‘Autonomous vehicles are the future, but India might need more time for adoption’

Nasdaq-listed Euro 5.2 billion Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies. It puts data to work to boost efficiency, productivity, quality and safety across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, public sector, and mobility applications. Hexagon’s R&D Center in India, set up following Hexagon’s acquisition of Intergraph, one of the first tech MNCs in Hyderabad, is the single largest R&D hub for the company globally.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Navaneet Mishra, Senior Vice President & Head of Hexagon’s R&D Center India, explains in greater details what are they planning to do with this initiative, how are they going to do this, why have they invested in this and how is the Indian startup ecosystem going to benefit from this, what are the products being manufactured here, Hexagon’s solutions for better city infrastructure and security and the company’s growth plans in India and much more

Could you throw some light on Hexagon R&D in India (including the size of operations and team, and some highlights)?

Hexagon’s India R&D center is its single largest R&D hub across the globe. In addition, this is the only location of Hexagon where all business units are present. Our team of over 2000 talented engineers and technologists build products and platforms across asset lifecycle intelligence, safety infrastructure & geospatial, geosystems, mining, manufacturing intelligence and autonomous solutions. We also host a few dedicated services teams for global implementation of Hexagon's products.

We have upskilled and reskilled our workforce through the journey of tech evolution and customer demands. Using the independence given for local decision making, we have set up many best practices, some of which are being implemented across the globe within the organization – hackathons, collaboration with startups & academia, technology day, benchmarking of policies and practices, and so on.

We are proud of the fact that we have strong retention of our technical talent. Some of our technical leaders have been with us for over two decades. Their domain knowledge and experience of technology evolution is critical to how we build for the diverse and complex industries that we support. Today, the India R&D center has emerged globally as the location of choice to set up new teams and to strengthen existing teams with more Indian talent.

What are the products developed out of Hexagon R&D center in India?

We have teams working on asset lifecycle intelligence and they develop solutions for engineering, procurement and construction companies and for the owners and operators of large manufacturing plants.

In safety and infrastructure, our teams are working on on-call dispatch and on-call records to support the whole gamut of public safety. We also have teams working on the infrastructure side, shipping products for public utility networks supporting electric, water and gas utilities.

In manufacturing intelligence, we are working on the latest collaborative platform to enable industry 4.0. In mining, our teams work on collision avoidance systems and 3D visualization of mines. In Geosystems, we work on the latest apps for capturing scanned data, analyzing it, and on seamless integration of office and field construction sites.

What are your growth and hiring plans in India for the next 3-5 years?

Since Hexagon’s India R&D center has emerged as a location of choice for new teams across the globe, we will see continued growth in the next several years. As an R&D center, we do not hire as many numbers as the IT services and ITeS businesses do, but we hire the top talent from the industry to work on exciting technologies, in niche and emerging areas.

The most important growth metric we will see in the next few years is a growth in our profile and in our value-chain position as we plan to move from technology ownership to overall ownership of products. This will commence in the near-future and will continue across products and platforms, one step at a time.

What role does Hexagon play in autonomous mobility?

Hexagon is already enabling off-road fleets in the mining and agricultural sector, with its hardware and software to enable autonomous navigation. Our accurate positioning intelligence combined with our IoT integration platforms, and machine control solutions, help in navigating vehicles safely and in a cost-effective way.

Our positioning intelligence acts as a ‘truth system’ for various GNSS (GPS) calibrations due to its high accuracy. Our autonomous stuff platform includes sensors, positioning hardware, and a drive by-wire kit to enable R&D programs to easily ideate, test and validate their innovations for autonomy in real-world scenarios.

Do you think the future of mobility is autonomous? How long will it take the world and India to embrace autonomous mobility?

Yes, I believe so. Autonomous mobility is already in play for flights, ships and off road vehicles. Machines with enough learning, fast data capturing, and analyzing capabilities, can make this work even for regular road-plying vehicles. As more and more vehicles become autonomous, the overall safety quotient also goes up.

Geographies that follow lane discipline will make it easier for machines to navigate. So, in India, we might take a few more years to reach there than in other countries. An important factor to keep an eye on is manual override options and their impact on employment and livelihood.

As far as adoption goes, it is never uniform - not only in India, but also in other countries. I expect that faster adoption will take place in pockets such as smart cities, and segments such as commercial freight, than in others.

Can you talk about Hexagon's solutions for better city infrastructure and safety?

Hexagon has the hardware and software solutions needed for creating digital twins of cities as a 3D Supermesh, both below and above the ground. In fact, recently we have delivered, in partnership with Cyclomedia, a complete 3D digital twin view of an entire country - of The Netherlands. Such a twin can help with both proactive and reactive responses to a challenge or a new plan. This mapping along with various sensors installed within the infrastructure of the city, can feed the latest information to a command-and control center, wherein one can quickly isolate the layer of information and act on it with prior information to citizens.

For safety, with Hexagon’s on-call platform, one can quickly identify the need of relevant emergency services and send the right unit to the spot, in the shortest time. With on-call records, we can help with tracking evidence and culprits.

With our planning and response solution, one can plan for a large event in a proactive way to make it safe for everyone involved. Our solutions also allow the creation of heatmaps - of crime, pollution, traffic, and so on, along with geo-references. These can help city administrators reach or decide on a solution faster.

What are the key challenges of running a R&D center in India? What have you done about it, in the last decade?

Some of the top challenges of setting up and running a pure-play R&D center in India include: To attract and retain the right talent. Develop a sense of quality and focus on delivering on world-class benchmarks. Build a sense of overall ownership about products and the value to the customer. To address these, we have undertaken several key initiatives over the last decade I have been here, at the Hexagon R&D Center in India.

To attract & retain top talent we took several initiatives including: Regular communication with various levels of employees (DRs, senior management, first level managers, individual contributors). We follow an open door policy - not just as a system but also in spirit. Publishing commitments and delivering them transparently. Market review of comp and benefits and adjust them accordingly.