Marelli has established a new R&D center dedicated to the development of automotive lighting and body electronics, and sensors research in Turin, Italy.
Covering an area of 3,000m2 over five floors, the hub is located near Marelli’s existing plant in Turin and houses more than 130 employees, including about 90 engineers. The office layout is designed to foster collaboration and communication, in order to facilitate synergies between the different competencies in electronics, lighting and software development.
Within the lighting area there is a section devoted to the development of ECUs. The area for developing ADAS technologies focuses in particular on the advancement of sensors and cameras.
These are complemented by the competencies and technologies derived from Marelli’s recent tie-up with XenomatiX to develop modular lidar solutions based on solid-state technology, and from its previous acquisition of Smart Me Up, a French startup specializing in artificial intelligence perception technology.
Activities are supported by four laboratories, including a software validation lab equipped with five hardware-in-the-loop test systems. Another laboratory housing some driving simulators is available for preliminary evaluation of software and hardware. The center also includes a lab housing test benches for analyzing software for end-of-line testing machines in customers’ production plants, and for software developed for in-circuit tests. There’s also a darkroom for optical tests on lidars and cameras.
Marelli’s R&D center has obtained an A-Spice Level 2 certification for software quality.