Self-Driving Car Company Opens Indian Software Hub

Automaker Polestar is teaming with Infosys to create a global tech hub in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.

The strategic collaboration will see the tech company establish a base for Polestar at its existing development center.

It will focus on delivering electric vehicle software across several areas including in-car infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems and telematics.

The hub will also be used to support Polestar’s product management and customer engagement, as well as accelerate direct-to-consumer digital services through cloud-native development, testing and data engineering.

The collaboration was revealed in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange and underlines Infosys’ growing interest in the automotive sector. In April this year it purchased in-tech, an engineering research and development services provider focused on the German car industry.

The deal will also give Polestar access to Infosys’ engineering and innovation labs and design studio and was welcomed by the automaker.

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“Infosys has a successful background with similar operations, and we are confident in their ability to lead this tech hub in order to generate IT efficiencies and empower innovation,” said Maria Lexe, Polestar’s head of digital.

Related:Polestar Reveals Electric SUV With Advanced Self-Driving Tech

Sven Bauer, head of software, added: “We look forward to building automotive competence in the Polestar Tech Hub to support our growing vehicle portfolio and new model launches.”

News of the digital hub comes at a difficult time for the upmarket electric vehicle (EV) brand, which was founded in Sweden but is owned by China’s Geely, alongside other familiar names such as Volvo and Lotus.

Polestar was formed in 2005 and initially operated essentially as a tuning division for high-performance Volvos, but was bought by the Swedish company in 2015 and evolved into a stand-alone EV brand with a small range of stylish cars.

But sales have been hard to come by and Polestar announced it was cutting its global workforce by 15% at the start of this year, with the loss of around 450 jobs. 

This was followed in August by confirmation that CEO Thomas Ingenlath would be replaced, with the company embarking on a major cost-cutting program in an effort to become profitable, following significant losses this year.

Infosys’ executive vice president Jasmeet Singh welcomed the opportunity to work with Polestar, saying: “Building on Infosys’ extensive experience in automotive engineering, digital transformation, and global delivery leadership, we aim to bring the infrastructure and innovation to co-create next-generation EV capabilities. 

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“We will work closely with Polestar’s global design and development hubs to set new standards in next-gen mobility.”