About the Conference

The Indian automotive industry is experiencing dynamic changes to match its standards with the global practices and consumer expectations. The robust rebound from the global financial crisis proves adversely the industry’s demand in terms of domestic and international grounds. Moreover India is seen as the choice of the global destination for design and manufacture of automobiles and auto components. This forces the stakeholders of the industry to channel the opportunity through appropriate strategies and grasp the potential. One of the important industry concerns is that the research and development spending in India (approx. 1%) is very low compared to other auto-centric countries (approx. 3 – 5%). Stress has been made in areas of innovations through research and development. Various subsidies are made available through government and related bodies to enhance innovation in industries and institutions. The Tamil Technology Development and Promotion Centre play a vital role to highlight the technology and innovation areas which requires attention of the technology players.

There has been consistent technology specific development in the automotive industry which is evident from the vehicles on sight every day. Various technologies have been developed in areas of safety, comfort, emission and efficiency. Traditionally, the emphasis has been on injury mitigation for those involved in a collision, for example by providing stronger vehicle frames, seat belts, and airbags. But now, starting with the development of antilock brakes, the focus has shifted to collision avoidance systems and attempts are severely made to match with the stringent emission norms. Considerable efforts have been put to identify environment friendly vehicles. Developments in areas of advanced power train technologies are already in the research loop to further improve vehicle efficiency.

In spite of development in the above areas, the Indian automobile has not seen much growth in terms of mobility systems to support transportation issues amidst rapid urbanization. With increase in productivity in the automotive sector to meet the growing demand of vehicles in domestic and international there has been a staggering 100 fold increase in the population of motorized vehicles . Further by incomes rising, car loans proliferate and the auto industry churns out low-cost cars to nudge customers off their motorcycles. Indians bought 1.5 million cars in 2007, more than double of that in 2003. The cumulative growth of the Passenger Vehicles segment during April 2007 – March 2008 was 12.17 percent. In 2007-08 alone, 9.6 million motorized vehicles were sold in India.

On the other end, increase in number of vehicles has added much to the existing traffic congestion especially in urban areas. India has more truly congested cities than any other nation, which is not surprising, since it is also the world's second-most populous country, after China. Vehicles in India are distributed somewhat unevenly. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore have 5% of India's population but 14% of its registered vehicles. Traffic is growing four times faster than the population in six cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

This growing traffic congestion will reduce automobile transport efficiency both in the short and long term. Traffic in urban areas especially in peak hours is well known for moving at the pace of its slowest component. The dwell time on road accumulated due to congestion will multiply to billions of work hours strongly emphasizing the associated productivity loss. It is also mentioned that traffic congestion, to a great extents are responsible for the increased accident rates and their consequences - human life losses, lost time, increased air pollution and expensive repairs.

There is strong need for some efficient measures that are to be exerted for a smoother urbanization. Traditional beliefs to relief from traffic congestion through the construction and up gradation of roads by way of widening of carriage- ways, improved surface quality, strengthening/ reconstruction of old/ weak bridges and culverts, etc. has only been temporary, because new commercial and residential growth follows the path of the project. In addition due to the high financial, social, and environmental costs of such projects, there is a limit on how much additional infrastructure such as roads and rail lines a city can add. Of course, city planners are doing the best they can to cope with the increasing stress on the transportation infrastructure yet the problem of congestion seems only to increase. This is because the improvements in infrastructure will always lag behind the increase in traffic and therefore creating more infrastructures is not a solution by itself. A more imaginative, holistic and integrated technological approach to the problem is needed which should also be preventive in nature.

An efficient public transport system can effectively reduce the traffic on city roads. There is considerable evidence to suggest that vehicle owners will use a mass transit system, if a good one is available. But building such alternative transportation systems also requires huge investments and takes longer period. With rapid rise in urban population and increased preference to personal vehicles the hour has come to concentrate on mobility systems that govern the future of the vehicle and transport community.

It is required to identify Intelligent Mobility Systems that have proved to reduce traffic congestion in major cities to a greater extent. These systems include a wide and growing suite of technologies and applications. ITS applications can be grouped within five summary cat¬egories: 1) Advanced Traveler Information Systems provide drivers with real-time information, such as transit routes and schedules; navigation directions; and information about delays due to congestion, accidents, weather conditions, or road repair work. 2) Advanced Transportation Management Systems include traffic control devices, such as traffic signals, ramp meters, variable message signs, and traffic operations centers. 3) ITS-Enabled Transportation Pricing Systems in¬clude systems such as electronic toll collection (ETC), congestion pricing, fee-based express (HOT) lanes, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) usage-based fee sys¬tems. 4) Advanced Public Transportation Systems, for example, allow trains and buses to report their position so passengers can be informed of their real-time status (arrival and departure information). 5) Fully integrated intelligent transportation systems, such as vehicle-to-infrastructure (VII) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) in¬tegration, enable communication among assets in the transportation system, for example, from vehicles to roadside sensors, traffic lights, and other vehicles. These systems make efficient use of the existing transport network.

Looking deeper in to traffic and transportation system of metro cities of the developed nations like Japan, USA, UK, South Korea etc. would highlight on the interesting fact that the system works by integrating technology and urban planning activities to arrest traffic congestion and other mobility issues. From a technology stand point, in India most of the technologies under mobility systems are still in the nascent stages of its development as compared to similar systems like VERTIS in Japan, ERTICO in Europe and IVHS in the United States, has already extended a lot into mobility. There exist systems in Singapore, where controllers receive real-time data through sensors to model and predict future traffic flows with 90% accuracy and hence determine traffic properties like signal timing at individual areas and make advanced planning for areas of severe congestion. Startups like Carticipate, Avego, Piggyback and EnergeticX have developed technology and systems to facilitate dynamic ride-sharing by use of communication facilities.

The key to Intelligent Mobility lies in connecting up a range of independent industries and technologies such as vehicle manufacturing, transport information systems, communication technologies, logistics and distribution and infrastructure management. It is in this scenario that CII joins hands with AUSTRADE to organize the ‘Automotive R&D Trends 2015 – Automotive Technology: Mobility as a System’. It aims to cover all the mobility related issues prevalent in India to discuss in the conference to work on a solution based approach.