The company said starting with 2022 model years and proliferating across multiple customers and vehicle platforms, its next-generation cameras and domain controllers will help make the benefits of 3D surround view – a driver-assistance technology found mainly in luxury-class vehicles – available to more consumers.

The new multi-camera system provides a high-resolution, 360-degree field of view around the vehicle, while the domain controller then creates a 3D surround-view image by processing the four camera images, rendering a seamlessly stitched 3D view of surroundings concerning the vehicle. The new system helps to park the vehicle in a tight space and delivers data to help improve the performance of other vehicle systems such as emergency braking, and automatically detects and warns the driver when the camera lens is impeded by snow, ice, dirt or raindrops.

“By providing a high-performance surround-view platform that is cost-effective, we’re helping our customers bring added safety and convenience to more drivers,” said Uwe Geissinger, Magna Electronics President. (MT)

Dana Acquires Pi Innovo

To ramp up its electrodynamics capabilities and the electrification product portfolio, Dana acquired Pi Innovo LLC, an embedded software solution and electronic control unit provider. With the acquisition of Pi Innovo, Dana adds a strong library of turn-key electric vehicle application software, vehicle level controllers, and auxiliary controllers.

“The extremely talented and experienced Pi Innovo team have provided exceptional modular software and controls solutions for original equipment manufacturers for more than 25 years,” said James Kamsickas, Dana chairman and CEO. “Integrating Pi Innovo with Dana’s leading e-Propulsion software capabilities will further enhance our ability to provide value for our customers as they continue to accelerate their electric vehicle portfolio development.”

The software and controls expertise of PI Innovo builds on Dana’s robust capabilities in designing, engineering, and delivering complete vehicle integration for e-Propulsion systems, further positioning the company as a leader in vehicle electrification. (MT)

DEKRA Opens Inspection Station In Mexico

The first DEKRA-powered vehicle inspection station in Mexico has opened in Guadalajara. The company will open five additional stations in Guadalajara by May 2021, bringing 240 new jobs to Mexico’s second-largest city.

The stations will be operated by DEKRA and managed by the state’s Ministry of Environment and Territory Development (SEMADET). The new stations will offer comprehensive emission inspections for traditional and diesel fuel vehicles, including all state and municipal vehicles and commercial vehicles.

Located in central Guadalajara, the new station is the first privately-operated vehicle inspection station in the state of Jalisco. The new station’s seven lanes are projected to handle 65,000 inspections in 2021 and grow to more than 100,000 per year in the future. Once open, the six DEKRA-powered stations in Guadalajara will include 42 lanes and are expected to handle a total of 600,000 inspections each year.

“DEKRA is recognised as the world’s leading vehicle testing company, performing more than 27 million inspections annually,” said Stan Zurkiewicz, Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Management Board of DEKRA S.E. (MT)

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German tier 1 supplier ZF Friedrichshafen and the BMW Group have entered into a long-term supply agreement for passenger car drive systems. The contract, valued at several billion euros, extends until the late 2030s.

The agreement focuses on the supply and continued development of the 8-speed automatic transmission (8HP). The partners aim to support low-emission mobility and maintain technological flexibility during the industry transition.

A central component of the partnership is the technical evolution of the 8HP transmission kit to meet the requirements of electrified drives. The development will focus on increasing efficiency and performance for future vehicle concepts.

Mathias Miedreich, CEO of ZF, said, “Together with BMW, we are sending a strong signal for innovation, efficiency, and sustainability in an industry undergoing dynamic change. This agreement highlights the strategic importance of our 8-speed automatic transmission as a key technology for the transformation of drive systems.”

The duration of the contract provides both ZF and BMW with planning stability in a changing market. ZF aims to strengthen its position as a system supplier while reducing risks through close collaboration with the carmaker.

Sebastian Schmitt, Head of ZF's Electrified Drive Technologies division, explained, “The new agreement with BMW shows how important long-term planning horizons are for technological advancements. It creates clarity and stability for both companies and enables us to align the next generation of the 8HP specifically toward efficiency, performance, and long-term viability.”

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Aumovio has entered a supply agreement with Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Leapmotor to provide safety components for the carmaker’s B and C platforms.

Several models within Leapmotor’s B platform now utilise Aumovio's long-range radar, electric parking brake and airbag control unit (ACU). Models on the C platform, including the C10, C11 and C16 SUVs, feature the latest generation of the MK C2 one-box brake system, alongside the long-range radar and ACU.

