The "Veicoli connessi e cooperativi per la mobilità del futuro" ("Connected and cooperative vehicles for future mobility") convention was the occasion to officially launch the new Centro Ricerche di FCA (FCA Research Centre) in Trento, set up recently at the Bruno Kessler Foundation.
In front of a large turnout of people from the institutional, industrial, university and infrastructure worlds, the convention was structured in two distinct parts: a series of addresses on many topics related to innovation in transport and mobility; and a round table that broadly discussed international corridors and urban contexts.
Giorgio Cornacchia - CEO and general manager of CRF - opened and closed the convention. In addition to introducing the various speakers, he presented the various activities carried out by the CRF and highlighted the special features of the Trento site, which has been active since 2001.
CRF operates within the FCA worldwide organisation, in synergy with the technical and methodological skills centres distributed over four operating regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North America. Its mission has three main goals: first, to develop powertrains, vehicle systems, materials, methods and processes to improve the competitiveness of FCA products; then, to represent FCA in collaborative research at a European and national level, taking part in pre-competitive research projects and promoting the development of a network of contacts and partnerships at an international level; finally, to support FCA in exploiting its intangible capital.
The CRF's headquarters is in Orbassano, in the province of Turin, with some sites distributed across the country, including that of Trento where - thanks to the support and cooperation of local institutions - engineers and experts work to develop skills related topics that are especially important for the automotive industry: solutions for lightening vehicles and telematic technology applications, in addition to developing a network of relationships and partnerships with local companies.
The institutional address from the Province and Municipality of Trento highlighted the importance of the role of CRF's local office in developing supply chain plans and systems with a major impact on the area. Later, after an address from the Bruno Kessler Foundation, host of the convention, Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli - professor at Barkley University - spoke of the problems to be tackled in cooperative and autonomous systems, and Antonio Fuganti (director of CRF Trento) illustrated the skills and future programs, with the strong involvement of various "actors" in the area, from across the industrial, research and infrastructure worlds. Special emphasis was also given to the trials on the Brenner motorway and future trials at the Polo della Meccatronica (Mechatronics Hub), which will host the first national "test-site" to simulate an urban environment.
Representatives of CNH Industrial, the Trento University, the A22 Brenner motorway, the Trento Town Council, the Bruno Kessler Foundation and the FCA brands Alfa Romeo/Maserati took part in the round table moderated by Enrico Pisino, president of Cluster Trasporti Italia 2020 (Cluster Transport Italy 2020).
This round table was mainly focused on international corridors and urban contexts, discussed from various points of view: topics related to artificial intelligence and new communication technologies, the vision of the future and that of users, an overview of the road map of the various industries.
At the end of the workshops, before the opening ceremony of the new headquarters, Giorgio Cornacchia concluded by highlighting how the various discussions had raised points for further reflection, indicating the topics on which joint efforts should be focussed on passing from words to actions to encourage the rapid spread of cooperative mobility and its acceptance among citizens.
