Mercedes-Benz and Siemens will cooperate on advancing digitalization and automation in the automotive industry, supported by the State of Berlin. Mercedes-Benz AG aims to digitize its production processes. Siemens, a leading supplier in the field of automation, industrial software and smart infrastructure, will bring its expertise and technologies to the... Read more →

Audi’s Neckarsulm site is the first automotive plant in the Volkswagen Group to use RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology for vehicle identification throughout the entire production process, thereby laying another cornerstone for fully connected production. An enhanced RFID data carrier is being used for the first time in the production of... Read more →

Geely Auto Group and Tencent signed an agreement to carry out strategic cooperation in the fields of digitalization, intelligent cockpits, autonomous drive, and low-carbon development. The two parties will work together to digitalize fully all aspects of an automotive product lifecycle from product development, manufacturing, marketing, vehicle utilization, to after-sales... Read more →

Cyient, a global engineering, manufacturing, and digital transformation and technology solutions company, signed an MoU with Decipher, a Perth-based company that provides a cloud monitoring and governance platform for tailing storage facilities. Cyient will support Decipher with the global rollout of its cloud mining platform for tailings and rehabilitation monitoring.... Read more →

Volkswagen plans to connect its production facilities in Chattanooga (TN), Puebla and Silao (Mexico) with the global Industrial Cloud initiative from the Volkswagen Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Industrial Cloud is an IT industrial platform, designed to gather and analyze data from all connected Volkswagen Group facilities on... Read more →

Verisk, a leading data analytics provider, announced that Ford Motor Company has joined the Verisk Data Exchange. Owners of eligible Ford and Lincoln vehicles will soon have easy access to usage-based insurance programs from the many US auto insurers that connect to the Exchange—including three of the ten largest US... Read more →

Nuvve Corporation, a San Diego-based vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology company, is participating in a program to deliver resource adequacy to local utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and California’s electrical grid using a large stationary battery located on the University of California San Diego’s (UC San Diego’s) campus microgrid. Nuvve... Read more →

Virtual Peaker and Fermata Energy are partnering to integrate Fermata Energy’s vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology with Virtual Peaker’s cloud-based residential energy demand response platform used by utilities across the country. Fermata Energy V2X bi-directional charger The joint venture will make it easier for utilities and their customers to combat climate change... Read more →

Accedian, a leader in performance analytics, cybersecurity threat detection, and end user experience solutions; New Context, a leader in digital transformation for infrastructure security; and Savari, the pioneer of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications technology for smart infrastructure, announced a strategic partnership to foster and promote economic security and prosperity for next-generation... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation and NTT Corporation entered into a memorandum of understanding concerning a business and capital alliance to build a long-term and continuous cooperative relationship that enables the commercialization of smart city businesses via the realization of a smart city platform. Smart city platform. The platform is to consist... Read more →

The risk of cybersecurity incidents due to targeted, uncontrolled attacks is growing with increasing automotive connectivity and the digitalization of vehicle functions and services. In order to detect and ward off these attacks, the automotive industry needs end-to-end solutions that combine vehicle security with continuous monitoring and central security management.... Read more →

As part of a three-year research project supported by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the BMW Group and three partner companies from Bavaria are exploring the possibilities for making BMW Group Plant Dingolfing a smart factory for logistics. The “Autonomous and Connected Logistics” research project... Read more →

ZF Friedrichshafen AG is joining the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP), which was announced in 2019 by the BMW Group and Microsoft. The OMP is an open industrial IoT platform to accelerate production and logistics optimization efforts. (Earlier post.) The aim of this initiative is to enable faster and more cost-effective... Read more →

Weathernews and Toyota Motor began a verification test in Tokyo, Osaka, and Aichi on 1 November 2019 in which the conditions of roads and their surroundings are ascertained using the operating status of windshield wipers, as well as weather data. This is part of a joint research effort to increase... Read more →

Toshiba Digital & Consulting Corporation (TDX) and Spain’s Gestamp, a multinational specialized in the design, development and manufacture of highly engineered metal components for top vehicle manufacturers, are cooperating in a project to bring advanced monitoring and analysis to the welding of vehicle chassis parts. By drawing on know-how from... Read more →

Audi and Deutsche Telekom are entering into a 5G technology partnership together with the city of Ingolstadt. The goal is to use the new 5G technology to make urban mobility safer, more digital and more sustainable. The memorandum of understanding is the basis for the development of a digital transport... Read more →

