Keysight merges its automotive and energy units

15 November, 2016

During the 2016 electronica fair, Keysight reveled a new strategy. The American company will focus on software, and create a new division for automotive and energy solutions – from power grids and batteries, to autonomous cars

During the 2016 electronica fair, Keysight reveled a new strategy. The American company will focus on software, and create a new division for automotive and energy solutions – from power grids and batteries, to autonomous cars

Vice president and general manager of Keysight's AES Automotive & Energy Solutions, Sigfried Gross
Vice president and general manager of Keysight’s AES Automotive & Energy Solutions, Sigfried Gross

Keysight Technologies is undergoing a very discreet, yet highly significant reorganization. In a meeting with reporters held at the opening of the electronica fair in Munich, vice Keysight CEO, and automotive and energy solutions Siegfried Gross revealed some of the changes the company is currently undergoing.

Gross: “the changes in the automotive and energy sectors require new test and measurement instruments. At the same time, due to developments in the electric cars scene, we strongly believe that the automotive sector and the energy sector will become much closer entwined than today. We can see the first automotive producers moving into the energy field”.

Keysight's new battery characterization solution
Keysight’s new battery characterization solution

According to Gross, the main changes are the need to cope with stable, more efficient energy conversion systems. The developments in the field of battery management pose new challenges, and the onslaught of the autonomous car is turning cars into a huge end device in and infinite IoT network.

These developments brought Keysight to form its new automotive and energy solution unit, led by Gross. The unit already offers more than 50 measurement solutions for the auto and energy sectors. During the electronica 2016 fair held in Munich last week, the company announced a new measuring solution for batteries, which enables the measurement of all the battery’s parameters.

In an interview with Techtime, Gross explained that the activity in these field is of great significance for Keysight. “We are active in Europe, Singapore and other locations. We are making big investments, but we do not disclose exact sums”.

The company’s new playing fields are very wide and include many technological sectors: smart power grids and power supply management, power semiconductors, batteries, electric vehicles, vehicle transmission systems, vehicle sensors and electronic systems as well as infotainment and autonomous driving systems.

Why doesn’t the battery characterization solution showcased by Keysight have a serial number?

Gross: “It is lacking one intentionally – it is because we want to supply customers with custom made solutions, specifically tailored for their specific needs”.

Are you undergoing further changes?

“Keysight is in the midst of a major transition – from a hardware based company to a software and services oriented one. Most of our future sales will be of software, not hardware. Today we sell hardware running our systems, in the future we will sell software, running on hardware produced buy us. We have recently opened a software development center in Gerorgia-Tech, employeeng more than 240 programmers. We aspire to create a similar development ecosystem to that of Google and Facebook, which will develop the Software for Keysight’s test and measurement equipment”.

Share via Whatsapp

Posted in: News