Acsia Technologies, the Kerala-based global automotive software company, will be working on the advanced infotainment programme of German carmaker BMW.
The Technopark-based company has been selected as a software development provider by Garmin, a leading global provider of GPS-enabled products, and the company had teamed up with the Germany-based AOX Technologies to develop infotainment systems for BMW.
Infotainment is the hardware and software platform designed to deliver information and entertainment, including audio and video in vehicles. The major software development activities will be done at Acsia’s delivery centre in Thiruvananthapuram and the company will also be placing its engineers in Germany. The centres are equipped with TISAX, ASPICE and other mandatory certifications to develop such solutions.
“Acsia was selected through a long evaluation process. We are one of the very few Indian companies to do a major automotive software project for the German carmakers. With this cooperation, we further strengthen our foothold in the global automotive sector”, said Jijimon Chandran, CEO, Acsia Technologies. Through the project, the engineers at Acsia will have the opportunity to work with a world-class automotive brand, he added.
To a question, he said shortages of semiconductor chips have recently put a lot of pressure on car makers’ growth and the supply crunch may extend further. OEMs are now thinking about switching to alternate microcontrollers widely available, and migrating to respective device software. Acsia’s deep expertise in automotive ECU software development helps in such software migrations to a newer or alternate microcontrollers and keeps the growth trend.
Nurturing talents
The company has been associating with the Kerala Government for Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) for automotive-related courses offered by them. It has already joined hands with many of the tech institutions to set up automotive software competent centres to identify and nurture engineering talent. The new project will be beneficial for engineers in India as the company is on a hiring drive for its team expansion, he said.