Driving Simulator Centre launched at HORIBA MIRA

Over £4m has been invested in the new facility to enable established automotive OEMs, start-up vehicle manufacturers and tier one suppliers to develop new vehicles that reflect marque brand characteristics.

Central to the new Driving Simulator Centre is the UK’s first VI-grade DiM250 Dynamic Simulator, which will reduce the need for physical vehicle testing and prototypes. HORIBA MIRA said that at full reduction, one developed vehicle model using the VI-grade simulator could avoid a maximum potential of 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e).

Customers will also get access to a VI-grade COMPACT simulator, acquired in 2021, which is located within the same facility.

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In a statement, Declan Allen, managing director at HORIBA MIRA said, “Through the newly launched Driving Simulator Centre, the speed, cost and complexity of refining driven vehicle attributes to meet today’s changing customer expectations is significantly reduced. This new facility enhances HORIBA MIRA’s capabilities and is an enabler of its attribute-led development methodology, while also being a critical tool supporting complex engineering developments across ADAS, HMI and XiL.”

The Driving Simulator Centre, together with HORIBA MIRA’s subjective led attribute methodology, puts the human-in-the-loop at the very start of the virtual engineering series, enabling development engineers to make accurate and unlimited comparisons quickly and at lower cost. According to HORIBA MIRA, this is especially important when working to balance conflicting attributes to achieve an optimised vehicle, resulting in more informed subjective-led decisions being made throughout the entire development cycle rather than waiting for a physical prototype.

Furthermore, the Driving Simulator Centre will enable automotive companies to conduct virtual development across many automotive applications. This is predominantly focused on the driven attributes, namely vehicle dynamics, noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), and drivability. It also includes holistic engineering across capabilities growing in complexity and importance, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), human machine interface (HMI) and x-in-the-loop (XiL) applications.