Volkswagen has opened a new IT Development Center in its Gläserne Manufaktur in Dresden. In Software Development Center Production (SDC Production), up to 80 newly hired IT specialists will be working on the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud. In the future, the Industrial Cloud will link all 122 Group-wide Volkswagen production facilities.... Read more →

SensorComm Technologies received an award through the CASCADE Innovation Program, managed by Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (“CVEP”), to conduct an Internet of Things-based (IoT) emissions monitoring pilot program within the Coachella Valley in Southern California. SensorComm’s IoT capability will capture real-time NOx emissions data from a fleet of vehicles, and... Read more →

At Hannover Messe, Microsoft and the BMW Group announced a new community initiative to enable faster, more cost-effective innovation in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing production and profitability can be hindered by complex, proprietary systems that create data silos and slow productivity. The Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) is designed to break... Read more →

An the 2019 Hannover Messe, Ericsson, together with Audi and Sick (a leading provider of sensors for industrial automation), is demonstrating human-robot interaction in real time using 5G. In the future, wireless production robots and employees will work hand in hand. Real-time interaction is essential for smooth collaboration. The key... Read more →

Volkswagen and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will develop the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud together. Both companies announced a multi-year, global agreement jointly to develop this project. In the future, the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud will combine the data of all machines, plants and systems from all 122 facilities of the Volkswagen Group.... Read more →

Entering into a strategic partnership, Volkswagen and Microsoft Corp. will collaborate to develop the ‘Volkswagen Automotive Cloud’, one of the largest dedicated automotive industry clouds for all future Volkswagen digital services and mobility offerings. With Microsoft as its strategic partner, Volkswagen is taking a decisive step in its digital transformation... Read more →

A.P. Moller–Maersk and IBM announced the creation of TradeLens, jointly developed by the two companies to apply blockchain to the world’s global supply chain. TradeLens is a blockchain-enabled shipping solution designed to promote more efficient and secure global trade, bringing together various parties to support information sharing and transparency. IBM... Read more →

China-based Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading one-stop mobile transportation platform, and Booking Holdings, a global leader in online accommodations and travel e-commerce, have entered into a strategic partnership. Booking Holdings has invested US$500 million in DiDi, recognizing DiDi as a leader in the mobile transportation industry. Under the partnership, DiDi... Read more →

The DS 7 CROSSBACK is the first Groupe PSA vehicle using the PSA IoT “Connected Vehicle Modular Platform” (CVMP) and equipped with Huawei technology for new connected services. DS 7 CROSSBACK is the first tangible result of the partnership announced in November 2017 between Huawei and Groupe PSA covering all... Read more →

DENSO Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation will conduct the first test using a quantum computer to process data from a traffic IoT platform. The companies will process vehicle location and travel data in real-time from about 130,000 commercial vehicles in Thailand, aiming to establish best practices for quantum computer applications... Read more →

by Irina Slav for Oilprice.com While OPEC mulls over further steps to once again support falling oil prices, tech startups are quietly ushering in a new era in oil and gas: the era of the digital oil field. Much talk has revolved around how software can completely transform the energy... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation and Hitachi, Ltd. will collaborate to build a high-efficiency production model using an IoT (Internet of Things) platform. These two companies will conduct verification at Toyota’s model plants (Toyota, Aichi Prefecture) starting from this October. Through this verification, they intend to establish a platform using Hitachi’s IoT... Read more →

INFINITI LAB Toronto, an Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities accelerator program from premium car brand INFINITI, announced the nine startups that will participate in the inaugural four-week accelerator program in Toronto. The nine participating startups have raised $2.7 million in funding between them, and during the program they... Read more →

In Spain, in conjunction with the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Peugeot unveiled its INSTINCT plug-in hybrid concept, a Shooting Brake which offers the option of fully autonomous driving. However, the driver remains fully in control at all times and is able to determine whether he or she has... Read more →

Audi has won the Logistics Award for 2017 from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) in recognition of its FTS driverless vehicle transport system. The autonomously operating system has been in production operation at the Ingolstadt site since the beginning of the year. The parking robot, RAY, from... Read more →

Audi is developing a new modular assembly principle intended as the enabler of the post-production line assembly era. Modular assembly—intended to address the need for growing complexity and flexibility in production—breaks up the traditional fixed-rhythm production line into individual process steps. In the latest issue of Audi Encounter, Fabian Rusitschka,... Read more →

IBM and BMW Group researchers are collaborating to explore the role of Watson cognitive computing in personalizing the driving experience and creating more intuitive driver support systems for cars of the future. As part of an agreement between the two companies, the BMW Group will collocate a team of researchers... Read more →

