India's Pricol Inks Strategic Tech Alliance with Californian Connected Vehicle Startup Sibros

Partnership aims to deliver Deep Connected Vehicle Solutions in the Indian and ASEAN markets

Pricol Limited (BSE: 540293; NSE: PRICOLLTD), one of India’s leading automotive technology companies, today announced a strategic technology partnership with Sibros Technologies, Inc., a California based award winning company providing Over-the-Air (OTA) connected vehicle software systems for OEMs worldwide, to deliver Deep Connected Vehicle Solutions in the Indian and ASEAN markets.

Sibros’ connected all-in-one platform will complement Pricol’s suite of products on Driver Information Systems (DIS) and Telematics to offer end-to-end solutions to the OEMs. Also the cloud based platform of Sibros combined with the next generation products of Pricol will enable features such as OTA software and firmware updates, vehicle data insights for analytics, diagnostics and troubleshooting for the OEMs to make the best use of the connected solutions.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Vikram Mohan, Managing Director, Pricol Limited said, “Connectivity and innovative mobility services are critical components of our strategy to enable software-powered products and solutions for our customers. We believe that the next generation of connected vehicles will be software and data-intensive, and will require a comprehensive suite of cloud and in-vehicle software to introduce new features and keep them updated to maximise performance, efficiency, safety and security. In Sibros, we have found an ideal partner who brings the best of Connected Vehicle suite of solutions with a global perspective.”

“We are excited to join forces with Pricol in complementing their Driver Information Systems and Telematics products to offer end to end solutions to the OEMs. Pricol is a very strong player in the Indian market, and we intend to bring together complementary products, strong domain expertise, cutting edge technologies and qualified teams to create deep connected vehicle solutions,” says Mr. Hemant Sikaria, CEO & Co-Founder, Sibros Technologies, Inc.

Image credit - www.sibros.com

 
The Sibros Deep Connected Platform (DCP) is a vertically integrated vehicle-to-cloud system combining market leading embedded firmware and SaaS applications that enable 3 core pillars for connected vehicle success. The company recently raised $70 million through Series B funding led by Energy Impact Partners (EIP) with participation from Google, Qualcomm Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Iron Pillar and existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Moneta Ventures.

About Sibros

Sibros powers the connected vehicle ecosystem with its Deep Connected Platform (DCP) for safe and secure deep software updates, data collection and diagnostics in one vertically integrated system. DCP supports the majority of vehicle network architectures right out-of-the-box and is built to the most rigorous safety, security and data privacy standards in the world, such as ISO 26262 (Functional Safety), GDPR and WP.29. Sibros empowers OEMs to reduce recalls and warranty claims and create dozens of use cases spanning fleet management, predictive maintenance, usage-based insurance, owner personalization and beyond. Most recently, Sibros was named 2021 Connected Car Platform of the Year by IoT Breakthrough Awards. Founding team members come from rich experience in companies like Tesla, Uber, Faraday Future, GM, etc. https://www.sibros.com

About Pricol

Pricol Limited is one of India’s leading automotive technology companies headquartered in Coimbatore. Pricol commenced its operations in the year 1975 in Coimbatore, South India and today it strides as a reputable global brand in the automotive component and products business, highly recognized by top automotive OEMs across the world. The company carries out its business and operations in Driver Information Systems and Sensors, Pumps and Allied Products, Telematics and Wiping Systems catering to leading automotive OEMs in Two / Three Wheeler, Passenger Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles, Farm Equipment and Off-Road Vehicles across India and in International Markets (45+countries) with 2000+ product variants.

Today the company has 7 manufacturing plants across Coimbatore, NCR, Pantnagar, Pune and Sricity, 1 subsidiary manufacturing plant in Satara, 1 manufacturing unit in Indonesia; and 2 international offices in Tokyo and in Singapore. Pricol Group is powered by 5000+ strong, dedicated workforce which resolutely pursues the mission to be PASSIONATE, SUSTAINABLE, DYNAMIC and EVOLVING. The logo addresses the synergistic relationship between the four stakeholders (Customers, Employees, Shareholders and Suppliers) working in a convergent manner in order to create value for each other. As, Indian markets are on the flow to march towards Electric Vehicles manufacturing, Pricol has already switched its gear to be EV ready across its product verticals. http://pricol.com

'Smart Tyres' - JK Tyre launches Sensors to Monitor Tyre Pressure, Temperature

JK Tyre & Industries on Thursday launched sensors for monitoring and maintenance of tyres.

