Mumbai-headquartered auto major Mahindra & Mahindra has become the first automaker in India to partner Dolby Laboratories, a leader in immersive entertainment experiences, to integrate Dolby Atmos in its electric origin SUVs the BE 6 and XEV 9e.

The integration will allow its EV customers to experience music in Dolby Atmos through Gaana, integrated into the infotainment system.

Karan Grover, Senior Director, Commercial Partnerships - IMEA, Dolby Laboratories, said, “We are excited about the possibilities that our collaboration with Mahindra can bring for customers in India. Dolby Atmos in Mahindra’s electric origin SUVs – BE 6 & XEV 9e, will take the car journey to an entirely new level by transforming the interior cabin into an entertainment space that brings consumers closer to the content they love. With Dolby Atmos, every ride will be an extraordinary experience that complements the unlimited potential of the Mahindra BE 6 and XEV 9e.”

R Velusamy, President - Automotive Product Development, Mahindra & Mahindra and Joint Managing Director, Mahindra Electric Automobile, said, "The BE 6 and XEV 9e embody Mahindra’s vision of delivering extraordinary experiences across every aspect of driving. By integrating Dolby Atmos, we are setting a new benchmark for in-car entertainment, ensuring that every journey is not only seamless but also truly immersive."

The EVs are equipped with 16 Harman Kardon speakers as standard. The speakers next to front seats are three-way speakers designed with a tweeter, mid-range, and a woofer. In the centre is Harman’s patented Unity Speaker design and rear surround speakers are high fidelity mid-range. There is also a subwoofer and two speaker drivers in the ceiling which will help deliver an exceptional in-cabin audio experience with Dolby Atmos.

Visteon Corporation, a leading supplier for automotive cockpit electronics and connected car solutions, has inaugurated its new Global Capability Center (GCC) in Kolkata, India. The facility set to become operational by January 2025 is set to have 300 engineers by end-2026 with plans to scale it up to over 500 engineers in the next two to three years.

The Kolkata GCC will focus on Android-based infotainment, autonomous vehicle solutions, cybersecurity, multimedia & remote projection, cloud technologies. It will exclusive focus on Android-based infotainment and cockpit software development.

With this, the company now has facilities in Chennai, Goa, Bengaluru, Pune, Trivandrum and Coimbatore contributing to its global development capabilities.

Sachin Lawande, President & CEO, Visteon, said, “India has been central to our strategy for over 20 years, with over 2,000 of our people driving automotive innovation. The new Kolkata center strengthens our focus on Android-based automotive solutions and expands our fastest-growing product portfolio. At Visteon we meet the talent where it’s at, and we’re glad to strengthen our team with Kolkata’s engineering expertise and collaborate with the city’s top universities to support the evolving needs of automakers worldwide.”

Altair, a pioneer in computational intelligence worldwide, has revealed that its data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Altair RapidMiner, now enables customers to create and implement sophisticated AI agents with ease. By integrating generative AI (genAI) agents into their processes, organisations may use Altair RapidMiner to enable operational insight and disruptive automation.

The most cutting-edge elements of top AI agent frameworks are combined in this new capability, which also adds Altair RapidMiner's unique advantages. Features like AI fabric intelligent ecosystems, graph-powered contextual intelligence, smooth integration with sophisticated computational systems, integrated governance and traceability and improved multi-agent collaboration are all included in the Altair RapidMiner for AI agents, which connects to APIs, enterprise systems and external tools with ease.

Sam Mahalingam, CTO, Altair, said, “Altair RapidMiner, already a trusted platform for machine learning and data analytics, is now taking the next step with our AI agent framework. By enabling users to build autonomous AI agents that seamlessly integrate graph-based intelligence, machine learning, simulations and business rules, we're unlocking new possibilities. This innovative approach, built on the trusted foundation of Altair RapidMiner, allows organisations to maximise the value of their data and achieve a competitive edge.”

US-based artificial intelligence (AI) driven data solutions company iMerit recently launched an automotive AI centre of excellence in Coimbatore. Speaking to Motoring Trend on the sidelines of the event, Chief Executive Officer Radha Ramaswami Basu said, “The Centre of Excellence works on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and audio-visual systems, ensuring that the perception models are safely built with high quality data under many different traffic and weather conditions. Secondly, we perform review work, quality control of the models, generative AI explainability and driving scenario analysis, to close the loop.”

The company has hired all local people from Coimbatore and nearby areas for the centre and provides high quality training to them to hit the ground running. With projects in hand, and long-term customers, it already has a workforce of over 200 people with plans to double the number in 2025. “Our Ango Hub technology gives them a huge advantage in their career journey,” said Basu.

While the company refrained from disclosing customer names citing stringent confidentiality policies, it noted that it works with OEM, Tier-1 and Silicon Valley innovators, in the automotive and drone spaces.

