Mobility is transforming the Automotive Industry !

This is the self-driving vehicle revolution 🚙

Consumers expect more from their experience. Innovative design, like more comfortable, connected and energy-efficient interiors, can offer greater value to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and suppliers.

Faurecia, a FORVIA Group company, set itself a challenge to develop a new cockpit concept using model-based systems engineering (MBSE). MBSE uses models as a single version of the truth to facilitate collaboration among disciplines, from engineers to designers and marketing.

Using CATIA MBSE’s virtual simulation and digital twins, Faurecia would be able to quickly understand the impact of the design for OEMs and end consumers.

Accenture helped Faurecia develop integrated design processes in a Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform. We also trained the Faurecia team on the new MBSE approach and modeling tools.

While traditional engineering modeling tools and product lifecycle management (PLM) are great to manage all information about a manufactured product (including its 3D representation), modern vehicles require new engineering methods and tools to manage more complex mechanical, electronic and software components. We assembled Dassault Systèmes’ MBSE tools (CATIA Magic, Controlbuild and CATIA) in an end-to-end digital thread to power these new engineering methods.

The MBSE platform enables Faurecia to develop an integrated model of all subsystems and equipment—a “single source of truth”—for the cockpit architecture. This new capability allows the company to simulate new scenarios quickly.

Prototypes mix digital and physical models to offer a user experience in mixed virtual reality.

The cockpit is entirely virtualized in a digital chain, from system models to 3D mock-up, but the prototype also includes physical elements like the steering wheel, seats, touchpad and rotary knob to show how the physical world can directly interact with the digital twin in MBSE.

For instance, when the designer turns the physical rotary knob to change the cockpit temperature, the physical touchpad and its digital twin displayed on the screen both indicate the new temperature. In addition, passengers’ thermal comfort is simulated “live” in the digital twin; yellow thermal bubbles are displayed on the screen to demonstrate the thermal change around passengers.