Treel sensors (from the recently-acquired Treel Mobility Solutions) strengthens the company's position in the domestic market, JK Tyre said in a statement.

[caption id="attachment_132878" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image - Treel.in[/caption]

“The introduction of Treel sensors is the first such high-tech move towards creating a smart tyre in Indian markets. It provides an enhanced value proposition to vehicle owners, particularly fleets, by reducing their operational costs,” JK Tyre & Industries Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said.

The company has introduced tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) via Treel sensors that help in monitoring the tyres' vital statistics, including pressure and temperature.

The information collected by this monitoring system is relayed on a real-time basis to the vehicle owners' smartphones, thus allowing for early detection of issues and deployment of timely preventive measures to avoid them.



Treel sensors are now commercially available at more than 700 dealerships across the country, the company said.

Founded in 2017, by Chetan Khare, TREEL offers its solutions to both personal car owner and enterprise  fleet owners to tackle even the most complex challenge easily using  a cloud-based, web and mobile application called TMaaS (Tyre Management as a Service) and JK Connect and wireless smart tyre sensors for trucks and buses, making transport on every route connected, efficient and safe.

The company intends to evolve vehicle safety to a higher level and bring it to each and everyone - from Bikes to hatchbacks to trucks.

Against Global Average of 40%, Only 8.7% South Asia Homes have IoT or 'Connected' Devices

Just 8.7% of homes in South Asia have Internet of Things (IoT) or 'connected"' devices such as Internet-enabled TVs or surveillance camera against a global average of 40%, says a research by Avast, a digital security products company, in collaboration with Stanford University.

In key findings of the report, media devices like smart TVs are most common in seven of 11 global regions but there is significant variance otherwise.

For example, surveillance cameras are most popular in South and Southeast Asia, while work appliances prevail in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

For the study, Avast scanned 83 million IoT devices in 16 million homes worldwide to understand the distribution and security profile of IoT devices by type and manufacturer.

It revealed that even with over 14,000 IoT manufacturers worldwide, 94%t of all IoT devices are manufactured by just 100 vendors. While there is a very long tail of over 14,000 global IoT vendors, market dominance is limited to only a few, the research found.

The research also revealed that more than 7% of all IoT devices worldwide still use obsolete protocols like FTP and Telnet, making them especially vulnerable. Telnet, which exist since 1969, does not encrypt communications and is an easy target for attackers to sniff into for user IDs and passwords.

Yet, the research shows that surveillance devices and routers consistently support Telnet protocol. Surveillance devices have the weakest Telnet profile, along with routers and printers. This aligns with historical evidence such as the role of Telnet in the Mirai botnet attacks that suggests these kinds of devices are both numerous and easy to compromise.

The Mirrai attacks in 2016-17 were largely successful because of the over-reliance of IOT devices using Telnet for remote-admin.

North America has 66% households that have at least one IoT device. Home assistants are present in 10% of homes in North America but are yet to see significant adoption in other markets.

While nearly half of North American homes have an Internet-connected TV or streaming device, less than three per cent do in South Asia, the findings showed.

Source - Outlook, Livemint

Microsoft Unveils New-Gen Modern PCs, Connected Devices and IoT Solutions at Computex 2019

Microsoft today discussed how new modern Windows PCs, connected devices and IoT services and programs at Computex 2019.

