Does your car think? Going by the speed at which things are moving, sure it will. At present nearly 22% of a car is electronically controlled and now software is available to navigate you with the help of Satellite Radio. Products offered by Delphi Automotive Systems like the Communiport and the Sirius Satellite Radio will soon help drivers not only navigate their way through a traffic jam, but also connect their Palmtop to it and download information while listening to music from more than 50 channels.

"In Karnataka things do move really fast!" said David Wohleen, Executive Vice President of Delphi Automotive Systems, while meeting the media after the inauguration of Delphi's Global Technical Center in I T Park. He was referring to the fact that Delphi started their operations in Bangalore in March 2000 and now, after a period of only seven months, the technical centre is ready go fully operational. He appreciated the government for giving full impetus to the software industry to establish a firm foot in the global scenario.

Delphi Automotive Systems, an automotive supplier with a long history of providing high-quality, cutting-edge automotive systems and electronics, will soon offer its electronics technologies as consumer products in India. The new concept of Mobile Multimedia has been very well adopted by Delphi in its products like the Communiport, Infotainment Mobile PC, OnStar Telematics and others. These products integrate cellular phones, radio, internet, navigation, computer and also video systems into one instrument which can neatly fit into your car.

One such product Communiport has facilities to navigate your car from one city to another with the help of Global Positioning System. Adding to it, it will also download information from the PC sitting in your office by WAP and also convert your speech into text, making it a hands free facility. Not only that it will read out the text from your palmtop and also play the MP3 files you request.

The setting up of Delphi Technical Center in India was part of a concerted effort to meet the increasing demand for software and mobile multimedia products in vehicles. This technical facility with a capacity of nearly 300 talented engineers, will initially focus on embedded software development for automotive controllers such as engine controllers, antilock brakes, instrument clusters and mobile multimedia systems. In fact, Delphi is the pioneering leader in the field of mobile multimedia products with sales figure to the tune of 114 million $ in the last quarter.

Recognizing India as a major production base for vehicle manufacturers in the Asia Pacific region, the company had established units here way back in April 1995. It has since set up world class manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon (Haryana), Greater Noida (UP) and Bangalore, which supply to local and international vehicle manufacturers. The products manufactured in India by Delphi include catalytic converters, evaporative canisters, wiring harnesses, hydraulic shock absorbers, half shafts and others.

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