Auto sector luxuries venture in software & hardware

The automobile ecosystem has been teching up everyday, whether it’s hardware or software. Prepare to see the future on the roads.

Even as climate changes get fiercer by the day, the automobile industry doesn’t seem to abate when it comes to progress.

A Southeast Asia Automobile Markets Report 2021 says the rising demand of the Southeast Asian market will prompt global automobile vehicle and parts manufacturers to increase exports to the region.

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In January, luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce, which is a unit of Germany’s BMW, reported soaring sales by 49% in 2021, as the demand for luxury cars rose globally. The car manufacturer sold 5,586 vehicles in over 50 countries, the highest number in its 117-year history.

The automobile industry continues to build the ecosystem with several additions. The Tech Panda looked at the Indian car scene.

Enabling the Autonomous Driving Ecosystem

Meanwhile, automotive cars are moving onto the roads. In January, Reuters reported Tesla CEO Elon Musk saying that their product focus was moving towards autonomous software rather than the cars themselves.

High-speed, low-latency connectivity solutions for distributed, heterogenous compute systems are a fundamental element in next-generation autonomous driving applications. This month, Microchip Technology Inc. announced the market’s first Gen 4 automotive-qualified PCIe^® switches. These switch solutions provide cutting-edge compute interconnect capabilities for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS).

“Our automotive-qualified portfolio of Switchtec Gen 4 switches provides the lowest latency and high bandwidth required to link the CPU and accelerator building blocks used in ADAS applications,” says Krishna Mallampati, Associate Director of Marketing and Applications at Microchip’s data centre solutions business unit. “We are delighted to see the culmination of several years of collaboration with key technology partners and customers to bring these solutions to market.”

Our automotive-qualified portfolio of Switchtec Gen 4 switches provides the lowest latency and high bandwidth required to link the CPU and accelerator building blocks used in ADAS applications

Switchtec Gen 4 PCIe switches provide the high-speed interconnect that supports distributed, real-time safety-critical data processing in ADAS architectures. PCIe is emerging as the preferred compute interconnect solution for the automotive industry for the same reasons it has become pervasive in the data center market. It provides ultra-low latency and low-power bandwidth scalability to CPUs and specialized accelerator devices.

“The qualification of Microchip’s solutions to meet the stringent needs of the automotive market is a significant milestone, and one NVIDIA closely collaborated on,” said Michael Truog, senior director of Automotive Platform Architecture at NVIDIA. “Microchip’s automotive PCIe switches deliver flexibility and advanced programmability, enabling high-speed SoC and GPU connectivity within our NVIDIA DRIVE platform.”

India’s First Vehicle Accidental Claims App

Automovill, a full-stack mobility startup, launched India’s First Accidental Claims app for all insurance agents/brokers across India. The application will help the brand to build an interface with over 1 lakh+ agents across 20k+ pincodes in India. The app is available for Android devices and by June 22 and will be launched for the IOS users too.

The app will function as a complete motor insurance platform serving end-to-end connecting agents, car owners and the brand to facilitate any motor claim, simultaneously providing transparency in terms of claims, offerings, cost, and services. An agent can simply sign up and register a claim case from the client, this case would further be summitted with Automovill and upon estimate generation the insurer will process it further. The process and status will be visible to the agent on the app.

The idea behind launching this app is to reduce the claim-cost by bringing in more efficiency to the system for all the stake holders

“The idea behind launching this app is to reduce the claim-cost by bringing in more efficiency to the system for all the stake holders (insurance companies and customers). As on date Automovill is the leader in handling  Motor claims across India, providing not less than a 40% cost reduction compared to Authorized service providers. We understand the true estimates and can add speed and transparency to the entire system. This makes it easier for agents, and customers to book and facilitate the claim. The app will solve that procedure for everyone,” said Mridu Mahendra Das, Co-Founder and CEO of Automovill.

The plan for the app is to further develop in-house into an advanced AI system to support insurance claim estimation procedure. The technology will be used in detecting vehicle damage like dents and generating estimates of insurance claims. It will handle the process of sending the estimate and getting approvals from insurers too, thus reducing any discrepancies.

Luxury Travel Lounges Across India

An Indian intercity mobility startup, zingbus, is set to raise the bar of comfortable travel experience across the industry by providing safe, reliable, and affordable travel options. zingbus has already launched premium lounges across Indian cities including Delhi, Manali, and Ahmedabad.

These lounges offer a clean and accessible place for people to rest comfortably while waiting for their buses. The lounges offer premium services acing the status quo factor, cancelling out traditional methods where people used to wait in long lines and unsafe places for their rides.

zingbus lounges are open to all providing clean and sanitized washrooms, mobile charging points, food court, free WiFi, cloakroom, and heaters among others to make the passengers’ journey relaxed, smooth and convenient.

With the launches of these lounges in these cities, we will not only be resolving the persisting problem that concerns safety and comfort, but will be striving to offer the best of experience to travellers in Delhi, Manali, and Ahmedabad

Commenting on the launch of lounges, Mratunjay Beniwal, Director and Co-Founder, zingbus, said, “We believe in providing safe and comfortable travel. That has been our priority, always. Considering the constantly growing problem and traveller’s woes in Delhi, Manali, and Ahmedabad, we wanted to come up with a solution that suits or fits all.

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“With the launches of these lounges in these cities, we will not only be resolving the persisting problem that concerns safety and comfort, but will be striving to offer the best of experience to travellers in Delhi, Manali, and Ahmedabad. The lounges have all the basic amenities that a passenger can take advantage of, regardless of traveling with zingbus or not, and the lounges are the gifts to the spirit of travel, opened for all travellers passing through the route. I am confident people will surely appreciate their presence.”

zingbus aims to launch 30 lounges across cities in India by the year 2022.