Also Thursday, Nexteer announced it is bringing companywide software talent under one team reporting directly to Chief Technology Officer Robin Milavec.
The team will operate across four locations: Nexteer’s Global Technical Center in Saginaw, Mich., regional technical centers in Poland and China as well as a software center in India. Nexteer said its software engineering expertise was previously dispersed among various teams and reported separately through regions, product lines and R&D structures.
Given the continued spread of COVID-19, particularly in India, Nexteer executives said the software team in Bengaluru continues to work remotely.
The supplier said that its centralized team will support Nexteer’s electronic power-steering systems, advanced steering feature development and software-related R&D. It said the reorganization would accelerate timelines, enhance Nexteer’s collaboration and capitalize on “exponential growth in software-enabled motional control solutions.”
The company invests in software company Tactile Mobility and has a related joint venture with Continental, CNXMotion.
“We’re making this change to better align with global OEMs’ ever-expanding needs for software-enabled steering features and other software-centric motion control applications, particularly driven by advancements in performance and safety,” Milavec said in a statement to Automotive News.
“Creating a single strategic software team globally will align and accelerate our innovation-to-production timeline as we draw tighter connections between our software teams, from early innovation to pursuit and on to launch readiness.”
Suppliers are shifting gears to address automaker software needs as vehicles become more technologically sophisticated. Last year, German megasupplier Bosch made a similar move and bridged all of its software talent under its new Cross-Domain Computing Solutions unit.
Nexteer, of Auburn Hills, Mich., ranks No. 63 on Automotive News’ list of the top 100 global suppliers, with worldwide parts sales to automakers of $3.58 billion in 2019.
