In the last 100 years, urban mobility has evolved a lot while the current trend in the industry is autonomous, connected, electric and shared, said Dr Tapan Sahoo, Chairman, SAENIS and ED, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), at the inaugural session of the two-day event - Motion In Control 2023 (MIC23).
The two day event was organised by SAENIS (Society of Automotive Engineers Northern India Section) in association with ICAT, ATS and DATLive.
The second phase of the event, planned at NATRAX in Indore, will be conducted on February 23-24, 2023.
Amardeep Singh, Convenor, MIC 23 and General Manager, MSIL, noted that it has become very important for OEMs to add human elements in vehicle testing by combining virtual, physical and human elements and moving from Hardware-in-Loop to Driver-in-Loop testing.
The two-day track event saw many industry experts address a batch of engineering students and provide them with an anecdote on the evolving need for vehicle dynamics in the industry.
Pamela Tikku, Joint Secretary, SAEIndia and CBO and Senior General Manager, ICAT, noted that vehicle dynamics and safety had evolved significantly over the last few years, especially in India, with mandatory crash norms and safety features such as dual airbags, among others. However, 'now we need to find the right balance between AI and intelligence in intelligent products such as automobiles,' she added.
Speaking on the Indian scenario, RC Subramaniam, Managing Director, Tenneco, stated that controlling the motion becomes especially challenging in India where conditions are not predictable with missing lane markings and people using wrong turn signals, among many others.
The Second Day
The event's second day saw a panel discussion wherein industry leaders gave their viewpoint on “ADAS & Vehicle Dynamics – Opportunities and Challenges,” moderated by Deepanghsu Dev Sarmah, Editor, Mobility Outlook. Mobility Outlook was the Media Partner of the event.
Singh noted that with the challenges in the Indian market, the industry has a huge opportunity to grow in these technologies and make them adapted locally.
Sandeep Raina, Vice Chairman, SAENIS & Executive Vice President (Engg), Maruti Suzuki India noted that the last few years have been very challenging for the auto industry and especially for the Indian players, but the transformation over these years has been phenomenal when looking at the changing regulations in terms of fuel and safety.
Meanwhile, KD Singh, MD, Mubea Automotive Components India, stated that the growing safety needs in vehicles have made the new-gen vehicles heavy. Additionally, with the incoming of EVs, the vehicles' weight will only increase. As a result, OEMs have started looking at lightweighting components such as suspension and others to optimise vehicle dynamics.
Subscribing to this, Atul Jaggi, President & Deputy MD, Gabriel India, said that annually India sees over 1.5 lakh people losing their lives in road accidents, and vehicle dynamics will play an important role in reducing these numbers.
From a tyre industry point of view, Dr Prasenjit Ghosh, Deputy Director, Hari Shankar Singhania Elastomer & TYre Research Institute - the R&D centre of JK Tyres, noted that tyres alone could not decide vehicle dynamics; rather, an interplay between tyres, wheels and suspension can.
Speaking about the other end of the spectrum, Vineet Sahni, CEO & Senior Executive Director, Lumax Group, noted that the increasing interplay of technologies has led to increasing demand for electronics in vehicles. Sahni explained that only 3-4% of the vehicle consisted of electronic components earlier, while the percentage has increased to over 40% now.
Prashant Vijay, Co-convenor, MIC23 and SBO, ICAT Centre 2, stated that there was a time when the Indian auto industry struggled with electronics, but now the industry is looking at running a vehicle completely on electronics without any human interventions.
Besides experts sharing their valuable inputs, the two-day event also saw multiple presentations by TiHAN, AB Dynamics, JK Tyres, Stahle GmbH, OxTS, IIT Delhi, Moshon Data, and ATS, among others. Alongside the presentations, track days were also organised to give the students a glimpse of these new technologies.
The track day includes four vehicles - MG Gloster, Mahindra XUV 700, Mercedes E-Class and a Mahindra e-Verito, showcasing an in-house developed ADAS technology by IIT Hyderabad. Meanwhile, the other vehicles showcased multiple ADAS features, including automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and cruise control.
Also Read
SAENIS Commences Track Days Of ‘Motion In Control 2021’ Event