology Group working on futuristic indigenous technologies in smart mobility solutions. The present Technology Program is focused around the 6 areas — Intelligent Vehicle Controls, Energy Management System, Green Mobility, Intelligent Vehicle Technologies, Battery Management and Light Weighting.
Established in 1966 and located at Pune, ARAI offers R&D services in the areas of engine development, alternate fuels, NVH, computer aided engineering, structural dynamics, automotive electronics and materials. It also offers comprehensive certification and homologation services for all types of automotive vehicles, systems and components. ARAI also assist the vehicle manufacturers for export homologation activities. At present, ARAI carries out about 70% of the certification of vehicles in India.
Source – Economic Times
Source: IndianWeb2
