Groupe Renault To Further Autonomous Vehicle Development By Forming New Joint Venture With Oktal

July 5, 2017 by Renault

•Groupe Renault will acquire a 35 percent stake in a new joint venture, Autonomous Vehicle Simulation (AVS), formed together with Oktal, a subsidiary of Sogeclair.

•Groupe Renault's investment in Autonomous Vehicle Simulation (AVS) will reinforce the capability of Renault and the Renault-Nissan Alliance to further develop and test autonomous vehicles.

•This includes the SCANeRTM software, a worldwide leader in driving simulation software already used across Renault and Nissan.

Groupe Renault today announced the signature for the acquisition of a 35 percent stake in a new joint venture, Autonomous Vehicle Simulation (AVS), formed together with Oktal, a subsidiary of Sogeclair, a French aerospace and simulation company based in Toulouse, France. This step will allow Renault and the Renault-Nissan Alliance to continue delivering a menu of advanced technologies by furthering autonomous vehicle development testing in a virtual environment.

'This acquisition supports Groupe Renault's strategy to deliver the vehicle of the future: electric, connected and autonomous. We are very pleased to partner with Oktal to form AVS and thereby support French innovation. This partnership will help us to speed up building our offer of new services and improve our customer experience,' said Gaspar Gascon, Executive Vice President, Product Engineering of Groupe Renault.

The newly formed AVS partnership will also benefit the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which has committed to launch more than 10 vehicles with autonomous capabilities by 2020.

The Alliance has already engaged in the virtual testing of Autonomous vehicles using SCANeRTM simulation software, originally invented by Renault, that was co-developed with Oktal.

'Along with Renault's investment, we will significantly accelerate the development of SCANeR Studio's new features dedicated to the Autonomous/Connected vehicle,' said Laurent Salanqueda, CEO of OKTAL.

Renault and Sogeclair invest in AVS

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Building on more than 15 years of collaborative development at Renault, the formation of AVS will further enhance product development using driving simulators. This new joint venture will acquire the automotive assets of Sogeclair's Oktal subsidiary, which will be transferred to the newly formed company.

Simulation testing has become strategic for the automotive industry with the widespread use of assistive technologies and autonomous cars.

Fleet testing and simulation go hand in hand with developing autonomous vehicles. In order to achieve the targeted level of reliability, test vehicles must accumulate a vast number of kilometers, which would normally take many years of driving. Along with fleet tests and accelerated testing methods, simulation with virtual testing is helpful to accelerate the process and accommodate it within a project timeline.

The new developments in products and services aim to strengthen the position of SCANeR simulation software as the world leader.

ABOUT GROUPE RENAULT

Groupe Renault has been making cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group, selling close to 3.2 million vehicles in 127 countries in 2016, with 36 manufacturing sites, 12,700 points of sales and employing more than 120,000 people. To meet the major technological challenges of the future and continue its strategy of profitable growth, the Group is harnessing its international growth and the complementary fit of its five brands, Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors, Alpine and LADA, together with electric vehicles and the unique Alliance with Nissan. With a new team in Formula 1 and a strong commitment to Formula E, Renault sees motorsport as a vector of innovation and brand awareness.

ABOUT SOGECLAIR

Founded in 1986 and based in Toulouse, Sogeclair is a French leading high-tech engineering company specialized in the design and development of industrial products and simulation solutions for the aerospace sector, and for the civil and military transport industries. Services provided by the Group include:

•Aeronautical and space engineering through the production of aero structure subassemblies;

•Production and engineering of vehicles for a wide range of application e.g. military, industrial or light vehicle;

•Simulation of software workbenches and industrial product simulators for design and training purposes.

The Group operates through several subsidiaries including OKTAL S.A.S., a company specialized in Simulation that was acquired by Sogeclair in 2001.

ABOUT OKTAL

OKTAL is a worldwide supplier of high class Automotive and Train driving simulators for Research, Engineering and Training operations. OKTAL is the editor of SCANeR™ software package, widely used in the Automotive sector to deal with ADAS, Autonomous Vehicle and HMI use cases.