The new centre, iMerit’s 12th location, was inaugurated by Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services for Tamil Nadu, Dr Palanivel Thiagarajan, in the presence of employees, guests and senior executives from iMerit. The company continues to invest in developing industry-leading software and solutions for AI Data to support its customers in autonomous mobility, medical AI and technology.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Thiagarajan said, “This event signifies a critical milestone, illustrating the remarkable speed at which visionary leadership and dedicated execution can effect change. The establishment of an office within six months—from initial discussions to formal inauguration—constitutes an exceptional accomplishment. Organisations operating in sectors such as artificial intelligence, computer vision and data augmentation are poised to transform industries on a global scale. Moreover, these companies are fostering inclusive growth by advancing historically underserved communities, generating employment opportunities and equipping individuals with advanced skill sets. Notably, with women comprising 52 percent of the workforce, many serving as sole breadwinners, this model embodies innovation, social equity and empowerment—a true reflection of Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Thiru MK Stalin’s ambition and excellence.”

Basu also noted, “Coimbatore is a historic cultural and industrial venue. It is already famous for its IT and automotive sectors. I am very pleased to bring these together with iMerit’s automotive AI vertical.  Automotive AI is our largest vertical. 60 percent of our revenues come from cutting-edge companies in autonomous mobility including trucking, ADAS and drones.

Commenting on the new centre, Chief Delivery Officer Anupam Biswas said, “Data quality is critical to AI technology, especially in computer vision and multi-sensor fusion, which are important for innovation in autonomous vehicles. The work is quite complex and we found a good mix of experienced and young talent in the Coimbatore area. This has been our fastest ramp-up in a new location. We have already hired and trained over 220 multi-sensor fusion experts on our Ango Hub software and they have started working on critical customer projects.”

The company emphasises responsible AI through ethical practices. For over 10 years, it has helped leading AI model developers across mission-critical industries like autonomous mobility, healthcare AI and high-tech.  iMerit has also been steadily growing its India business. With Automotive AI in India poised to cross a billion dollars in the next five years, the company hopes to leverage its global know-how to help the Indian industry also build a strong AI data backbone.

Technology companies Synopsys and SiMa.ai have announced a collaboration to support automotive firms in developing workload-specific silicon and software for Artificial Intelligence (AI) features in next-generation vehicles.

The partnership will combine Synopsys' EDA tools, automotive-grade IP, and hardware-assisted verification solutions with SiMa.ai’s Machine Learning Accelerator (MLA) IP and comprehensive machine learning (ML) software stack. This approach aims to enable the customisation of IP, subsystems, chiplets, and systems-on-chip (SoCs).

The growing demand for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and In-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems is highlighted as a key area of differentiation for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), driven by a wide variety of applications. The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into these systems is noted as requiring AI at the edge to provide real-time, multi-modal in-car experiences.

Current software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures are identified as insufficient to meet the demands for diverse applications, as well as the necessary computational performance and reliability. Automotive companies are increasingly seeking AI-ready, workload-verified, and power-efficient software architectures. Additionally, hardware-software co-design solutions are seen as essential to reducing development costs and mitigating production risks.

The Synopsys and SiMa.ai collaboration is intended to support the following objectives:

Early architecture exploration: Tools to assist automotive design engineers in optimising performance, power, and software application requirements for custom or third-party SoC development.

Accelerated software development: A focus on multi-modal functions and GenAI, alongside a workflow incorporating virtual prototyping and emulation to streamline software/hardware integration and reduce time to market.

Cost-effective, adaptable in-vehicle solutions: Customisable, silicon-proven components and subsystems designed to accommodate diverse workloads and integrate advanced ML software and tools.

Continuous upgradeability of automotive edge AI: Systems can be developed to meet current needs and adapt to future requirements, with virtual prototypes enabling the testing of over-the-air updates.

Ravi Subramanian, Head of the Synopsys Product Management and Markets Group, said, "Our collaboration with SiMa.ai will provide automotive companies a significant step forward in modernising their hardware/software co-design processes to meet demand for advanced, in-car experiences that are increasingly costly and complex to deliver. Our leadership in architecture exploration, IP, and hardware-assisted verification, combined with SiMa.ai’s innovative performance and power-optimised ML capabilities, will enable customers to differentiate while continuing to meet stringent cost considerations and industry standards.”

Krishna Rangasayee, Founder and CEO, SiMa.ai, said, "Collaborating closely with Synopsys allows us to provide automotive manufacturers with complete, optimised solutions that accelerate their development cycles. The SiMa.ai MLSoC platform was designed for best possible performance at lowest power consumption across a diverse set of applications—that was the missing piece in the puzzle to make future cars so much smarter and safer than what we have today. When combined with Synopsys' industry-leading IP and software, we will deliver a powerful foundation for innovation across auto OEMs in autonomous driving and in-vehicle experiences."