groupe psa

PSA starts production at Kenitra plant in Morocco

Groupe PSA has started production at the Kenitra plant in Morocco. The project was launched with the signing of an agreement between Groupe PSA and the Kingdom of Morocco on 19 June 2015.

Four years on, the factory is up and running and includes the roll-out of a complete ecosystem for Groupe PSA in Morocco, with a steering centre based in Casablanca for the Middle East and Africa region and an operational R&D centre.

Groupe PSA has a network of 62 local suppliers, with 27 new supplier sites set up to meet the needs of the Kenitra plant.

Groupe PSA tests test vehicle-to-infrastructure communications in Spain

For the first time in an urban environment, The Automotive Technology Centre of Galicia and Groupe PSA are testing the contribution that communication technologies can make to the development of automated vehicle functions.

The aim is to see how well vehicles can communicate with the surrounding infrastructure in a complex urban environment.

The tests carried out in Vigo related to: an automated valet parking system; autonomous driving in an urban environment; optimal speed regulation when approaching a traffic light; and protection of vulnerable users.

Groupe PSA tests autonomous vehicle through motorway toll

Groupe PSA and Vinci Autoroutes have carried out further tests to assess a vehicle’s ability to drive autonomously at cruising speed and pass through a tollgate in autonomous mode. A first trial was carried out in 2017.

Two new complex driving situations were also tested in real traffic conditions on the Vinci Autoroutes network: changing into autonomous mode in a traffic area temporarily altered due to roadworks; and performing a “safe stop”.

This involves the vehicle driving to a safe place in the event that the driver does not take back control in a specific situation, for example obstacles on the road, bad weather conditions or the end of the motorway.

Groupe PSA carries out autonomous driving tests in L3Pilot project

Since the start of April, Group PSA’s vehicles equipped with level 3 autonomous driving functions have been operating on open roads in France as part of the European L3Pilot project.

Six to eight vehicles will undergo intensive driving tests to validate autonomous functions on dual carriageways.

The project is strengthening Groupe PSA’s expertise in the development of autonomous vehicles, thanks to a global ecosystem of partners, including European carmakers, research centres and roads authorities.

[Read more…]

Groupe PSA Poissy plant to produce an additional vehicle

Groupe PSA’s Poissy plant is to produce an additional vehicle.

The allocation of a new Opel/Vauxhall B-SUV was made possible by the initiatives taken to enhance performance at the plant, says the company.

Investments since 2016 have made the Poissy plant the first one of Groupe PSA to assemble on the company’s multi-energy common modular platform. [Read more…] about Groupe PSA Poissy plant to produce an additional vehicle

Groupe PSA to starts autonomous driving tests on open roads in China

Groupe PSA has obtained a licence to start autonomous driving tests on open roads in Chongqing, China, the first French carmaker to do so.

Groupe PSA has autonomous car experience in Europe, the challenge is to integrate Groupe PSA’s technology into the Chinese ecosystem as the environment, infrastructure, map system and road users are different.

The company is the first car manufacturer to have tested the autonomous car on open roads in France from July 2015 onwards, as well as the first carmaker to obtain the authorisations to carry out autonomous mode tests with “non-expert” drivers in March 2017.

Groupe PSA holds its third annual Booster Day

60 partners took part in the third annual ‘Booster Day PSA‘, held at the Poissy plant in Greater Paris, which posed 12 technological challenges for the ‘Plant of the Future’.

The partners ranged from suppliers, integrators, start-ups and laboratories to schools, research institutes and public organisations, all of which have a major role to play in shaping the future plant.

The company posed 12 technological challenges and 30 demonstrators were built. Working as a consortium, the partners came up with concrete solutions to the manufacturing challenges posed by the Group.

Groupe PSA vehicles to have voice recognition smart assistants

Groupe PSA has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Silicon Valley start-up SoundHound Inc., the leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language voice recognition technology.

The unique Deep Meaning Understanding technology developed by SoundHound Inc. is the only solution that, like a human being, can instantly answer multiple questions in a single sentence.

SoundHound is developing voice and AI integration algorithms to tailor the world’s fastest speech recognition technology and seamless natural language understanding capability to Groupe PSA’s vehicles.

You too can pretend to be David Hasselhoff and talk to your car

It’s taken more than 30 years, but carmakers are finally giving us all a chance to pretend to be David Hasselhoff in the Knight Rider television show from the 1980s.

Hasselhoff, it could be argued, played supporting actor to star of the show – a car called “Kitt”, short for Knight Industries Two Thousand.

Kitt, which was actually a Trans-Am in real life, could talk and hold conversations with Hasselhoff’s character, as well as drive itself, and thwart a variety of bad guys at the same time every week. [Read more…] about You too can pretend to be David Hasselhoff and talk to your car

Motors giant Nidec enters into $260 million joint venture with automaker PSA

Nidec, one of the world’s largest suppliers of motors and other industrial components, has entered into a joint venture with global automaker PSA Group.

The “Nidec-PSA emotors” joint venture has been created by Groupe PSA and Nidec to initiate the design of “future electric motors”.

Shigenobu Nagamori, CEO of Nidec, and Carlos Tavares, CEO of Groupe PSA, endorsed the establishment of Nidec-PSA emotors, saying the new business will be “dedicated to the design, development, manufacture and sale of electric traction motors”. [Read more…] about Motors giant Nidec enters into $260 million joint venture with automaker PSA