INTERACT ION TATA ELXSI, MATHWORKS

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TATA ELXSI | PREPARING FOR A CONNECTED FUTURE

As the global automotive industry is increasingly

pushing for better connectivity and monitoring

within vehicles, telematics is finding an increased

widespread adoption. Apart from vehicle tracking,

telematics can play an important role in improv-

ing the fuel economy and safety of vehicles.

Tata Elxsi, a design solution provider, has

developed a wide portfolio of products aimed at

the automotive industry. The company is betting

strongly on its telematics offering and is devel-

oping new systems at a rapid pace. Of 3,700

employees, about 90 % are engaged in product

development activities presently. Auto Tech

Review spoke to Anil Sondur, VP, Tata Elxsi,

about the upcoming solutions and their potential

for the Indian market.

One of the recent offerings from Tata Elxsi has

the potential to change the landscape of automo-

tive insurance. The system from the company is

claimed to have the potential for bringing down

insurance premium costs for vehicles. Sondur

said the major driver for the adoption of telemat-

ics from an insurance perspective would depend

on legislation. For example, some European coun-

tries have already made ‘ecall’ mandatory. The

technology is capable of sending a notification to

a backend service desk as soon as a vehicle expe-

riences an impact. Post this, the tracking of the

vehicle is immediately enabled using inputs from

the GPS or a mobile data connection. Such usage

of telematics can significantly shorten the re-

sponse time for support services and reduce the

costs as well.

All of this transmission is done by a telemat-

ics control unit (TCU), which is a GSM-based

system and is placed in the vehicle. The TCU is

connected to the vehicle’s electronics and network

architecture and is able to take signals from

various systems to identify an impact. On confir-

mation of an impact, a signal is sent to the TCU,

which in turn uploads a message to the backend

infrastructure. This message also contains the lo-

cation of the vehicle or the spot at which the

impact took place.

The second insurance aspect covered by the

technology is that pertaining to vehicular theft.

Present technologies are primarily aimed at pre-

venting theft of vehicles but very few solutions

are capable of reporting the theft automatically.

In case of someone trying to steal a vehicle, tele-

matics can send out a message about the same

to the vehicle owner’s

phone. With the tech-

nology progressing

quickly, Sondur said

that it could soon be

possible that the car

sends an image too

along with the

message. This feature

would make use of the

multiple cameras

modern cars use these

days. The commercial

introduction of this

technology could be in

cars for the model year

2015 or 2016. Once

again in this case, the

overall insurance cost

reduces significantly

due to a shorter reac-

tion time.

Just through these

two areas, telematics

could bring about a

major cost reduction for

insurance companies

and vehicle owners.

Telematics would also make the legal process

more hassle-free as there would be more chances

of the said events being recorded in the form of

images or electronics transmissions.

ROAD AHEAD

Tata Elxsi is presently undertaking development of

both the software and hardware for the telematics

unit. Owing to the nature of the product, the

company presently possesses capabilities in in-

dustrial design, mechanical engineering, hard-

ware design and embedded software design.

Sondur told us that the company can now carry

out visualisation activities as well. This enables

the company to provide prospective OEMs with an

idea about the location of the telematics unit, its

size and its ease of access for maintenance.

Owing to these capabilities, the company

some time back got an order from a major Euro-

pean luxury carmaker. The system in discussion

has a reverse parking camera hidden behind the

brand logo at the rear. On engaging the reverse

gear, the logo flips open to expose a camera unit,

which then transmits the display into the info-

tainment screen. The process of fitting the

camera, interfacing it with the logo and the

action of the logo’s flip was completely designed

by Tata Elxsi.

The company has already signed supply deals

with some customers in Europe and expects the

business to grow at a good pace. In India too,

business is expected to grow at a healthy rate as

the electronic content in cars increases. With

growing interest from consumers for infotainment

systems and smartphones, the role of telematics

can only increase in the coming years. Knowing

this Tata Elxsi has already developed a wide port-

folio of solutions for potential customers and

seems to be in a good position to reap the bene-

fits of the electronics revolution.

TEXT : Arpit Mahendra