Altair has announced the winners of the 2024 Altair Enlighten Award, which is presented by it in association with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). 

The award winners are companies with diverse backgrounds such as DuPont, BMW M GmbH, Dow Inc., Toyota, General Motors, CompositeEdge GmbH, WEAV3D, Braskem and Clemson Composites Center and reflect sustainability and light weighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption and leverage material reuse as well as recycling efforts. 

The prestigious Enlighten Award have a 12-year history and have become a coveted prize for automotive industry’s most forward-thinking companies, according to Altair. 

Recognised by EV Magazine as a top 10 sustainability award in 2024, the award looks at products, processes and organisations that are ushering in the next generation of groundbreaking automotive technology. “We are thrilled to once again recognise the organisations creating a more sustainable future. This year’s winners can consider themselves the best innovators meeting those challenging targets,” said James R. Scapa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Altair. 

Alan Amici, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Automotive Research, averred, “We cannot wait to recognize this year’s winners, and we are once again thrilled to present this award in conjunction with Altair and the rest of our valued partners.”

Image for representative purpose only.

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drivebuddyAI has been awarded a patent for a facial recognition system designed for vehicle environments. The technology identifies drivers in moving vehicles to monitor duty hours and manage fatigue.

The system uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to recognise faces under varying lighting conditions and when drivers wear accessories such as caps or mufflers. This replaces manual or key-based identification methods to track driving time for wage calculations and safety compliance.

The patented technology is integrated into several areas of the company's product suite:

• Driver Profiling: Used in the 'CARDs' scoring method.
• Alert Systems: Provision of language-specific alerts based on driver identification.
• Performance Monitoring: Real-time tracking of duty time and driver behaviour.
• Compliance: Alignment with Indian government discussions on enforcing rest periods for commercial vehicle operators.

The company holds 15 patents in AI vision, edge processing, and risk assessment. Its systems meet India's AIS-184 driver monitoring standards and the European Union's General Safety Regulation (GSR) 2144.

Nisarg Pandya, CEO, drivebuddyAI, said, “Driver fatigue remains one of the most critical yet under-addressed causes of highway accidents. Our patented technology ensures that fleets know exactly who is driving, for how long, and under what conditions. This creates a foundation for enforcing safe driving limits while also enabling continuous learning and improvement for drivers. This milestone reflects our commitment to delivering technology built from the ground up and leveraging AI to enable safer and smarter driving solutions.”

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Servotech Renewable Power System and Electra EV have been granted a patent by the Indian Patent Office for an ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Device’. The technology is designed to provide charging solutions for low-voltage electric vehicles (EVs).

The device addresses interoperability challenges by enabling fast DC charging for low-voltage EVs with sub-200V DC platforms. This includes vehicles based on GB/T Bharat DC 001 standards. The technology allows these vehicles to utilise widely deployed, conventional high-voltage CCS2 charging infrastructure.

The patented device incorporates power management and voltage conversion systems to facilitate energy transfer to low-voltage battery platforms. The primary focus of the technology is on vehicle segments such as small commercial EVs and pick-up vans, which are used for urban and last-mile mobility.

Key features of the technology include:

• Interoperability: Enables sub-200V DC platforms to use CCS2 fast-charging stations.
• Compatibility: Supports vehicles adhering to GB/T Bharat DC 001 standards.
• Energy Management: Advanced voltage conversion to ensure safe battery charging.
• Safety: Integrated protocols for stable energy transfer.

The joint ownership of the patent by Servotech and Electra EV is intended to accelerate the development of charging infrastructure for small commercial fleets. The demand for such flexible solutions has increased as adoption of low-voltage EVs grows within the Indian logistics and transport sectors.

Arun Handa, CTO, Servotech Renewable Power System, said, “Securing this patent is an important step in strengthening our innovation-led approach to EV charging technology. Low-voltage electric vehicles are a key part of India’s mobility ecosystem, particularly in segments like small commercial fleets. This patented device has been designed to ensure safe, efficient, and reliable charging for such vehicles, helping make EV adoption through improved charging compatibility.”

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NXP Semiconductors has launched the NXP CoreRide Z248, a zonal reference system combining 48V energy distribution with data routing. The hardware-software foundation is designed to assist OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in transitioning to software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures by reducing integration effort and development cycles.

The Z248 is built on NXP’s S32K5 microcontroller series, featuring on-chip Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). This technology is intended to accelerate electronic control unit (ECU) programming during manufacturing and over-the-air (OTA) updates.

The system integrates several 48V-capable components and networking tools:

• Power Management: Includes eFuses, Power Management Integrated Circuits (PMICs), and DC-DC converters for energy conversion and protection.
• Networking: Features Ethernet PHY and CAN transceivers for data handling.
• Software Stack: A pre-validated stack managing smart data energy network (SDEN) functions such as impedance monitoring and diagnostics.
• Safety: Built-in functional safety and real-time responsiveness for zonal processing.

NXP stated it has validated the Z248 through system-level tests focusing on low-power modes and wake-up response times. The package includes a Board Support Package (BSP) with integrated software from partners including GLIWA for performance monitoring, Green Hills Software for compilers and Vector for embedded tools.

The reference system is designed for deployment across internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid, and battery electric vehicle (BEV) platforms. It supports ECU consolidation by managing energy distribution and data protocols within a single architecture.

Sebastien Clamagirand, SVP and General Manager, Automotive Systems & Platforms, NXP Semiconductors, said, “The NXP CoreRide zonal reference system Z248 delivers a performance-optimized, scalable 48 V foundation that intelligently fuses power, data and software, while dramatically simplifying system integration, reducing time to market, and enabling OEMs to focus on vehicle differentiation and long‑term value creation.”

Peter Gliwa, CEO and Founder, GLIWA, added, “NXP understood that the eco-system, the tooling around a new platform is essential for its success. With our Analysis Suite T1 built into the NXP CoreRide Z248 zonal reference system, high efficiency, proper timing analysis and timing verification are very well addressed.”

Jochen Rein, SVP Business Unit Software Platform, Vector, stated, “The combination of the NXP CoreRide platform and Vector’s software foundation provides a robust basis for next‑generation zonal architectures. We enable our joint customers to reduce their time- to-market due to a pre-integrated and highly optimized software stack.”

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Justdial, a local market discovery platform, has released data showing a rise in consumer interest in electric vehicles (EVs) across India. An analysis comparing search volumes from February 2025 – January 2026 against the previous year reveals growth in searches for infrastructure, dealerships and power systems.

The company data points out that searches for ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Stations’ increased by 127 percent at a national level. This growth indicates a shift in consumer focus toward infrastructure and location discovery. In terms of city-wise searches, Delhi led the charge with 98 percent growth, followed by Mumbai at 82 percent and Pune with 38 percent.

The data also points to an increase in purchase intent and ecosystem awareness. Searches for Electric Vehicle Dealers rose by 40 percent across India, with Delhi recording a 51 percent rise in this category.

Furthermore, searches for EV Batteries and Power Systems climbed by 96 percent. This trend suggests a focus on energy storage solutions and battery performance among Indian consumers.

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