The project was completed with a development cycle approximately one-third shorter than traditional automotive timelines. Aumovio attributed its speed to ‘local-for-local’ strategy in China, where the company operates 20 sites and employs around 10,000 staff. In 2024, Aumovio held a 14 percent share of market revenue in the region.

The supplied technologies include:

• MK C2 Brake System: A unit combining the master cylinder, electronic brake system, and brake booster. It is produced locally in Shanghai.
• Long-Range Radar: A sensor with a detection range of up to 280 metres, used for driver assistance across both platforms.
• Airbag Control Unit (ACU): Integrated with crash satellite sensors, these components are manufactured in Changchun.

Boris Mergell, Head of the Safety and Motion business area at Aumovio, said, “Pairing ‘China speed’ with ‘German quality’ technologies helped us to support a rapid roll-out with our latest safety technologies. This underscores Aumovio’s course towards an adaptive powerhouse that works flexibly and closely with customers to innovate. It also shows that we continue to strengthen our customer relationships in the important market China.”

The partnership supports Leapmotor’s international presence. The B10 and B05 models, which feature Aumovio's ACU and radar technology, were showcased at the IAA 2025 in Munich as part of the manufacturer's European entry.

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Bengaluru-headquartered ER&D company L&T Technology Services (LTTS) has announced a multi-year engagement within its mobility segment from an automotive manufacturer. The agreement involves software, connectivity and digital engineering services across vehicle technology domains. This win follows the company’s investments in R&D labs and mobility infrastructure designed for programs with global manufacturers.

The engagement covers mobility engineering capabilities, including embedded systems, digital platforms, verification and validation, cloud integration and cybersecurity. LTTS intends to use its engineering expertise and delivery frameworks to support the customer's technology roadmap. 

At present, LTTS operates 22 design centres and 100 innovation labs globally.

The agreement strengthens the partnership between LTTS and the automotive manufacturer in the area of mobility engineering. The company provides design, development, and testing services across the mobility, sustainability, and tech segments. 

Alind Saxena, Executive Director and President, Mobility and Tech at L&T Technology Services, said, “We are proud to deepen our partnership with the valued customer through this strategic engagement. LTTS brings together domain-led engineering, secure development practices and excellence in global delivery to accelerate the future of premium mobility. The win reflects the trust placed in our teams and our commitment to delivering world-class engineering at scale”.

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French technology company Valeo and NATIX Network have announced a partnership to develop a multi-camera World Foundation Model (WFM). The project combines Valeo’s research in artificial intelligence and generative modelling with NATIX’s decentralised physical infrastructure network (DePIN) to create an open-source platform for autonomous driving and robotics.

The initiative aims to move beyond perception-based models by creating a system capable of predicting future states and reasoning about physical interactions in a four-dimensional environment. The model will be trained using NATIX’s data network, which has collected 600,000 hours of video data across the US, Europe and Asia over seven months. This data provides the multi-camera inputs necessary for the spatial perception required by autonomous vehicles and robots.

The partnership builds upon Valeo’s existing open-source frameworks, VaViM (Video Autoregressive Model) and VaVAM (Video-Action Model). While these frameworks were previously trained primarily on front-camera datasets, the integration of NATIX’s multi-camera network expands the AI’s field of vision to 360 degrees.

Under the open-source framework, the partners will release models, datasets and training tools. This approach is intended to allow the research community to fine-tune models and benchmark physical AI across various driving conditions and geographic regions. The collaboration seeks to accelerate the deployment of end-to-end AI models by learning from real-world edge cases captured by vehicles in operation.

Marc Vrecko, Chief Executive Officer, Valeo’s Brain Division, said, “Since our creation in 2018, Valeo’s AI research center has been at the forefront of AI research in the automotive industry, especially in the fields of assisted and autonomous driving. Our goal has always been to advance mobility intelligence safely and responsibly. By combining Valeo’s generative world modeling research expertise with NATIX’s global multi-camera data, we are accelerating both the quality and the accessibility of next-generation end-to-end AI models, enabling the research community to build upon strong open models.”

Alireza Ghods, CEO and Co-Founder, NATIX, added, “WFMs are a once-in-a-generation opportunity — similar to the rise of LLMs in 2017–2020. The teams that build the first scalable world models will define the foundation of the next AI wave: Physical AIs. With our distributed multi-camera network, NATIX has a clear advantage of being able to move faster than large OEMs.”

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