Audi has begun using smart gloves from Munich-based startup ProGlove in its international logistics department at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt, where the group handles the worldwide dispatch of car components. The glove—named “Mark”—has an embedded barcode scanner on its back; employees trigger the scanning function by pressing the thumb... Read more →

Samsung Electronics will acquire HARMAN for $112.00 per share in cash, or total equity value of approximately $8.0 billion. Upon closing, the transaction will immediately give Samsung a significant presence in the large and rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics, which has been a strategic priority for... Read more →

Dürr has introduced its next-generation of painting robot: the new Ecopaint Robot. With its greater kinematic freedom, the EcoRP E043i model with its seven-axis kinematic system enlarges the work zone and can eliminate the need for a linear displacement rail. This can significantly reduce investment and maintenance costs in the... Read more →

Intel is developing a new processor series dedicated for automotive applications. The A3900 series will enable a complete software-defined cockpit solution that incudes in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), digital instrument clusters and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS)—all in a single, compact and cost-effective SoC. Intel announced the new automotive processor family along... Read more →

Twelve months after the launch of the “Digital Motorway Test Bed” in Germany, Audi is presenting new technologies for piloted driving and Car-to-X-communication at the German Federal Ministry of Transport. Audi is involved in six projects on the test bed; three of them focus on structural measures; the remaining three... Read more →

NVIDIA and FANUC Corporation are collaborating to implement artificial intelligence on the FANUC Intelligent Edge Link and Drive (FIELD) system to increase robotics productivity and bring new capabilities to automated factories worldwide. Adding AI to the FIELD system will give robots the ability to teach themselves to do tasks faster... Read more →

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) announced new collaborations with AT&T and Microsoft Corporation with the goal of delivering further enhancements to its Detroit Connect suite of connected vehicle services. (Earlier post.) AT&T will provide cellular service for the new Detroit Connect Truck Data Center, an intelligent piece of hardware that... Read more →

Leading automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler has signed a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with IBM to accelerate the digital transformation of its entire operations and customer solutions using Watson’s cognitive intelligence and insight from billions of sensors that make up the Internet of Things (IoT). Schaeffler manufactures millions of precision-engineered... Read more →

Audi is further expanding its worldwide production network with the opening of the company’s first automobile plant on the North American continent. This will be the first time the company has produced a model for the global market at a location outside of the European continent. Audi will produce the... Read more →

At the IAA Commercial Vehicles 2016 show in Hanover, Volkswagen Truck & Bus is presenting itself to the public for the first time as a group of strong brands: MAN, Scania, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In addition to numerous new products, Volkswagen Truck & Bus is... Read more →

The BMW Group has introduced a fully-automated, optical measuring cell in its pilot plant in Munich. Freely moving robot arms use sensors to create a three-dimensional image of an entire vehicle and generate a 3D data model from the data captured, with an accuracy of less than 100 µm. This... Read more →

Internet of Things (IoT) platform company Drayson Technologies is partnering with Inmarsat and courier company Gophr to capture real-time data on carbon monoxide pollution levels in London. A recent report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) estimated that around... Read more →

Porsche has officially dedicated a new engine plant for eight-cylinder engines. The factory at the main site in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen works with state-of-the-art production methods, leveraging digitalization and data management. At full plant utilization produces around 200 eight-cylinder V-engines daily. The sports car manufacturer has invested nearly €80 million in the... Read more →

At an event in Washington, President Obama announced that the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) will lead the new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, in partnership with the Department of Energy. The winning coalition, headquartered in Los Angeles, California brings together a consortium of nearly 200 partners from across academia, industry,... Read more →

Local Motors, creator of the first 3D-printed cars (earlier post), introduced the first self-driving vehicle to integrate the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson. The vehicle, dubbed “Olli,” will be used on public roads locally in Washington DC, and late in 2016 in Miami-Dade County, Florida and Las Vegas,... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and KDDI Corporation (KDDI) are partnering to establish a global communications platform to enable the operation of communications networks throughout the world to support car connectivity. Toyota aims to bring greater connectivity to its vehicles throughout the world. To do so, a broad-reaching, robust communications platform... Read more →

The RoMulus (Robust multi-sensor technology for status monitoring in Industry 4.0 applications) research project project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is focused on simplifying and accelerating the development and use of intelligent multi-sensor systems for Industry 4.0——the digitalization of production processes based on devices... Read more →