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stacked and held in the position even superficial layer of creating certain
in bad road conditions and increase the specifications around safety. Today
longevity of the vehicle in low costs. we have seen such incidents and they
He added, “When it comes to the are not isolated and these incidents
safety and security of our systems, occurred because safety has not been
some of them are inbuilt and some embedded into the conceptualization of
we are looking at added, off-the-shelf the vehicle. Today when we talk about
as well as completely new different EV, safety is required at a component
vehicles. While there have been several level and a sub-component level, and
improvements which have happened in Prasad Sreeram cell level, many of which have to be
the passenger segment, not so much COGOS Technologies done at the design level. Being a young
has happened in the goods segment. We OEM, safety plays a major role and
started researching certain technologies we are working towards it with the
that would improve the overall various partners that we have across
experience but would also reduce the the components to build safety in at
cost of commercial goods vehicles”. every level. Whether it is a charger,
Highlighting the importance of cell, battery packs, and various other
technological, commercial, and safety components that are involved- we need
standpoint in the new automotive to pay attention to everything. That’s
revolution- which is the EV space, where the safety commitment needs
Krishnamurthy. K, a noted management to be demonstrated very vocally in the
consultant who moderated the panel market, as customer awareness has to
also spoke about how a Design Failure come in through the safety angle.”
Mode and Effect Analysis (DFMEA) Highlighting how localization in
should be sought for their designs by Akshay Singhal the product designs needs to factor
industry players from relevant bodies Log 9 Materials in Indian conditions like family size,
before a vehicle is launched so that the load-carrying capacities, and road
safety aspect of the design is in check. conditions, Anirudh Ravi Narayanan,
Akshay Singhal, founder & CEO, co-founder & CEO, Boom Motors spoke
Log 9 Materials said, “Safety has to be about how he spoke to hundreds of
fundamentally built into the technology. people and understood failures in the
We can only finetune it with added EV space before starting his venture.
software layers or added sensing and He said, “We spoke to hundreds of
protection. But if we are trying to force- people operating in this space. EVs
fit a technology that is not inherently make sense on paper, but then in
reliable in the conditions that we have, reality there were so many failures that
then there will always be a significant came up, that adoption is still lower
risk when the vehicle is running on the than 1 percent. There are hundreds of
ground and that's what we are seeing Deepak MV OEM’s who are buying vehicles from
in the EV scenario. A lot of events don't ETrio China, putting their label on them,
even get highlighted in the media. and selling them in India. In China,
For example, this Okinawa scooter only two people may ride a bike as
exploded and caught fire, and a pure opposed to India, so the load is not
EV scooter caught fire and they were something the vehicle is used to. Then
not even being driven or charged- they the potholes could break the chassis
were just standing in the sun. So these and during monsoons, the dealers
batteries are not meant for these sorts told me how vehicles will be lining
of climatic conditions, they not only have up for servicing and that in summer
degradation issues but they have safety the battery catches fire. They told me
issues. So rather than force-fitting and that sometimes the wires melt if you
artificially creating that sense of safety try to climb because they don't use
and reliability which will fail one day and high-quality wires in these vehicles.
blow up, inherently the vehicle has to be So safety is necessary because there
safe. And then on top of that, you make Anirudh Ravi Narayanan are so many start-ups popping up in
sensors, fail-safe mechanisms and all." Boom Motors the EV space, the discipline of doing
Deepak MV, co-founder & CEO, a DFMEA is very important and safety
Etrio said, “Safety has to be in the must be given the first priority among
design DNA, it cannot be like a everything else.”
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