"We continue to work closely with our partners to deliver intelligent edge solutions that enhance work and life experiences. The breadth of new PCs, IoT devices and IoT solutions on display at Computex, along with future ecosystem innovations will drive growth and business transformation for partners and customers," said Nick Parker, CVP, Consumer and Device Sales, Microsoft

Partners are Delivering Modern PC Experiences

Partners including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSI have recently announced new modern PCs that will delight both creators and gamers. Some of the highlights include:

	Acer’s ConceptD 500 is equipped with up to 9th Generation Intel Core processors and up to NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 GPUs to make workloads and multi-media creation smoother and faster on complex projects. Its multiple CPU cores achieve high single-core speed while staying cool with low heat output and low power consumption. With up to NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 GPUs, the desktop supports four 5K displays (5120×2880 @ 60Hz) with HDR colour, making visual effects, motion graphics and animation rendering a breeze.
	The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo (UX581) is an ultraportable laptop that includes a 4K OLED UHD ASUS ScreenPad Plus (3840 x 2160), a full-width secondary touchscreen (3840 x 1100) that expands and enhances the interactive capabilities of the original ASUS ScreenPad. The display is a frameless four-sided ASUS NanoEdge design, with ultra slim bezels for immersive visuals.
	The new Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 packs more performance in a thinner design and larger display. Dell’s first laptop with Intel’s Ice Lake-U 10nm 10th gen processors and features adaptive performance based on the latest Intel Dynamic Tuning Technology, which proactively changes the power of the CPU according to the performance of the workload. It comes with a redesigned thermal system to cool the higher performing processor, while creating an overall 8% thinner 2-in-1 than the previous generation.
	HP OMEN X 2S is the world’s first dual-screen gaming laptop, allowing player to chat, browse for their perfect songs to accompany their gaming sessions, watch Twitch or YouTube, or even serve as a hub for OMEN Command Center software through an easy-to-use 6-inch 1080p touchscreen above the keyboard – freeing them from the hassles of alt-tabbing. The laptop also features a real-time screen mirroring feature that enhances the gaming experience, by cutting and magnifying parts of the main screen – such as copying the map portion of a racing game – to a second screen, ensuring centered vision and more vertical head movement.
	The new Lenovo ThinkPad T495 offers feature upgrades without compromise, and provides a high level of hardware security and manageability. It features a longer battery life, and increased performance by up to 18 percent (compared to benchmarks of prior generations). Lenovo is also delivering greater peace of mind with just a slide of the ThinkShutter, an all-in-one integrated camera security cover that physically protects ThinkPad users from malicious webcam snoopers.
	Featuring the latest RTX graphics and 9th Generation Intel Core i9 processor and Wi-Fi 6, the new MSI GE65 Raider can easily handle demanding AAA game titles. Its ultra-fast 240Hz IPS-level thin bezel display ensures sharp and clear images in a compact form factor, and the new two-toned mesh design at the underside of the unit, inspired by a dragon theme, provides better ventilation and prevents hot air from recirculating.

These new modern PCs from ecosystem partners require a modern operating system that enables foundational experiences customers already expect from their devices, including seamless updates, security that protects users from malicious attacks, anywhere connectivity with 5G, LTE and Wi-Fi that is consistent and reliable over time. Beyond that, the modern OS must deliver innovative new human centric experiences including cloud connectivity that enables seamless access to data and compute power, rich AI powered applications and experiences, multi-sense capabilities - people can interact using touch, pen, voice, mouse and keyboard - and  the right sensor support and posture awareness to enable a breadth of new form factors and applications.

“Microsoft is investing to enable modern OS experiences that take advantage of silicon advancements, powerful PCs, the cloud and the power of AI. Some of these innovations, including Asian Inking platform, cognitive recognition services that help with photo tagging, as well as the new Your Phone capabilities that lets users mirror their Android phone screen on their PC, are new innovations users can expect in the coming months,” said Nick Parker, CVP, Consumer and Device Sales, Microsoft.

Powering Intelligent Edge and Internet of Things (IoT)

At Computex, Microsoft also shared new services and programs that hardware manufacturers can leverage to get their devices connected and included in IoT solutions:

• IoT Plug and Play is a new open modelling language to connect IoT devices to the cloud seamlessly, helping device partners to deploy IoT solutions at scale. This provides partners a straightforward way to model the capabilities and data coming from their IoT devices and will provide customers with a large portfolio of partner-certified devices that can easily be made to work with any IoT solution, often without writing any new code.

