Autoliv Inc., a global leader in automotive safety systems, has announced it is strengthening its involvement in the Swedish industry initiative Vehicle ICT Arena, now as a core partner in the program. Other core partners are Combitech, Ericsson, Volvo Cars and Volvo Group. The initiative gathers 45 partners and is coordinated by Lindholmen Science Park.
Vehicle ICT Arena gathers automotive companies and industrial suppliers, as well as engineering companies, research institutes and universities, to create an open platform for innovation and competence supply, mainly within automotive IT.
As a core partner, Autoliv will contribute to the initiative by participating in overarching strategic direction and management, in joint forums and arenas, as well as in specific projects.
”With the digitalization of the vehicle fleet and the rapid development within autonomous driving, the automotive [industry] is reclaiming its historically central role as platform for both industrial and economic development. We look forward to developing new collaborations via Vehicle ICT Arena, which save[s] more lives,” said Johan Löfvenholm, group vice president product & process development, Autoliv.
The global industrial need for broad cooperation and common industry standards is ever increasing, according to Autoliv. By designing common rules and development languages within areas such as safety, environment and energy consumption, it is possible to both secure the degree of innovation in the automotive industry and simultaneously make it easier for an increased number of new innovation-intense companies to contribute to this development. Vehicle ICT Arena is an important element in this process, and a catalyst for the creation of new business models, industry standards and globally competitive competencies, the automotive supplier stated.
Autoliv was previously a premium partner of Vehicle ICT Arena, but now extends its involvement as core partner. According to Löfvenholm, it is especially important to secure common operational processes, which shorten lead times between new ideas and new products, and which open up the market toward a broader spectrum of innovative actors – albeit without ever compromising process and product security, he says.
“We are glad to see a growing number of innovative industries and sectors gather around the automotive industry. Simultaneously though, it is important to actively secure processes which both increase innovation and which don’t decrease but actually increase security and quality. Here, Autoliv has an important role to play,” said Löfvenholm.
Autoliv also is engaged in several other Swedish research and industry initiatives. Among them, Drive Me, a development project for autonomous vehicles, the Chalmers University of Technology Vehicle and Traffic Safety Center (SAFER), testing facility AstaZero, the Wallenberg Autonomous Systems Program (WASP), strategic innovation program Drive Sweden, as well as several other research projects together with several Swedish universities.
