HORIBA MIRA open £1.5m automotive technology centre

HORIBA MIRA, a world-leader in advanced automotive engineering, research, development and testing, has established a new Vehicle Resilience (VRES) Technology Centre at its UK headquarters in Nuneaton, further enhancing its test and engineering capabilities. It is the world’s first engineering and test facility dedicated to a combined approach to automotive cybersecurity, functional safety and electromagnetic resilience.

VRES represents a significant investment into HORIBA MIRA’s engineering and testing capabilities, consisting of £1.5m of capital expenditure complemented by significant investment into capability development. More recent R&D activity into cybersecurity techniques has built upon 14 years of risk-based engineering process development.

HORIBA MIRA has opened its £1.5m Vehicle Resilience Technology Centre in Nuneaton / Picture: HORIBA MIRA

The VRES offering has been specifically developed in response to the emergence of increasingly electrified, connected and automated vehicles. As well as opening up many new opportunities, these trends also bring new challenges for vehicle electronics, such levels of complexity are increasingly difficult to manage, requiring a more integrated approach in order to ensure continuing user satisfaction.

The new VRES Technology Centre enables HORIBA MIRA to provide a unique turnkey offering with a unified and holistic approach to automotive cybersecurity, functional safety, and electromagnetic resilience, augmented with new connectivity test capabilities that include ‘real-world’ performance metrics for wired and wireless communications.

The VRES Technology Centre includes modelling and simulation capabilities and is supported by more than 14 test facilities for physical testing. This provides a unique offering that is already delivering globally significant R&D and commercial programmes for worldwide clients. Ranging from workshops and screened laboratories for static and dynamic vehicle testing, and newly developed system analysis and attack laboratories, through to HORIBA MIRA’s City Circuit, these facilities allow the safe assessment of resilience for vehicle electronic systems.

The development of VRES has created a number of new high value engineering jobs at HORIBA MIRA and this will continue to expand through 2019 and on into 2020.

Graeme Stewart, Chief Technical Officer at HORIBA MIRA, said: “By combining automotive cybersecurity, electromagnetic resilience and functional safety for the first time, HORIBA MIRA will deliver advanced engineering solutions in line with the increasing complexity of electrified, connected and automated vehicles, to address the growing and evolving risks to vehicle safety, security and functionality.

“Our customers can now benefit from a creative and talented team of over 85 engineers, analysts and specialists, combined with state-of-the-art equipment and a cutting-edge cluster of facilities to deliver world-class automotive services and solutions.”