Marelli will open a new site in Turin, Italy, that will host the R&D center of Marelli Automotive Lighting devoted to Lighting and Body Electronics (LBE), as well as an area devoted to Sensors development aimed at Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).
By combining different capabilities in one location, the hub will be central to supporting Marelli Automotive Lighting activities across Lighting and Body Electronics, which are long-lasting core competences of the company. In addition, the focus on ADAS recognizes the importance of this as a growth driver for Marelli in view of the evolution of mobility.
Covering a surface of more than 3,000 square meters on five floors, the hub is located nearby the existing Marelli’s plant in Turin and houses more than 130 employees, including about 90 engineers. The office layout is designed to promote collaboration and communication, in order to facilitate synergies between different competences of Marelli professionals in electronics, lighting and software development.
The hub will be a critical competence center in the field of Body Electronics, where Marelli has more than 20 years of experience developing body computer modules (BCM), gateways and onboard applications like door modules and trunk modules.
Another area of Marelli Automotive Lighting activity in the R&D hub will be devoted to the development of Electronic Control Units (ECU) for the management and control of lighting systems in the vehicle, that have become increasingly relevant in recent years following the evolution of lighting technologies.
The hub also will host an area fully dedicated to ADAS, focusing in particular on the development of sensors and cameras. The activities in this field will take advantage of Marelli’s capabilities in several fundamental areas of expertise, including software engineering, functional safety, safety of the intended functionality and cybersecurity applications.
These also will be complimented by the competencies and technologies derived from recent agreement with XenomatiX, to offer modular LiDAR system solutions based on “solid state” technology, and from the previous acquisition of Smart Me Up, a French start-up specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) perception technology. This step marks a further advancement in strengthening the role of Marelli as a key player in the area of ADAS technologies, positioning the company as a competent partner that can effectively support its customers for their projects in the ADAS field.
The activities of the center also will be enabled by the presence of four laboratories, including a software validation laboratory equipped with five “Hardware In the Loop” systems, able to emulate the use of software in a vehicle, meeting the validation specifications of different customers. Another laboratory is available for preliminary testing on software and hardware through simulators. The center includes a testing laboratory with benches for software developed for end-of-line testing machines in customers’ production plants, and for software developed for in-circuit tests. Another significant feature of the new facility is the laboratory featuring a darkroom for optical tests on LiDARs and cameras.
The R&D center has also obtained an A-SPICE “Level 2” certification, the international standard designed to assess software quality.