• Microsoft Azure IoT Device Agent V2 for Windows 10 IoTlets operators configure, monitor and manage their devices remotely from their Azure dashboard. It provides an open-source, ready to build package that creates and manages the Azure IoT Hub identities on the device, manages the cloud connection and its renewal, provides a plug-in model for platform components, which allows easy onboarding to various Azure services, including discovery, initialization, error reporting and state aggregation. It also comes with a set of ready-to-ship plug-ins for commonly used platform components and leverages Azure IoT Module twin so a separate UWP app is not required to connect to Azure IoT Hub.

• Azure IoT Centralis a fully managed global IoT SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and manage IoT assets at scale. New custom dashboard features allow partners to bring their own brand and user experience to their IoT solution, and benefit from the built-in security, reliability, device connectivity and role-based user account management provided by IoT Central.

Partners such as Techsun and Advantech are implementing IoT solutions built on Microsoft’s comprehensive, trusted and easy-to-use edge to cloud platforms to embrace business model transformation and accelerate time to value for customers.

“At Microsoft our goal is to simplify IoT – from the cloud down to the smallest microcontroller (MCU) based devices, and we do this by meeting our partners and customers where they are, with the right intelligent cloud services, software and dev tools, to get devices connected, and manage their solutions at scale,” Nick Parker, CVP, Consumer and Device Sales, Microsoft

Mahindra, Wipro Jointly Launches A Connected Device To Turn Your Car To 'Smart Car'

Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd (MFCWL), which is Mahindra's multi-brand certified used car company, has launched Konnect First -- a connected car device designed to upgrade your car into a Smart Car. Konnect First is touted as India's 1st connected car solution for multi-brand pre-owned cars.

Conceptualised by MFCWL, the device has been developed by Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. Konnect First will be available at more than 1500 MFCWL franchise outlets across 700+ cities through the country.

Konnect First, an intelligent connected drive solution, enables the car owner to interact with the vehicle and stay connected to it via a mobile app, available on both iOS and Android platforms. With several class-leading features, it offers the car owner a comprehensive package of safety, loss prevention, utility, maintenance and driving analytics in one seamless interface, thus providing complete peace of mind when it comes to the well-being of the car and its owner. The sleek device is compatible with 200+ car variants across brands and can be easily plugged into the car’s OBD port to allow the driver access to a suite of additional functions.

Konnect First priced at INR 7,999 comes with a complimentary 1 year app subscription. It also offers a 1-year warranty and after-market customer support.

"The automotive industry is at the cusp of a revolution with new technologies changing the way we drive. We see no reason why a pre-owned car owner should not have access to these. Mahindra First Choice Wheels is focused on bringing in the latest technologies through innovative solutions for pre-owned car owners in order to make the ownership and driving experience as enjoyable and satisfying as that of a new car owner. We are happy to have Wipro partner us in this endeavour," said Dr. Nagendra Palle, MD & CEO, Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd.

"Technology-driven innovations are helping the automotive industry create disruptive and differentiated customer experiences, and engender a whole new value ecosystem. Wipro is delighted to have partnered with Mahindra First Choice Wheels Limited in their connected car endeavour, aimed at providing seamless driving experiences for their customers. Powered by IoT telematics, analytics and the end user’s mobile/web applications and voice interfaces, Wipro’s AutoInsights platform forms the backbone of the Konnect First solution," said Sreenath A V, Senior Vice President, India Business Unit, Wipro Limited.

Konnect First offers several industry first features in one seamless package.

Safety: Instant Location sharing, Real-time vehicle tracking, Roadside Assistance, Risk Cluster, SOS Alerts.

Security and Loss Prevention: Tow alerts, Break-in Protection, Valet Protect and Fatigue Driving Alerts.

Maintenance: Battery Voltage, Engine Coolant and Vehicle Health Monitoring alerts.

Utility Features: Vehicle Insights, Trip Listing & Analytics, Dynamic Leaderboard, Driving Summary, Driving Profile Analytics,

2017 was a pivotal year for MFCWL. The company extended its leadership position in the used car industry with a strong performance in all areas of the business. The company reported an 80% growth in transaction revenues and over 200% growth in its technology enabled businesses. With these technology enabled solutions, MFCWL is focused on enabling its customers (institutional clients, dealers and consumers) to achieve high levels of transparency and efficiency in a sector otherwise largely unorganised in nature.